SOCIAL POLICY
Bipartisan working group calls for rebalancing the federal budget to invest more in America’s children
A new bipartisan report is calling for "rewriting the generational contract" to significantly increase investments in America’s children by shifting funds from programs that now go toward supporting older, wealthier adults. In the report, "Rebalancing: Children First," leading scholars convened by two major think tanks propose directing more national funds to help children. Currently, more than 40% of the federal budget flows to Americans over the age of 65, compared to only 7.4% spent on children. The consensus report was a culmination of three years of work by a group of policy experts that included Harvard Kennedy School Professor David Deming, a scholar who focuses on education. Brought together by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, the group focused on areas as diverse as household resources, family structure, early brain development, and health. The scholars made proposals for increased investment in areas such as the child tax credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), public health insurance for children, apprenticeships, and technical education. |