Could tweaks to the tax code lead to more marriages — and more kids?

Fifty years ago, policymakers worried that welfare benefits were encouraging too many births outside of marriage. Today, some conservatives are making nearly the opposite argument: that government assistance programs are contributing to too few births by penalizing marriage.

“Congress should seize the opportunity to eliminate the greatest injustice in the federal income tax code: marriage penalties,” Jamie Bryan Hall, director of data analysis at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote in a letter to a House committee in October.

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