The Danube Institute’s conference titled Family Formation and the Future continues. One of the most anticipated guests of the day, Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Hungary Robert Palladino took the floor next.
He started by pointing out that he is the first official American on-duty envoy to Hungary to attend a Danube Institute event as a speaker. As he noted, this is yet another sign of shifting winds in Washington, DC. He described the Danube event as a place where ‘people of good will come together to promote good governance for the common good.’
Then, he proceeded to list three policies aimed at helping families by the Trump administration that are similar to those of the Orbán administration in Hungary.
First, Mr Palladino explained, President Trump doubled the child tax credit during his first term with his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Second, President Trump is a proponent of school choice for parents, and is looking to return the issue of education under the purview of the states with the elimination of the federal Department of Education. And third, the current administration is working hard to combat the opioid crisis in America, mostly focusing on preventing drugs from being illegally smuggled in through its borders.
Mr Palladino also highlighted what he referred to as ‘the American vibe shift’. A prime example of that, he shared, is a speech Vice President JD Vance gave at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. There, Vice President Vance talked about how he believes the most important measure of the success of a society is the health and wellbeing of the family.
Afterward, a panel featuring Director of Programs and Education at American Compass Brad Littlejohn; Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Tim Carney; Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Patrick Brown; and Fiona Bruce, Conservative Member of Parliament for Congleton from 2010 to 2024 commenced. The discussion was moderated by our very own Editor-in-Chief Zsófia Rácz.
Mr Carney spoke about how the low birth rates do not have purely economic causes, as in 2008, when the American economy was in a lot worse shape, the birth rate was still higher than today. Statistically, the number of years a person needs to work on average to produce the means for raising one child has also decreased. What did increase significantly and hinders childbearing is the price of housing, he pointed out. He also named infrastructure and low crime rate as factors to be considered before choosing to have a child—parents would like to have their child go out to the park on their own, like it was common when he grew up, he explained.
Mr Littlejon spoke excessively about the dangers of easy access to pornography by minors. Parents are a lot more reluctant to let their children be exposed to some physical harm, which led to them sitting their kids down in front of screens for long periods of uninterrupted time. This, however, posed new, sometimes even greater dangers, he warned.
Meanwhile, MP Bruce urged the Hungarian government to continue its family support policies even if they get criticized for disadvantaging women with no children, as ‘otherwise, our children will suffer’; and welcomed the fact that there is finally a President in the White House who is not afraid to speak the truth on gender.
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