It's Budget Time: Time to Bug Congress

Waking up near a Louisiana swamp to the sound of a mosquito buzzing, I remembered a favorite quote, "If you think you're too small to be effective, you've never been in bed with a mosquito."

It's budget time -- a perfect occasion to become mosquito-ish. Here's a budget priority litmus test: are we helping the most powerless, neglected and at-risk in our population? While competition for funding is tough, a front-runner has to be homeless babies, toddlers and kids.

Back home in affluent DuPage County, Illinois, near Chicago, the DuPage Homeless Continuum released its first report card on the county's performance, and frankly, it's bad.

This limited census counted 368 homeless children, 169 under 6-years-old. Let that sink in. This affluent enclave with low poverty has failed to look out for the well-being of far more than 368 children.

The rehashed argument from Tea Party devotees is that local authorities should take care of their own. Well, good theory, but practice leaves a lot to be desired, especially when dealing with unpopular, powerless populations. We can't help these kids grow up to be self-sufficient adults?

Activist and budget watchdog Jo Comerford's recent post "Budgetary SOS" points to a little-covered fact -- the budget makes no allowances for cost of living adjustments (COLA) for the food stamp program, guaranteeing a food shortage, but we allow for the Defense Department's $295+ billion cost overruns for 96 of its major weapons programs.

Another oversight is the paltry amount budgeted for the soaring number of homeless children's education. Despite over one million homeless kids being identified in schools (not counting younger or older siblings), the President recommended $65 million for the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. You'd find more money on the dust of lobbyists' shoes.

To summarize our national priorities: we don't help kids traumatized by homelessness get an education; we don't ensure families have food or a place to live; we make it almost impossible for families to get health care, dental coverage and mental health treatment; we blithely toss troubled kids into horribly run "corrections" centers; we rip young legal citizens from their parents; and we shove distressed kids into failed foster care placements, abandoning them when they age-out. I could go on ....

It's easy to feel powerless, but that's not an option, not when kids are involved.

People of ordinary means can rattle the collective cage of Congress to insist that defenseless kids and adults don't lose out to budget monsters. Check this handy newsletter (pg. 5) from the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Then sign the HEAR US petition to increase funding for homeless kids' education.

Seems to me, it's time to fire up the pest-power. Choose issues that affect vulnerable populations from the copious offerings at Change.org and start buzzing. It's sting or be stung time.

Photo credit: Diane Nilan