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It's hard to bring up your children on benefit. It's easier if you can do part- time work, or even full-time work, and actually have a better standard of living, and that's the direction in which we are going.

Social safety-net spending is an important form of public funding that helps offset disparities in family resources for children.

Our children are our greatest resource and Head Start grants help them reach their full potential.

If the money we donate helps one child or can ease the pain of one parent, those funds are well spent.

Getting a family into work, supporting strong relationships, getting parents off drugs and out of debt - all this can do more for a child's well-being than any amount of money in out-of-work benefits.

The well-being and welfare of children should always be our focus.

In the meantime, we see there are charities that spend much of their scarce resources that should be going directly to the children to overcome this gulf that separates them from both the donors and the needy.

All of us have to recognize that we owe our children more than we have been giving them.

It's fairness to say those who work hard, get up in the morning, cut their cloth - in other words 'we can only afford to have one or two children because we don't earn enough'. They pay their taxes and they want to know that the same kind of decision-making is taking place for those on benefits.

Generosity has built America. When we fail to invest in children, we have to pay the cost.