Press Releases

WASHINGTON Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman today responded to the President’s State of the Union address citing its lack of real solutions for real children left behind in the present economic downturn. The President offered his agenda to move America forward by accelerating his $1.3 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthiest citizens and eliminating the stock dividend tax for millionaires in his $674 billion economic plan. He did not address helping the surge of jobless workers with children, offer any solutions for the 9.2 million American children without health coverage, or outline a plan to make sure children arrive at school ready to learn.

STATEMENT OF MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

We have the resources to build a nation where every child enters school ready to learn and leaves on a path to a productive future, a nation where babies are likely to be born healthy and sick children have the health care they need, a nation where no child has to grow up in poverty.

The agenda the President outlined works well for the narrow interests of the wealthiest Americans and offers starved resources and empty promises for low- and middle-income children left behind. This Administration will clearly show us its priorities next week when the President sends his budget to Congress.

Budgets represent moral and social choices not just economic ones. Children cannot eat promises, escape poverty through speeches about compassion, or get the child care assistance they need to be ready for school with crumbs from America’s table of plenty.

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Full Report:

• Reality Check: The President's State of the Union Address
  (Adobe PDF : 3 pages : 136 KB)

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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.