Bipartisan on Child Poverty
Published: March 8, 2013
To the Editor:
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Sheila C. Bair is right (“Grand Old Parity,” Op-Ed, Feb. 27): income inequality should concern both parties. In Britain, it does, at least when it comes to children.
Ms. Bair also rightly identified America’s political problem: the tendency to trip over ideology when it comes to solutions. The British lowered that barrier by taking a different approach. They began by uniting the Tories and Labour around a broad goal, setting a national child poverty reduction target.
That made honest and productive conversations about policy solutions easier, because the parties already agreed on where they wanted to go and could focus on how to get there.
The resulting policies — like investments in education and tax credits that both reward work and value family — were pro-growth as well as pro-child. We should take a lesson from our ally and bring Democrats and Republicans together in a shared commitment to end child poverty.
BRUCE LESLEY
Washington, Feb. 27, 2013
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The writer is president of First Focus, a bipartisan advocacy group for children and families in federal policy and budget decisions.
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