My same point still applies, but a second point is that there is often a linkage. Policy-makers have to decide which instrument to use. We often agree on the basic goals, but the question is how do we get there. The question often comes up about whether we could maybe embrace a tax cut to achieve this goal, or whether we need a spending measure to achieve this goal.
Of course, a tax cut is money you're choosing not to spend. When you've had a tax cut and you reduce government revenues, that precludes the possibility of using those revenues to do other things. The burden of proof then is that your tax cut has to achieve the goal better than a spending measure.
That's a really tough argument to make in many situations. There is a solid case that in many cases public spending achieves these goals better than tax cuts. Of course, if we had a fully developed arsenal of gender budgeting tools at our disposal we would be making this discussion on the basis of much more thorough information than we have today. But I would still be betting that we would be better off spending than having tax cuts for those things.