Demand that Our Nation’s Leaders ‘Commit to Kids’
Our nation’s children deserve the very best we have to offer them. Their best interests should be at the forefront of every decision made by our nation’s leaders at the federal, state, and local levels of government.
To achieve that goal, we have launched with other child advocates a campaign to urge our nation’s leaders to #Commit2Kids. Between now and the November 3 election in less than 100 days, we are challenging candidates and elected officials nationwide to tell us exactly what they will do for our country’s children.
Unfortunately, some politicians pay lip service to the needs of children because, after all, they are cute and polls consistently show that the American people are wildly supportive of improving the lives of children.
However, at key moments when children need politicians to step up or speak out to promote or protect their needs or best interest, kids are far too often treated as an afterthought, used as a bargaining chip in political negotiations, or shockingly, intentionally harmed.
In a preview of the forthcoming release of Children’s Budget 2020, First Focus on Children’s analysis finds that the domestic share of the federal budget dropped from 8.19 percent in President Obama’s last year in office in 2016 to just 7.48 percent in 2020 — a 9 percent reduction.
Furthermore, if President Trump’s proposed FY 2021 budget had been enacted, federal investments in children would have declined by another $21 billion on an inflation-adjusted basis.
If you really want to “make America great again,” you would invest in our children — our future.
The problem, of course, is that kids don’t vote. They don’t have paid CONTINUE READING: Demand that Our Nation’s Leaders ‘Commit to Kids’ | by Bruce Lesley | Voices4Kids | Aug, 2020 | Medium