Archive for May, 2011

On Wednesday May 25th, a group of Protestant Bishops came out strongly against the House budget proposal that passed the House last month:

If the moral measure of a just society is found in how we treat the most vulnerable, the budget proposal passed by the House of Representatives, which the Senate will vote on this week, fails the basic tests of justice, compassion and a commitment to the common good.

This budget eviscerates vital nutrition programs for mothers and infants (WIC), and makes cuts to Medicaid that will hurt sick children, struggling families and seniors in nursing homes. Proposed changes to Medicare will break the promise that all American seniors get the healthcare they need by forcing them to buy private insurance without assuring that it is affordable. It asks those who need our help the most to fend for themselves in a volatile marketplace where profit, not human dignity, sets the agenda. Unlike the Good Samaritan, who stopped to care for a wounded stranger on the side of the road, the House budget turns its back on the most vulnerable at a time of grave economic uncertainty even as it endorses policies that gives tax breaks for the privileged few. This is morally indefensible.

This budget failed in the Senate with 57 senators voting against it and just 40 for it. None of the proposals passed so the Senate will have to start from scratch. We urge them to not pass draconian cuts to programs that promote the health, education, and safety of children.

In today’s edition of Roll Call, the Vote Kids ad campaign was part of a larger story about issue groups mobilizing in the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Michael Petit has an obsession with New Hampshire and Iowa.

His children’s advocacy group, Vote Kids, plans to spend $1 million in both states on television advertising, grass-roots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts at places like local preschools.

But it’s all part of Petit’s bigger plan to catch the attention of White House hopefuls tromping through the states.

“Our interest is not those two states in 2012. Our interest is the national discussion that will follow once the candidates emerge,” Petit explained. “For us, what we don’t want to happen is the candidates themselves solely define the issues that they want to present.”

As the would-be GOP presidential contenders descend on early primary and caucus states, lobbying interests such as Petit’s are mobilizing with the goal of getting their issues at the forefront of the national agenda. Those locales not only offer access to candidates themselves but also provide a valuable audience that includes a tuned-in electorate and swarms of reporters.

A group hoping to make the welfare of America’s children a national political priority is up with television advertisements in Iowa and New Hampshire that directly ask residents of the first contest states to hold 2012 presidential hopefuls accountable.

Vote Kids, a nonprofit created in 2002, wants Iowans to tell those running for or considering running for president in 2012 to invest in and not cut programs that benefit children and families.

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Today’s coverage of the “What Would You Cut?” ad campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Hill:

The weeklong television ad seeks to highlight the House budget’s cuts to children’s programs, including $1.4 trillion in cuts to Medicaid that would result from repealing the healthcare reform expansion and turning the program into a block grant. The ad mentions cuts to school nutrition, pre-school programs and college loans for students.

Political Affairs:

If you controlled the government’s purse strings, would you cut school nutrition programs or eliminate tax breaks for America’s millionaires and billionaires?

This is a question asked in a new TV ad campaign sponsored by Vote Kids, a children’s advocacy group. The ads are airing in Iowa and New Hampshire this week as Republican presidential candidates prepare to open their bids for their party’s nomination.

Watch Michael Petit discussing our latest ad campaign below

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On Monday, May 9th, Vote Kids began running the following ad in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Vote Kids television ad will be airing throughout Iowa and New Hampshire beginning Monday, May 9 through Friday, May 13.

Vote Kids want to bring attention to how children will be harmed as a result of federal budget proposals which already have passed the House of Representatives. The so-called Ryan budget slashes programs vital to children and families, including Head Start, child care, public safety, child nutrition, education, Pell Grants, Community and Development Block Grants, and jobs programs. These are shortsighted actions that would weaken America’s global economic competitiveness, which is why we want kids’ issues to be a prominent part of the debate in the forthcoming presidential campaign.

The Ryan Budget would convert Medicaid into block grants and result in $1.4 trillion in cuts, while doing nothing to reduce health care costs. These cuts would affect the 30 million children nationwide served by Medicaid. It also would cut the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program by $127 billion, or 20 percent, over the next ten years. Millions of families would be affected, leading to increased hunger and poverty.

While cutting health care and nutrition programs for working families and children, the Ryan Budget gives those Americans earning more than $1 million an additional $125,000 yearly tax break.

When the Republican presidential candidates and President Obama come through these states campaigning, we want voters to ask them where they stand on investing in the health, education, and safety of children. No candidate should be allowed to avoid spelling out a detailed platform of what they are FOR when it comes to children.