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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is taking fire from some conservatives for promoting legislation that would give every newborn a $500 savings account

(AP Photo)

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is suddenly getting a flurry of attention for proposing earlier this month that the U.S. set up a savings account for every child born in the country.

The Democratic senator,

, said one model might be legislation proposed in 2005 by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and then-Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., that would set up a

that could be later added to with tax-free contributions to help save for college, down payment on a home or other purposes.

The idea didn't get much attention initially, but after

this week, conservatives have been jumping on the proposal in blogs and on Twitter.

"I'm convinced Democrats really believe money grows on trees," said

, who was repeatedly cited on Twitter.

However, none of the critics mentioned the prominent conservatives who helped develop the concept -- perhaps because Fox played up Schumer's role in the legislation but never mentioned Santorum (even though Wyden mentioned both by name in his remarks).

Santorum was a favorite of many conservative Christians when he ran for president in 2012 and was the closest competitor to the eventual GOP nominee, Mitt Romney.

In addition to Santorum, another key sponsor of the 2005 legislation was then-Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a Tea Party favorite who now heads the Heritage Foundation, one of Washington's most prominent conservative think tanks.

Santorum, in an article written at the time for The Hill newspaper, presented the plan as a way to encourage low-income Americans to become investors and part of what he called the "ownership society."

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Wyden told his audience at USC he was interested in the savings accounts because research shows that children with a savings account -- no matter their family's income -- are much more likely to go to college.

"Even a few hundred dollars of savings can significantly impact a child's educational attainment," said Wyden, who also noted that the U.S. already provides large tax benefits to wealthier savers.

Wyden also spoke of this program as a way to help tackle rising income inequality, which was the subject of the conference he attended at USC. His speech is online and his comments on the child savings accounts come at the 17-minute mark.



As entitlement programs go, the proposal made by Schumer and Santorum would be relatively modest. With about 4 million births annually, the program would cost about $2 billion, which is a small fraction of the $3.7 trillion federal budget.

Wyden didn't explain how he would finance the program, but he could be looking to include it in his broader effort to revamp the U.S. tax code and pay for it by adjusting other tax provisions.



-- Jeff Mapes