Beyond the programs immediately relevant to childbirth, policymakers should turn their attention to the demands placed on parents after those first, sleepless postpartum nights. Conservative politicians could take a major step toward strengthening the family as the core unit of society by making all working families eligible for an expanded child tax credit.

Before last year’s temporary expansion, roughly one-third of American kids — about 23 million children — lived in families that received less than the full amount of the child benefit. (For example, before the expansion, a family with two kids making $20,000 annually would be eligible for a child tax credit check of only $2,625, while one making $200,000 would receive the full $4,000.) Changing the suite of child-related benefits in the tax code to a $300 monthly benefit, with an additional $50 per month for children under 6, would be a tangible way of making low-income and working-class parents’ lives easier.