Gene Steuerle, long an advocate of fiscal responsibility, writes about declining investments in children and implicitly calls for that pattern to be reversed during our efforts to jump-start the macroeconomy.
He certainly has a good point, one that was also raised a quarter-century ago by Sam Preston in his 1984 PAA presidential address. Both Steuerle and Preston are either implicitly or explicitly referring to the growth in old-age support programs like Medicare and Social Security at the expense of youth support like education, S-CHIP, etc.
Could massive aid to state and local governments, which in our federal system are virtually the only gateways through which youth support flows, pass the Congress this spring?
