What Americans want more than anything else is success and opportunity for our children. Investing in our children is the right thing to do, for our families and our nation. That's why the Democratic budget plan provides the federal funding we need to improve education, train teachers, expand after school care, and provide better health care and nutrition for our kids. And that's why Democrats are fighting to provide the Child Tax Credit to the 6 million families left out of the latest Republican tax cut.

During the recent debate on legislation to fund the Department of Education, Democrats offered an amendment to provide $1 billion more than last year for math and reading help for disadvantaged children, and increase funding for teacher quality programs and after-school grants. Democrats are also putting forward a Head Start bill that focuses on quality improvements without dismantling the program as proposed by Republicans.

In contrast, the Republican tax bill shortchanged millions of American children by denying the extra child tax credit to 12 million children in working families with incomes between $10,500 and $26,625.

The Republicans also have underfunded education, child care and child health programs. The Republicans passed a spending bill that underfunds the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act by $8 billion - which means that more than 2 million children will not get promised reading and math help, more than one million children will not have after-school programs, and millions more will be hurt by budget cuts at the state and local levels.

The Republican spending bill freezes child care assistance, resulting in a cut in real terms - at a time when access to affordable, quality child care is becoming increasingly difficult. The bill underfunds key child health programs, including freezing funding for the child health block grant. Finally, the Republicans passed a bill that would lead to the dismantling of the highly successful Head Start program, which has helped millions of disadvantaged children prepare for school.