Eva M. Clayton: “I want to also challenge my colleagues to begin to think that we as a Nation have an opportunity to say that our…”

“I want to also challenge my colleagues to begin to think that we as a Nation have an opportunity to say that our children indeed are important, not only as we want to use them to talk about the balanced budget or use them to talk about education. But when it is said, really when one thinks of how a society reacts, it is how it takes care of its children. Surely, surely, the health of our young people is equally as important as the opportunity for them to pay taxes. Their health indeed may mean that we may pay less taxes if we invest early. Recent reports have indicated that if we take care of our children early in their life, not only their carpentry skills but their health skills and education skills are better. And, therefore, if we invest in our children we have an opportunity not to have such severe health costs later in life. So investing in our children is not a Democratic issue, it is not a Republican; it should be an American issue because we care about our children. Mr. Speaker, I hope the 105th Congress will seriously consider what we can do to make sure the lives of our children are more healthy than they are now.”