JokersUpdates.com: Current Affairs - Mega Thread on what you should know as a woman about the Special Report issued today by the Heritage Foundation, aka the architects of Project 2025 whom we now know are the most instrumental people

shaping policy under the current regime. This will be a long, long thread because it was a 150-page densely worded report full of a lot of subtext so bear with me.

1. The Economic Coercion Problem
They Want to Make Marriage Economically Mandatory for Lower-Income Women
The mechanism:
Eliminate welfare for non-married parents → "Stop punishing family formation"
Add huge benefits ONLY for married parents (FAM credit: $17,670 per child)
Result: Single motherhood becomes economically untenable

Direct quote:
"The welfare system has made marriage economically irrational for many low-income couples. Nearly all of the cash, food, and housing programs focus on subsidizing non-married single-parent families"
Their solution: Flip it so single parenthood is economically irrational instead.
What this means for women:

Poor women pressured to marry (or stay married) to avoid poverty
"Shotgun marriages" for economic survival, not love
Trapped in bad/abusive marriages because leaving = losing $17k/year + welfare cuts
They acknowledge this worked in Hungary: marriage rates doubled, partly through "shotgun weddings" for the baby-loan benefits

2. Forced Choice: Career vs. Motherhood
The Home Childcare Equalization Credit is Designed to Keep Mothers Home
The structure:
$2,000/year bonus for married parents who DON'T use daycare
But ONLY if you're married
And ONLY if one parent stays home with kids under 5

heir explicit reasoning:
"Most of these parents and potential parents would prefer to spend more time raising their children at home if they could afford it, but the federal government largely provides support only for parents who pay others to help to take care of their children"
The problem:
This is $2,000/year ($167/month)
Average childcare costs: $11,582-$15,000/year
So the "choice" is:
Stay home and get $2k
Work and pay $12k for childcare = net -$10k

2. Forced Choice: Career vs. Motherhood
The Home Childcare Equalization Credit is Designed to Keep Mothers Home
The structure:
$2,000/year bonus for married parents who DON'T use daycare
But ONLY if you're married
And ONLY if one parent stays home with kids under 5
Read more here

https://www.threads.com/@needs_sunblock/post/DUB9p9KDVvf?xmt=AQF0xNT9ozgBrl7oQetFHWknejly1dbRpT0KZnjHI4CH2eML4zxfKYLC7X__tpwMhF3zHmF0