The American Government’s Declining Investment in Children
“Spending on kids is being squeezed primarily by two other rapidly growing categories—both of which represent an obligation to the past. The first is the portion of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid targeted to adults. Those programs represented about 30 percent of federal spending in 1990, but they have soared to 45 percent of the federal budget today. Washington now spends almost six times as much for every senior as it spends on each kid. Over the next decade, that disparity is unlikely to improve: The Urban Institute projects that the adult portion of the big three entitlements will consume over three-fifths of all new federal spending. By 2028, for the first time, the adult share of those programs will constitute fully half of the federal budget.”
