Under the program, the Treasury deposits $1,000 into an investment account for each eligible U.S. citizen child born from 2025 through the end of 2028. Parents may add up to $5,000 a year at first. The money is held in an account built on the individual retirement account model, and the child cannot withdraw it until age 18.
The Dells' original pledge was $6.25 billion. It was meant to fund accounts for at least 25 million children ten and younger who live in lower- and middle-income ZIP codes. Some details of how the Dell money fits with the government deposit have been described differently by the White House and by the donors, and the exact dollar figure announced this week has varied in public accounts.
The event comes as Mr. Trump faces falling approval numbers. Voters are worried about the price of gasoline and diesel, and about the Iran standoff, with the midterm elections less than a month away. Supporters of the program say it gives a child a financial start before he can walk. Critics say a fund this size cannot undo the pressure of rising prices on young families.
What a child is worth
I leave the arguments over the fine print to the accountants. Something else is going on in that Oval Office, and it deserves to be said plainly. The President of the United States, a Republican, stood before the cameras to say that a baby born in this country is worth an investment. Not a burden. Not an inconvenience. An investment.
That is not how much of our age talks. For fifty years we have been told that children are a cost. They are a cost to your career, your travel, your bank account, your peace. Some governments now pay people to avoid having them, and some pay to end them before they are born. A nation that keeps saying that will get exactly what it is asking for: empty cradles and empty schoolrooms.
The Bible takes the other view, and it takes it without apology.
"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." (Psalm 127:3)
Look at that word, reward. God does not call the child a risk to be managed. He calls the child a reward, and a heritage from His own hand. Every child, rich or poor, planned or surprised, carries that mark from the first heartbeat.
The Scripture also speaks of handing something down.
"A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children." (Proverbs 13:22)
A thousand dollars in an account is a good thing. A father who plans ahead is doing what the Proverb says. Honor goes to leaders who think of the child not yet grown, and to generous people who give to families they will never meet.
The inheritance that cannot be taxed
But hear me, my friend. A parent can leave a child a fortune and still leave him poor. The account matures at eighteen. The soul is older than that and lasts longer. Money can buy a house and cannot buy a conscience. It can pay for college and cannot teach a young man why he was made.
The richest inheritance a mother or father can give is a home where the Word of God is read aloud, where the Lord's Day is kept, and where a child sees his father kneel. A bank statement can be lost in a market crash. A child who knows Christ has a treasure that no recession, no inflation, and no election can touch.
So let the nation invest in its little ones. That is right and good. And let every parent who reads this do the greater thing. Teach them the name of the Savior before they learn the price of anything. Open the Book at the supper table. Pray over the cradle.
The children are a heritage from the Lord. Take care of what He has put in your hands, because He will ask what you did with it.