BLATHER REVIEW

welfare as match-maker: sound investment or big brother bloating up?

The Bush Administration has some good intentions, and is pushing an initiative to promote marriage among Welfare recipients as part of an overhaul of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. See a news item here.

The bill would earmark $300 million to do...er...what exactly?

"The Administration is vague about what the money would go for, but says it would help couples that are already interested in marriage, perhaps through financial incentives or by offering counciling."

So, we're going to pay people, with public funds, to get married? Or, perhaps, just council them into it? Hmmm. The obvious question is; "Why would the Federal Government have any business even CARING about who gets married and who doesn't?" The obvious answer is: "Because it spends our money."

This is yet another illustration of how the self-appointed "social engineers" in Government rationalize their ever-more pervasive presence in our lives; Since the Government is paying for it, the Government must regulate anything that effects the bottom line. And that means regulating our Choices.

Since the Government offers to provide a healthcare program, It has the authority -- nay, moral duty -- to levy fines, in the form of taxes, on our personal choices about what we eat, drink, smoke, etc.
Since the Government offers so generously to send the States' they're own money back for the funding of roads and bridges, It has the Power -- nay, moral duty -- to extort the States into writing speed limit laws and "National Drinking Age" laws.

In this case, the Marriage Initiative in the revamped Welfare Reform Act, it's a little more subtle (participation would be, presumably, voluntary for couples already interested in marriage), but the principle at it's core is the same thing: the Fed's assumed Authority to regulate whatever effects It's bottom line.

While touting the initiative's well-intentioned goals, Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa), said, "The fact of the matter is, marriage is very important tool for economic survival."

Of course. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all parents were also spouses! The kids have a family that is whole again! Yes, yes, yes, that's all well and good. But do the keepers of the Public Purse really believe that marrying for money...a more secure financial situation... is something that single mothers and fathers have never thought about before? "Wow, I wont be so broke if I got married? That's amazing insight Mr Government Counsellor! And thanks for the check!"

The extortion, as usual, is directed at the States:

"The Government would spend $300 million per year on programs promoting marriage. That includes $200 million in federal dollars, and $100 million States would have to spend in matching funds."

(((Actually, since I haven't seen the actual text of the bill that passed in the House, I'm having trouble figuring out how the extortion will be enforced.
The "national speed limit" and "national drinking age" are enforced by threatening any State that refuses to write the neccessary laws with requiring that their Highway funds by directed at promotional campaigns against drinking and driving and speeding and thinking. If a State refused to budget for the Marriage Initiative matching funds, would they then have to re-direct their Welfare funds to...er...a promotional campaign tauting the benefits of marriage? I'll have to look into that...)))

There's a very simple Law of Good Intentions; good intentions aren't enough. Throwing our good money into this proposed program -- whose promise of any meaningful success is, it seems to me, anemic -- is a classic example of why our personal and State sovereignty is being co-opted and centralized at the "top"; the Constitution is not respected when it's in the way of "progress".

As Mike Tanner of the Cato Institute said (in a manner dangerously close to sarcastim): "Who can be against marriage?...Especially if you're going to face re-election in a year and a half. You don't want to be on the record against marriage!"
In Politics; poll results are the only results that matter.

^originally posted Fri. July 18 6:06pm

Posted by Tuning Spork at July 18, 2003 06:06 PM