A report by the Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota claims the state’s budget surpluses of the late 1990s didn’t do much for children – that only 0.

Monday, November 06, 2000

A report by the Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota claims the state’s budget surpluses of the late 1990s didn’t do much for children – that only 0.2 percent went to human services and nonschool programs for children.

The same report lists $1.6 billion spent on education and $5.5 billion spent on tax relief.

The authors of the report fail to acknowledge the effect of $5.5 billion in tax relief, much of it to families, and big increases in the amount spent on public schools. Instead, they are already clamoring for more investment in programs for children.

It illustrates a fallacy in the reasoning of those who advocate more spending over tax cuts. They assume the government can do a better job of spending money than families can. If they spend billions on half-effective programs targeted at certain children, they’ll say they’re working to help kids; if they give a fair share of money back to the parents who paid taxes, for them to spend as they choose, they’ll say kids are being ignored.

It’s an insult to the parents of Minnesota.

There’s no question that some government programs to help the neediest and poorest children aren’t out of line. But remember, this report only details the amount of the surpluses spent for increased funding – saying nothing about the amount of money already dedicated to such programs.