Budget leaves children behind

Budgets are all about choices. The federal budget, just like any household budget, is about choosing your top priorities, since you can never afford everything you want.

The budget proposal President Bush recently sent to Congress makes the wrong choices. It would make permanent a tax cut for the very wealthy – those who need help the least – and pay for it with cuts to programs that make health care, child care and preschool affordable to families who need it most. The president’s budget places more burdens on state governments, which means additional costs for Maine taxpayers, who can ill afford them.

But those who will suffer the most if this budget proposal becomes law are children. Programs that offer children from low- and moderate-income families a chance to grow up healthy, with a good education – in short, a better chance to escape poverty and become productive adult citizens – are once again being sacrificed.

Here are just three examples of how the proposed federal budget would harm Maine’s children:

. Children who have health insurance stay healthier and perform better in school. Unfortunately, Maine is one of 14 states that will run out of money this year for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides basic coverage for uninsured children. Already Maine lacks the funds to insure 11,000 children who are eligible. The president’s budget proposes no new funding to address these shortfalls; that means Maine would have to cut back on insurance for kids that it currently covers or foot the bill itself.

At the same time, the administration proposes to cut Medicaid, funded jointly by the federal government and the states, by $60 billion over the next 10 years. This would increase the tax burden for all states, including Maine. Medicaid is critical to the strength of Maine’s entire health care system. By covering costs of doctors, hospitals, clinics, ambulances, pharmacies and nursing homes for low- and moderate-income families, it helps keep the system in good fiscal health. Everyone in Maine benefits from that system if it is healthy, and everyone in Maine loses if it falters.

. Research has proven consistently that children who attend Head Start have more success in school. Having children who get a good education is certainly in the interest of every Maine citizen. But Maine Head Start has lost 7.4 percent of its funding since 2001, and the president’s budget includes further cuts. Reduced Head Start funding already has forced some centers to close and others to serve fewer children.

. Children in high-quality child care settings have more academic success, with low-income children benefiting the most. But the president’s budget chooses to cut funds for subsidized care – effectively leaving out 300,000 children nationally. This is on top of cuts that have already reduced the number of children receiving funding by 150,000. For Maine, the president’s proposal will mean $1.6 million less by 2012 than it would have received if federal funding had only kept pace with inflation.

There are many more important programs that will be cut under the proposed budget. In K-12 education, post-secondary education, hunger relief, child protection, environmental health and affordable housing, the story is the same. The Bush administration prefers to give federal dollars to the wealthiest among us, and would pass the responsibility for longstanding programs with broad and deep public support onto the states – and their taxpayers.

Maine’s congressional delegation consistently has been stalwart advocates of programs that benefit Maine’s children, and has been effective in countering the most damaging parts of administration budget proposals We should all be grateful for their persistent and effective support. The new Congress’ response to the administration’s latest budget plan presents our delegation with an important opportunity to turn the tide, to make children a much higher priority when it comes to federal funding.

We know that the choices the administration has made in the budget are the wrong choices. Now it’s time for senators and representatives in Congress to write a new script, and make the choices that are right, and essential – for our children, and for all of us.

Elinor Goldberg is president and CEO of the Maine Children’s Alliance in Augusta.