Press Releases

WASHINGTON - The Bush Administration's January 2003 tax package would give $62,500 on average to each millionaire even if its featured stock dividends tax break is eliminated according to calculations made today by the Children's Defense Fund. Middle-income taxpayers earning on average $30,000 a year would receive only $236 in 2003 under this same portion of the President's tax package.

The House and Senate this week are expected to resolve differences in the size of the Bush Administration's proposed tax cut that will be included in the final congressional budget resolution. The House included the Bush Administration's full January package of tax cuts—a package that would give each millionaire an average tax cut of $90,000 this year alone, according to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. The Senate included a somewhat smaller tax cut in its budget resolution.

Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman noted that both the proposed House and Senate budgets represent misplaced national priorities. "Congress must not approve any new tax cuts to hand $62,500 on average to each millionaire," said Edelman. "Millionaires didn't need the tax cut Congress gave them two years ago and they don't need a new one now, especially when there is a surge in jobless parents, more and more children are falling into extreme poverty, and a million American children are homeless each year."

The Children's Defense Fund earlier this year reported that the cost of repealing the tax on stock dividends alone could provide comprehensive health care for all 9.2 million uninsured children in America and Head Start for all preschool children who need it. The $62,500 provided to each millionaire in a scaled back tax cut could either:

-pay the average annual public college tuition for 17 undergraduates,
-provide Head Start for 9 disadvantaged preschool children,
-provide 24 disadvantaged youth with employment training for a full year,
-pay the annual salary for 2 new public school teachers,
-pay the annual salary for 3 child care workers, or
-fully immunize 97 children against preventable diseases.

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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.