Vice President J.D. Vance and his family dwell in the Washington, D.C., area, where a family consisting of two adults and four children requires an annual gross income of approximately $177,600.
This week, Vice President J.D. Vance and his spouse, Usha, revealed that they will have their fourth child in late July.
At a March for Life demonstration last year, Vance expressed his desire for “more babies in the United States of America.” Vance is worried about the declining birth rates in the country. That echoed a statement made in 2019: “We want infants for reasons other than their economic value. Children are good, so we want more of them.
However, the Vances’ revelation coincides with the fact that many American families are having difficulty paying basic essentials like housing, transportation, and child care.
Families in the United States rarely have more than two children. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2023, 7% of Americans had four children, and another 5% had five or more.
The Trump administration has enacted measures including an increased child tax credit and “Trump accounts” for youngsters seeded with government funds in an effort to produce a fresh “baby boom.” However, “the Trump administration’s family policies have been limited so far,” the conservative American Enterprise Institute said.
The continuous expenses of maintaining a big family continue to be unaffordable for the majority of households. In 2023, a married couple with children made $138,000 on average. Census Bureau data showed that the median income for single mothers was $22,000.
In the meantime, the Economic Policy Institute’s family budget calculator, which the left-leaning group characterizes as measuring “the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living,” estimates that the annual gross income required to meet the basic needs of a family of two adults and four children in the Washington, D.C., area, where the vice president and his family reside, is approximately $177,600.
This amount does not include emergency or retirement savings, but it does include housing, groceries, child care, transportation, healthcare, and other basics, along with taxes.
According to EPI, the yearly cost of child care in the D.C. area for a family with children ages 4, 8, 12, and 16 is around $37,000, which is significantly higher than the anticipated $31,000 for housing costs.
According to EPI, a basic budget (not including savings) for a family of two adults and four children is roughly $135,000, even in the Cincinnati region, which contains J.D. Vance’s hometown of Middletown, Ohio.
Families with low incomes may have to “give up on some essentials,” according to senior economist Elise Gould of EPI. “You can’t invest in the future, for sure. You might not be able to provide your family with all the healthcare you want.” Their capacity to work may be impacted if they depend on family members to assist with child care.
The Vance family’s income is significantly higher than the median. A right-wing research tank called the National Taxpayers Union Foundation claims that the vice president receives $235,100 a year. Furthermore, “the Executive Branch budget provides $321,000 for the Vice President’s residence,” which covers staff, upkeep, and other costs. In 2024, Usha Vance resigned from her legal practice “to focus on caring for our family,” according to a statement.
BourseWatch has contacted the vice president’s office to inquire about how the Vance family manages child care expenses, but has not heard back.
The Vances expressed their gratitude on social media for “the staff members who do so much to ensure that we can serve the country while enjoying a wonderful life with our children.”
The American Enterprise Institute stated in a commentary last month that “improving affordability is a positive, realistic focus for family policy,” rather than concentrating just on pro-natalist measures.
Parents with four or more children discussed the compromises they made to maintain a larger-than-average family during a period of rising living expenses in interviews with BourseWatch last year. They claimed that when it comes to extras like entertainment, travel, eating out, and shopping, they frequently make compromises. People who lived in dual-income households usually had flexible work hours that made it easier for them to manage their children’s schedules.
Having a large family is a lifestyle choice that has become uncommon in today’s world, and while it appeals to some, it is not for everyone, they added, in addition to cost factors.
According to Gould of EPI, “there are many different factors that enter into the decision to have one or more children,” and it is now commonly acknowledged that “it’s a struggle for a lot of people” in terms of money.
