December 9, 2009
The third annual version of Kids’ Share: An Analysis of Federal Expenditures on Children Through 2008, examines federal spending trends and federal tax policies that support and impact children and families.
This year's report finds that less than one-tenth of the federal budget was spent on children in 2008, $295 billion out of a total of $2.983 trillion in outlays. In addition, since 1960, the children’s share of the federal budget has diminished by a quarter, while spending on the non-child portions of entitlement programs has more than doubled.
Additional findings include:
- The children’s share of the tax expenditure budget is less than 10 percent;
- While outlays on children have increased in dollars and as a percentage of GDP, children are receiving a smaller share of the domestic federal budget;
- As the children’s share of domestic federal
- spending has shrunk from 20 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 2008, spending on the non-child portions of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid has more than doubled, rising from 22 to 47 percent of domestic spending;
- Although spending on children is projected to increase in 2009, as a result of temporary increased spending on Medicaid, education, and other programs, other stimulus spending will increase even more, resulting in a decline in the percentage of federal outlays spent on children, from 9.9 percent in 2008 to 8.2 percent in 2009;
- As provisions of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act expire, it is projected that spending on children will shrink from 2.1 percent of GDP in 2008 to 1.9 percent of GDP by 2019, if current policies continue unchanged.
The publication was produced and published by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, with funding from First Focus and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
