Press Releases

Washington, D.C. The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) today criticized the Bush Administration for issuing a budget memo that would lead to severe cuts in services for children and hard-working families while simultaneously pushing to make tax breaks that primarily benefit millionaires permanent at a ten-year cost of $1.1 trillion. The memo, titled "Planning Guidance for the FY 2006 Budget" sets in motion the process to cut education; Head Start; the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program; housing; and most other supports for America's children.

"The gulf between the rhetoric of compassion espoused by the Bush Administration and the devastating reality of its policies widens with each passing day," said Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of CDF. "As the Administration begins preparing its 2006 budget proposal, the marching orders are crystal clear: virtually every domestic spending program must be sacrificed in the name of tax breaks for the rich and special interests."

If the memo's guidelines are followed, in 2006, education funding would be cut by $1.5 billion, Head Start would be cut by $177 million, and WIC would be cut by $122 million. By 2009 the cuts in domestic programs would swell to $49 billion, meaning more than 60,000 children could be dropped from Head Start, 600,000 fewer households could receive Section 8 housing assistance, and 450,000 low-income pregnant women and children could lose nutrition services.

"There is both a leadership and moral deficit in a nation when the government's priority is to coddle millionaires while laying the groundwork to devastate the hopes, aspirations, and opportunities of millions of children," said Edelman. "The Bush Administration needs to scrap their ill-advised budget plans for next year and beyond."

For less than one-third the cost of the Bush Administration's proposal to make tax cuts permanent, we could insure all nine million uninsured children in the U.S., make sure children enter school ready to learn by offering Head Start to every eligible child, and pay the salaries of an additional 100,000 school teachers to reduce class sizes.

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The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds.