The White House is reportedly considering a proposal to give new mothers a $5,000 “baby bonus” to help encourage Americans to have more children, but economists and social science experts are skeptical that the potential move would work.

The New York Times reported last month that the White House was consulting with policy experts and pronatalist advocates about ways to incentivize American women to have more children. Cash bonuses and Fulbright scholarship allotments are among the ideas under consideration.

Experts told The Hill this week that a few thousand dollars is too low to influence family planning, particularly when the costs of raising a child are far higher.

“That amount of money would not be considered meaningful enough by most couples to incentivize them to have kids,” said Jennifer Sciubba, president and CEO of Population Reference Bureau.

Vice President Vance and Elon Musk, the influential billionaire adviser to Trump, are both loud voices in the pronatalist movement. Vance told an anti-abortion rally in January that he wanted “more babies in the United States of America.”

Trump, both during his campaign and in the White House, has called himself the fertilization president. However, he is yet to take any major actions to boost fertility.

The United States’s birth rate has been in decline for decades, falling even more sharply since the Great Recession, reaching a record low in 2023. Roughly 3.5 million babies were born that year in the U.S., marking a 2 percent drop from the year before,

© The Hill