The View stars Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Farah-Griffin and clashed over their vastly differing views on President Trump’s proposed $5000 ‘baby bonus’ this week.
Trump’s administration’s fledgling plan is to give a $5,000 sum to every American mother after they give birth.
The policy, which he told reporters Tuesday ‘sounds like a good idea,’ would act as an incentive to boost the birth rate in the United States, which has been declining since 2007.
However, outspoken Republican and Ex-White House communications advisor Farah-Griffin stunned the audience with her positive reaction to the proposed plan – while Oscar winner Goldberg called the bonus ‘incredibly insulting.’
Dueling on Wednesday’s episode, Goldberg, 69, declared: ‘Clearly, they don’t know how women’s bodies work, and they don’t know what it costs to raise a child or just have a child’ – to cheers from the crowd.
She added that new moms would have to pay taxes on the money – which could see the sum slashed to $2500, with Farah-Griffin retorting: ‘It depends on your tax bracket.’
The View stars Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Farah-Griffin and clashed over their vastly differing views on President Trump’s proposed $5000 ‘baby bonus’ this week
The former Donald Trump staffer, 35, previously revealed she voted for Democrat candidate Kamala Harris due to feeling disappointed by Trump and the Republican Party’s ‘failure to rebuild’ – pictured with Trump in 2020
Goldberg responded: ‘Now, don’t forget about all the stuff they’ve cut!’
Sara Haines added: ‘It’s like putting a band-aid on a deeper problem. We don’t have paid family leave in this country. We don’t have subsidized childcare. We have the highest maternal mortality rate, and it’s 55% higher than the second place — that’s a lot for the wealthiest country in the world.
Haines said the first year costs of having a child would be ‘around $16000’, saying: ‘They want more babies because it affects not only the workforce, but paying into entitlement programs.’
Griffin – who memorably turned on her former employer and did not vote for him in the last election – then left the audience aghast as she said: ‘I actually generally support this policy, that may surprise you guys.
‘The number one concern I hear from young people is that they want to have kids, but they don’t know if they can afford it. And we could argue over whether or not it’s enough, the $5000, but both Italy and France do this. You get a one-time payment when you have a child.
‘We also have policies like this in place. We have the child tax credit, which gives you a tax credit back for the number of children you have, and the earned income tax credit. Because of this idea that our social safety net — so social security, Medicare, Medicaid — rely on the younger population keeping up with the older population so they can pay into it.’
She said her ‘caveat’ was that all people welcoming a baby – such as adoptive parents and gay couples – should get the bonus and not just birth mothers.
A fuming Goldberg hit back: ‘$5,000 sounds like a lot of money, but if you can’t pay your rent, if you can’t pay for your after school programs for your kids…’
Trump’s administration’s fledgling plan is to give a $5,000 sum to every American mother after they give birth
Dueling on Wednesday’s episode, Goldberg declared: ‘C learly, they don’t know how women’s bodies work, and they don’t know what it costs to raise a child or just have a child’ – to cheers from the crowd
Griffin – who memorably turned on her former employer – then left the audience aghast as she said: ‘ I actually generally support this policy, that may surprise you guys
Sara Haines added: ‘It’s like putting a band-aid on a deeper problem. We don’t have paid family leave in this country. We don’t have subsidized childcare’
A fuming Goldberg hit back: ‘$5,000 sounds like a lot of money, but if you can’t pay your rent, if you can’t pay for your after school programs for your kids…’
Farah-Griffin responded: ‘Isn’t something better than nothing?’ with Goldberg saying: ‘No, not in this case.’
A fired up Farah-Griffin hinted at hypocrisy among her fellow panelists, saying: ‘I feel like if Biden proposed this, we’d all be saying it’s groundbreaking.’
The audience then gasped as Goldberg said: ‘No. I’m sorry, I don’t like the idea that somebody is saying, ‘I’m gonna pay you to have more kids.’”
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‘Let me just tell you this. $1 billion in funding for schools and food banks to buy food was cut. Withdrew funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children — cut. Fired the entire staff running a program to help low-income households pay their heating and cooling bills.
‘My point is, it seems to me that everything this administration seems to be doing is telling people not to have children. Why not make sure that kids that we already have have a shot at good schooling?
‘Why not? If you want people to have children, you have to not scare them by cutting all these programs that they may need.’
In November Farah-Griffin revealed she had switched sides and voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris due to feeling disappointed by Trump and the Republican Party’s ‘failure to rebuild.’ Trump would go on to win the election.
Speaking on The View, she said: ‘Four years ago today, I was in the White House with Donald Trump on election night. I believed he deserved to lose that night [in 2020], at that point.
‘I thought he hadn’t fought to win the election, but I thought the next four years would be the Republican party rebuilding and becoming something I could believe in and turning the page on Donald Trump, and it didn’t do that.
‘So, this weekend, on Saturday, for the first time in my life, I voted for a Democrat.’
Griffin said she ‘considers my vote on loan’ to Harris – pictured with the VP on The View in October
‘I voted for Kamala Harris,’ she said and added that she ‘voted down-ballot for Republicans’ for her remaining race decisions.
Griffin added: ‘I consider my vote on loan to her.’
‘I’m worried about the direction Donald Trump will take this country, and I take my own warning seriously.
‘What I saw is very real. I’m a Christian, I’m an American, and I’m a Republican, in that order, and I need somebody who shares my values.
‘I need somebody who’s a kind and decent person who will bring this country together,’ Griffin said.
Still, she added of Harris: ‘I don’t agree with a lot of her policies.’
‘We can criticize those down the road, but today it’s about a brighter future and I think the best thing for the country and the future of the Republican party is that Donald Trump lose and that Kamala Harris is elected.’
Griffin, who interviewed Harris last month on The View, quit her White House gig in December 2020.
She previously explained that she did so ‘because I was uncomfortable with the lies about the election.’
She was among the Trump officials who were texting White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to have the then-president call off the crowd during the January 6 Capitol attack.
While she called January 6 a ‘horrific day’ she added, ‘that was just kind of an encapsulation of who Donald Trump, the man, is.’
‘He is the person of the lowest moral character that I’ve ever worked for,’ she said.
Trump defeated Harris to be reelected to the US presidency in November (pictured September)
Griffin then warned what could be expected in a second term.
‘The first term you had people like Vice President Pence there – an imperfect actor – but somebody who I genuinely think tried to guide him the right way and keep him focused and in bounds with the Constitution,’ she said.
She said those types of people would not be welcome for round No. 2.
‘They don’t want Ronald Reagan Republicans, they want Tucker Carlson Republicans, so buckle up guys,’ Griffin said.