Government Wants To Promote Marriage While Facilitating Divorce

The legal process, because of its unbridled growth, has become a cancer which threatens the vitality of our forms of capitalism and democracy. --Lawrence Silberman, U.S. Attorney General

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The government apparently feels that there are advantages to couples staying married and that society as a whole benefits. Are you aware that the Federal Government planned on spending $1.5 Billion dollars (yes $1,500,000,000 of your tax dollars) to promote marriage? If not read this article.

Marriage is not an institution that needs the government to promote and protect it. It has been ongoing since time began without anyone’s intervention. Years ago, we had our parents as role models and who taught us to know right from wrong. They showed us how to live in a family environment. They gave us the values we needed to make our way in life. Back then, the government didn’t intrude into our family life. There were few divorces as families worked to stay together. Divorce was not easy.

Now, the government has intruded into our lives. Instead of protecting marriages, they make it easier then ever to get divorced. Divorce can even be had without the other party there. As a result, today, with the growing number of single parent families (most often without the influence of one of the spouses) to help stabilize the family, what can we expect from future generations?

Both parents are needed. Statistics prove this. However, there are those who feel there should be more government intervention in our lives in this area. Read more…

American society is struggling with the fallout from decades of change in traditional family structure. In 1970, the divorce rate was less than one-third, 13 percent of children lived in single-parent families, and 11 percent of all births were non-marital. Today, about 50 percent of marriages are expected to dissolve, half of all children can expect to live
some time with a single parent, and 33 percent of all births are to unmarried women. Marriage as a permanent arrangement is no longer widely presumed, nor is it the only culturally accepted arrangement in which to raise children. Read more…

You have to ask yourself why this is happening in this country. Might it be that the past government policies of making divorce easier that could be contributing to it? Could it be that by making laws that keeps one spouse out of the family and away from their children, it is exacerbating the situation? Since in this day and age, both parents are needed to work to support a family, could it be that by forcing one spouse support the other, and at the same time trying to support themselves, it might be adding to the problem?

What it appears to be happening is that the governments ineptitude in trying to “protect the marriage” has in fact created the problem that exists and they are now trying to cover it up by spending a lot of money to cover their tush? In my opinion, there’s not enough money to ever do that.

The cancer is growing and will continue to destroy this society. The government needs to cure the cancer….not put a $$$ Band-Aid on it. Will they do that? Probably not. Do they have the courage to do that? Ask yourself, what have they done and what are they now doing and it should answer that question…bupkis, nada, zilch!!! So what do they do? They sweep it under the table and the media helps them in this area by not revealing the true extent of the problem. The individual destruction of families doesn’t sell papers or interest TV viewers. But put them all together and you can see the handwriting on the wall for society.

Why do we need the government to do what parents should be doing and have done for years? Where has it been shown that government can do anything that the family can do with any degree of efficiency? It seems all they are able to do is to throw millions and billions of our dollars at something in hopes it will buy a solution. Government spends over $20 billion a year in cash welfare and over $100 billion in other income support and the problem remains as prevalent as ever with no solution in sight.

And you feel they should intrude further in your lives? Well, whether or not you want it, the government will do it unless we can elect legislators who can prevent it and stand up for the people whom they purport to represent. Legislators are supposed to represent the will of the people aren’t they? Do they?

The results of their past efforts are readily apparent. The trail of tragedies resulting from their handiwork that has destroyed people and families across this nation can readily be seen. And, they did it under the guise of “protecting” your marriage. What gives the governments the right to invade the Right to Privacy protected area of the decisions related to marriage?

If you think about it, more realistically, there has to be some sort of financial benefit that accrues to a certain class of professional people involved in family law that makes this all worthwhile. Just follow the money that is generated from the court’s burdened caseload and adversarial nature of the proceedings and you will see the light.

The government can’t even agree whether or not a man and a woman, a man and a man, or woman and woman constitute a married couple. And you want them to be the new role model for your children? Through your inaction, you are letting them take over your job as a parent.

If the government is so desirous of promoting and protecting marriage, then why on earth are they doing all the things necessary to facilitate dissolutions of marriage? How does the advent of the NO FAULT divorce promote or protect a marriage?? How does burdening one spouse by forcing them to provide a lifetime meal ticket to the other spouse protect a marriage? It only gives the one spouse no incentive to support themselves and at the same time often impoverishing the spouse required to pay the support? Government logic in doing so is an oxymoron.

The Governments wants our military men to lay down their lives to protect our way of life and to protect families in America. What do they do to show their appreciation? How do you explain injustices like this example? What did they do to protect this marriage?

While the Federal Government does not regulate marriage, the states do it through statutes. If the Federal Governments wants to promote and protect marriage, why do they give the states grant money that is tied directly to the number of cases and dollar amount they supervise involving alimony and child support.

If you haven’t noticed, most of the alimony and child support payments are funneled through the SDU or State Distribution Unit. The amount of grant money the state receives is based on the amount of money and people encompassed in the state’s family support system. The more they handle, the more the grant money.

Florida is budgeted to get $196,000,000 in 2006. Go here and look up the following table Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families: Table 8-18. Child Support Enforcement--Federal Share of State and Local Administrative Costs and Incentives (93.563)

With this incentive, states are encouraged to do those things that will generate large caseloads and put the payments and people under their supervision and control. To get these larger numbers, the states have to break-up families through court actions designed not to keep families together but to facilitate divorce and maintain an adversarial relationship between the parties. Not to mention what happens to the children.

If you were ever divorced, look at your final dissolution and you will probably see that the court retains jurisdiction over the dissolution as long as there is alimony or child support you have to pay. And in some cases it is for a lifetime. Their tentacles never let go and there is never any closure to your misfortunate family break-up. It follows you for the rest of your life even into your next marriage and usually manages to impede that one also.

On the other side, you have family law attorneys who derive their income from the adversarial relationship of the parties in dissolution proceedings. What incentive do they have to promoting marriage and keeping it together? Remember, it is the legislators who, by and large are attorneys, who make the laws that facilitate the dissolution of marriages.

How do you think they will look upon legislation that will result in a reduction in their income? Do you think they will back legislation that will make dissolutions more difficult or protect the marriages? You’ve heard of the term “featherbedding” or “feathering ones own nest?” It’s appropriate here. Present legislation provides “job security” and income for them. Why would they want to kill the golden goose?

Follow the money and you see what chance this grand sounding proposition of promoting and protecting marriages has of succeeding in its goals. It is too profitable and lucrative for the participants in the family law system to ever give it up.

As a further injustice, to promote the governments proposals, they find a need to hire public relations firms and spend our tax money to syndicated columnists or “trusted sources” to convince us their program is good for us. Read more… If it was good for us, I’d like to think it would be self-evident and they wouldn’t have to waste our tax money in order to convince us.

CASUALTIES OF STATE SPONSORED VIOLENCE
* Suicide attempt probed in NYC collapse

EGREGIOUS EXAMPLES OF OUR “INJUSTICE” SYSTEM
* The Ties That Bind! You have to read the final paragraph in this article to understand what they are driving at. Something that this blog is all about.

LEGAL INFORMATION AND RESEARCH CORNER:
* Legal Research Guide: How To Do Research

INTERESTING READING:
* Couple's Disability Benefits Can't Be Garnisheed
* Defense Of Marriage Act Information Website

Be sure to visit these sites: www.abolish-alimony.org/ and www.alimonycentral.org