By Nick Jacobs

In 1960, according to Adrienne Lewis of USA Today, the Federal Government's share of domestic spending and tax breaks was 22.1% of the federal budget on adults and 20.1% of the budget on children. That percentage has dropped to 15.4% today and is going on down to 13% by 2017. As a share of the total economy of the nation, kids are going from 2.6% to 2.1% and adults are rising from 7.6% to 9.5% of the economy.

The report by the Urban Institute states that "Despite frequent rhetoric from policymakers on the priority given to children, the federal budget makes fairly clear that children are less of a priority and more of an afterthought."

Why, you might ask? AARP with its 36 million members spent, $105,000,000 on lobbying, more than any other organization in the United States except the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund states that, "Children are a voiceless, voteless constituency."

Here's the kicker. Bill Hoagland, a former top budget advisor to Senate Republicans said, "I know for a fact, first-hand, that ballots are distributed at nursing homes on Election Day, and they're not distributed at the kindergarten level."

As former Colorado Richard Lamm said, ". . . you cannot make fiscal sense out of the future of our children without taking on entitlements."

Where is your heart on this topic?