Recognizing these principles, the panel offers the following specific recommendations for each stage of the life cycle. We have made it clear in this report that both the public and private sectors will have to devote some new resources in order to achieve the objectives we have proposed. We have also tried to acknowledge the difficulty of some of the problems we seek to solve. To pay the Federal government's cost of fulfilling our recommendations—a figure the panel estimates at $29 billion a year—we believe that Social Security benefits should be given the same Federal tax treatment as private pensions. Comparable taxation of Social Security and private pension benefits would help raise more than half of the revenues that are required to finance the panel's program of assistance to needy people of all ages. There is no lack of sound ideas. All that is needed is the political will.

Stage 1 - To improve the lives of infants and young children in impoverished homes

• The Federal government should fully fund the wic program as an entitlement for nutritionally at-risk women and children with incomes up to 185 percent of the Federal poverty line. At the same time, administrators must find ways to improve the management of wic benefits.

• The government should commit itself to the goal of giving all pregnant women access to prenatal care and well-baby care. Breathing life into this goal will require an outreach effort aimed at people who need these services. It will also involve offering incentives that encourage primary-care physicians such as internists, pediatricians, and obstetricians to serve indigent patients and to provide preventive care.

• The Head Start program should be expanded to increase the number of slots so that many more of the eligible three- and four-year-olds can participate. More of these slots should be for full-day programs for children with working parents. Very low-income parents, especially teenage mothers with children below age three, should receive expanded family support, referral, and home visiting services. Staff of early childhood development programs should receive better compensation and training.