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The most expensive item in our bloated federal budget is the cash and benefits given to the 47% of the American people who pay no income tax and depend for their living expenses in whole or in part on government handouts. This federal welfare apparatus includes 12 programs providing food, 10 for housing assistance, 10 for social services, 9 for educational assistance, 8 programs giving cash, 8 for vocational training, 7 for medical assistance, 3 for energy and utility assistance, 2 for child care and child development, and one that gives out free cell phones. This totals $900 Billion a year of federal taxpayer's money that is handed out to non-taxpayers because they are below a designated poverty level. After Barack Obama became President, he increased federal welfare spending by a third because, as he told Joe the plumber, Obama wants to spread the wealth around. This was a conscious political strategy; it promotes dependence on government and more votes for leftwing politicians. This expensive national problem is caused by marriage absence and by women having babies without getting married. The expensive policy of subsidizing single moms started with Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s. LBJ Welfare channeled all the money and benefits to the woman, thereby making the husband and father unnecessary. Charles Murray explained this more than 20 years ago. He said, Illegitimacy is the single most important social problem of our time…because it drives everything else, imposing gigantic costs on the taxpayers. Last year, 41% of babies born in the U.S. were illegitimate, growing up without their own fathers. When the mother of these children has no husband to support her and her babies, she looks to Big Brother Government. You and I then pay the bills for what is labeled welfare. Welfare spending is a failure; it doesn't advance us toward any constructive goal, such as helping recipients to get on their feet economically. It merely increases dependence on government and votes for leftwing politicians. This anti-marriage bias even infects our income tax system. The federal income tax system used to treat the family as an economic unit; a husband and wife could pool their income in a joint tax return which affords larger deductions and lower rates. But, starting with the Nixon Administration, fiscal-social policy in the income tax code and in government spending steadily devalued marriage and gave non-marriage a better deal. Tax laws reduced the value of the husband and wife filing a joint return from 2 persons to only about 1.6 persons, while creating a new category called head of household for unmarried persons valued at 1.4 persons. If a single mom has a live-in boyfriend who files his own tax return, that couple is valued at 2.4 persons, which is more favorable treatment in the income tax system than a married couple raising their own children. We should not allow marriage to be discriminated against in the income tax code. It's time to make both our welfare and income tax systems pro-marriage instead of anti-marriage. |
