Federal Spending on Children Declines as Share of Budget: Old People Rule
Last updated: Thursday - July 10, 2008
David Berliner is a better watchdog of facts about education and children than anyone I know. He sends along these facts recently published by the Urban Institute that analyzes how federal spending impacts children:

"From 1960 to 2007 federal spending on children rose from just 1.9 to 2.6 percent of GDP. Spending on the big three entitlement programs—non-child portions of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—nearly quadrupled from 2.0 to 7.9 percent of GDP. ... Even while spending on children’s health programs grew 2.2 percentage points faster than GDP between 2006 and 2007, spending on education declined by 4.4 percentage points relative to growth in the economy. ... Absent policy changes, children’s spending will continue to be squeezed in the next decade. ... If current spending and revenue policies continue, children’s share of domestic federal spending will decline from 16.2 percent in 2007 to 13.8 percent by 2018. ... As a slice of GDP, children’s spending will decline from 2.6 percent in 2007 to 2.2 percent in 2018, while Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will rise from 7.9 to 9.6 percent."

The needs and wants of an aging US population will continue to dominate politics and government spending in a society that is increasingly a hostile environment for children.

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