Here's NYTimes economics columnist Eduardo Porter's take on how conservatives want the US birth rate to increase -- since the 2008 recession, it's dropped the lowest since 1920 -- but federal spending on children and families keeps decreasing. ....there is an odd inconsistency in conservatives’ stance on procreation: many also support some of the harshest cuts in memory to government benefit programs for families and children.
First Focus, an advocacy group for child-friendly policies, will release on Wednesday its latest “Children’s Budget,” which shows how federal spending on children has declined more than 15 percent in real terms from its high in 2010, when the fiscal stimulus law raised spending on programs like Head Start and K-12 education.
Some school districts have been forced to fire teachers, cut services and even shorten the school week. Head Start has cut its rolls. Families have lost housing support. And the 2014 budget passed by Republicans in the House cuts investments in children further — sharply reducing money for the Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/business/economy/pro-baby-but-not-in-an-economic-sense.html
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