Press Releases

Washington, D.C. — Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman today noted that the cost of the Bush Administration's dividend tax cut proposal is enough to provide comprehensive health care for all 9.2 million uninsured American children and Head Start for all the unserved eligible and disadvantaged preschool children in need of comprehensive services that prepare them for school and a productive future. President Bush today announced a $674 billion tax cut proposal that includes eliminating taxes individuals pay on stock dividends.

STATEMENT OF MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

The President's proposal provides strikingly irresponsible tax cuts, borrowing money we don't have to spend where it isn't needed. Our responsibility to our children requires that we reject the billions in giveaways masquerading as economic stimulus.

The President has chosen to hand millionaires another $27,000 each by eliminating the tax on stock dividends, while taxpayers earning $30,000 - $40,000 would get only $42, according to the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. Adding the dividend tax cut to the income tax cuts already passed, millionaires will receive a whopping $130,000 when the cuts are fully in place. Estate tax cuts will add even more. In stark contrast, hard working parents struggling to support their children on low wages will not get any help from the speed-up of the child tax credit proposed by the Administration.

In a time of important choices, this greed is shameful in the face of other needs. The cost of the dividend tax cut could provide comprehensive health care for all 9.2 million uninsured American children and Head Start for all unserved eligible preschoolers in need of comprehensive services that prepare them for school and a productive future. The same Administration that starves and freezes children's services is willing to heap more money on millionaires.

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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.