The US budget bill passed recently by the House of Representatives includes around $50 billion in spending cuts, many of them aimed at federal programmes for the poor. This includes trims of around $5 billion in child support, $600 million for children in foster care and around $700 million in food stamps. A similar bill form the Senate contains $34 billion of cuts with far fewer swipes at social-welfare programmes, but both bills include between $60 billion and $70 billion in tax cuts that disproportionately favour the rich. Child advocates are enraged. As states consider reforming their child-welfare systems, big cuts in social services are not helpful.
©The Economist (Print Edition, Nov 24 2005)