Press Releases

WASHINGTON More than nine out of ten Latino children live in families that will not benefit from a cut in the stock dividend tax, according to an analysis released today by the Children's Defense Fund. The dividend tax cut is the centerpiece of the Bush Administration's plan to dismantle and cut essential protections for children to pay for massive new tax cuts for the rich. House and Senate leadership on Wednesday agreed on a framework for a tax and spending package that features the dividend tax cut as a key element.

Ninety-four percent of all Latino children in America will gain nothing from the dividend tax cut because their families do not receive any stock dividends. Today's analysis further finds that of Latino children whose families did have stock dividend income in 2001, the majority would have received an annual savings of less than $16 per child from a complete elimination of the dividend tax. Millionaires would receive an average tax cut of nearly $30,000 each from eliminating the tax on stock dividends in 2004, according to the Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman said today's analysis shows that the Bush Administration believes Latino children should subsidize tax breaks for the rich with the health care, child care, education, after-school programs, jobs, and income they urgently need.

"It is shameful that the Bush Administration's irresponsible tax cuts for the rich leave behind almost all Latino children," said Edelman. "The Administration's rhetorical mask of compassionate conservatism has been ripped off by one of the most uncompassionate and dangerous assaults on children in American history. It is irresponsible to borrow money we don't have to spend where it isn't needed while cutting and freezing services for children."

More than one out of five Latino children live in working poor families that often lack needed child care assistance. One in four Latino children has no health insurance. The Children's Defense Fund early this year found that long-term unemployment is spreading fastest in families with young children. The Bush Administration claims its stock dividend tax cut plan will spur the economy. Yet, ten Nobel Prize-winning economists noted that the Bush Administration's tax plan "is not the answer" to the recent surge in joblessness.

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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.