American’s birth dearth isn’t just cultural — it’s monetary. The best pro-natal policy is to stop making daily life so expensive.

In the opening week of 2026, several scholars at the Heritage Foundation published a special report titled “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years”. This 168-page document covers myriad policies that negatively impact the American family and proposes solutions to those problems. Some, largely the solutions that propose repealing and reforming existing systems, can help families. But the calls to subsidize traditional family life will come with a host of unintended consequences.

The nation is indeed facing a demographic crisis, and some of Heritage’s proposals deserve praise, while others deserve criticism. One proposed reform is mentioned but given barely any attention: a return to sound money.

Helping the American family (broadly understood) is a laudable goal, but the patterns of later and fewer marriages, later and less-frequent reproduction, and a host of other family pathologies are themselves the result of a mountain of interventions. The American family must be saved from government, not by government.

America’s Demographic Squeeze: Fewer Births, More DependentsAmerica’s Demographic Squeeze: Fewer Births, More Dependents

Remove Barriers Before Adding BenefitsRemove Barriers Before Adding Benefits

The Best “Pro-Family” Policy Is Price StabilityThe Best “Pro-Family” Policy Is Price Stability

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