The following is an explanation on how the Fiscal Cliff will event young children!! This is an taken from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
A fair budget and a reduced deficit are important, but those goals should be met without making dramatic cuts to child care, Head Start, education, nutrition programs, or other basic needs of low- and moderate- income children and families. Right now, Congress and the White House are negotiating the "Fiscal Cliff" – not only about who should pay more or fewer taxes, but also about dramatic cuts to spending on critical programs (including Head Start, child care, child nutrition, and many more services for children and families). Because roughly 75% of public funds for early childhood education come from federal funding, the federal spending cuts being discussed would have significant consequences. If Congress and the White House do not change the automatic cuts (part of the Fiscal Cliff called sequestration), then 100,000 children will lose Early Head Start and Head Start, and roughly 80,000 children will lose child care assistance.
There are three components to the current budget negotiations:
- Sequestration: Unless Congress and the White House take another path, starting January 2, 2013, there would be automatic cuts of roughly 8% to domestic discretionary programs– including Head Start, child care, K-12 education, WIC, early intervention and many others. This would mean roughly 100,000 children losing Early Head Start or Head Start and 80,000 children losing child care assistance. Find out how big these cuts would be to your state here.
- Revenues and tax spending: Another element is the debate about revenues and tax spending: who should continue to get the tax cuts and who should fairly be asked to contribute more? The top earners (those making more than $250,000 a year) have seen the greatest benefit from the tax cuts made in 2001 and 2003. If the 2001/2003 tax changes ended for those making over $250,000, the Treasury would raise another $1 trillion over the decade; this could help reduce the deficit and allow for more spending for critical programs.
- Entitlements: Yet another part of the debate is what to do about entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
