The War on Children
“I’m not sure we’ve ever seen an Administration so laser-focused on targeting the nation’s children for harm. This president and his appointees – with an unprecedented assist from Congress – has specifically targeted children’s health care with $880 billion in proposed cuts, is closing down the Department of Education, and literally plans to steal the lunch money of the nation’s poorest kids. Babies have been singled out for special punishment with the proposed revocation of birthright citizenship and deportation of U.S. citizen children. This Administration is also promoting tax policies that penalize families for having newborns. And with the decimation of USAID, the President has left children overseas to die of AIDS, malaria and starvation by the millions. These actions signal a moral failing when it comes to supporting and protecting our children and grandchildren.” Michele Kayal, Vice President of First Focus on Children (https://firstfocus.org).
The Trump administration is waging war on children. Their budget cuts, staff reductions and dismantling of numerous federal agencies and programs is an attack on the welfare of children.
The welfare of our nation’s children – all of them regardless of their race, ethnicity or economic status — should be our top priority. Our children are our future. So cutting essential spending on children is not only a “moral failing” but also counterproductive and completely unnecessary. Our country has more than enough resources to provide a good beginning for every child. We chose not to take care of children.
“We Americans boast about being the number one world superpower and about our economic and military prowess. But what does it say about our collective values that we are content to lag behind many other nations in caring for children?” Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.
The United States has long ranked well below other nations for child welfare. A 2020 UNICEF report placed us 36th out of 38 developed nations in child well being. The Children’s Defense Fund says the U.S. ranks 31 out of the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Children are 23% of the U.S. population but federal funding for children’s programs was only 8.7% of the federal budget in 2024. Sixteen percent of our children live in poverty.
Today numerous actions by the Trump administration are further undermining the health, safety and educational well-being of children. The budget reconciliation bill (HR1) signed into law July 4th makes the war on children official.
The bill cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which provides access to healthcare for 37 million children. The bill also imposes work requirements on many adult Medicaid recipients which will not encourage work but will result in families losing health insurance. Obviously sick people don’t make good employees. But Republicans don’t consider facts or common sense in their rush to punish people for being poor.
The $200 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP – formerly food stamps) is another action that will harm children. SNAP benefits help to feed 15 million children. This will increase food insecurity, contribute to lower academic performance and have long term health affects for the affected children.
HR1 makes $351 billion in cuts to education over the next 10 years impacting students at all levels. Head Start will be cut $750 million this year eliminating 50,000 kids from the program. Cuts to Title I funding will reduce or eliminate subsidized school lunches for 20 million low income children. Over $5 billion authorized for K-12 school in the prior budget is being unnecessarily and illegally withheld. For college students, Pell Grants have been reduced and Federal Work Study and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants have been eliminated.
HR1 also creates a new tax credit for donations to scholarship programs for K-12 private school students. This is a first step toward a national school voucher program. Because public schools are funded on a per-student basis, any public financial support (vouchers or tax credits) for private schools reduces funding for public schools. Ninety percent of K-12 students attend public schools.
In addition, the staffing and funding cuts illegally imposed by the unauthorized Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have severely impacted federal agencies administering child care assistance, Head Start, child sexual abuse programs and other child welfare programs. The Department of Health and Human Services had 24% of its staff fired. The Administration for Children and Families staff was cut 45%. These are the public servants who administer the grants and revenue sharing that fund state and local child health, nutrition, housing and welfare services.
A specific example of how children are being hurt is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program which helps poor families heat and cool their homes. In 2024 the program cost $4.1 billion and helped 6.2 million families (an average $661 per family). This was 0.0006% of total federal spending ($6.75 trillion). The problem is not resources, it is lack of caring about children.
Children will also be harmed by all the other short sighted, destructive actions of this administration. Trump’s chaotic tariffs and trade wars will increase prices for everyone. Gutting all environmental protection, or health and safety regulations, will hurt many people. Cutting funding for medical research or incentives for sustainable energy or ignoring climate change can only produce negative consequences. Children will suffer the most because opportunities lost and irreversible climate change damage are the future our children will inherit.
All this harm to children and families is completely unnecessary. These bad budget priorities and destructive policies are a choice – a politically motivated choice to give more tax cuts to the wealthy. “Savings” from other spending had to be found to “pay” for tax cuts. HR1 will cut taxes for the bottom 20% of earners (annual income below $27,000) by an average of $140. The top 1% (above $900,000) will get an average tax break of $70,000.
These budget cuts will not cut waste, eliminate “big government” or fuel the economy as Republicans claim. But the cuts will greatly increase the national debt (allegedly a major Republican concern). The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, says HR1 will add $3.3 trillion to the national deficit.
Republican claims to care about “fiscal responsibility” and “family values” are pure hypocrisy. As the war on children proves, they only care about their own greed and selfishness.