In the misguided belief that GOP rhetoric about the importance of supporting families was sincere, Mitt Romney proposed a child tax credit that would apply to all families, including those in which the mother stays at home. His hope undoubtedly was to overcome the usual right-wing objection to child subsidies–that providing public money for child care encouraged women to work and thus undermined traditional families–by sweeping the net as broadly as possible. His proposal was roundly rejected by Victorians in the GOP who insisted that any credits should be tied to work requirements. But when he completely revised the proposal to meet the Victorian objection, it was also met with indifference from the right. Why?
Because the GOP believes in the cult of self-reliance, not the protection of families, of course. Giving people free public money that was originally earned by hard-working capitalists only encourages sloth and dependency. If children, to whom this argument cannot logically be addressed (they are already dependents, by definition) suffer in the process, they are acceptable collateral damage in the bigger picture.