Part of the success that I believe has made the Convention of States so appealing to both fiscal conservatives, libertarians, and constitutionalists can be found in one simple sentence: impose fiscal restraints. While there is a wide avenue of discussion to be had on where to take the pruning knife to the federal tree, I can personally think of no greater need than imposing it on the greatest generator of social welfare programs and a cause for fatherless households in the U.S. today: Title IV-D of the Social Security Act.
Title IV-D of the Social Security Act allows the federal government to give back “incentive payments” to each state for performance-based child support collection, paternity establishment, and administrative costs of running county family services and child support enforcement agencies. Typically, these incentive payments go back to social services programs because the thinking is after a divorce many women will end up using programs like TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and other welfare programs for which states have little money in their budgets.
The exact amount of money is hard to define because of each state’s performance, and the fact that each state gets back different amounts. Many studies show the average is for every one dollar collected in child support, $.66 is released from Social Security coffers to incentivize the state.
There are several problems with the federal government incentivizing child support enforcement. When states are dependent on a kickback of federal money from the collection of child support, a dependence is created of the non-custodial parent having less than equal access to their children. Non-custodial parents pay more into child support when they are awarded less time with their children. A dependence on this federal money incentivizes the states to punish loving and deserving non-custodial parents.
One can see why many non-custodial parents refer to this cycle as a “kids for cash” scheme. Under equally shared parenting, many non-custodial parents would pay considerably less child support because of increased time with their children or pay no child support at all. Were equal shared parenting the rule in all 50 states, there would be significantly less federal money available for welfare programs and most states would have to budget programs based on effectiveness and not on feelings or courting votes during elections. This is where I believe private charity and organizations would as they have before being able to step up.
I want each of you reading this to really let this sink in for a moment. Children and parents in the United States, the land of liberty, freedom, and equal justice, are being robbed of equal time and custody because of other people’s sense of entitlement and to keep the hog trough full of federal money!
Furthermore, Social Services knows that if a child abuse, neglect, or dependency case can be made against a non-custodial parent, typically a father, that parent will be stuck to pay a greater amount of child support. This only leads to greater Title IV-D federal money being delivered back to the state. In essence, this program needs non-custodial parents to exist. The system actually promotes less visitation (if any) of a non-custodial parent with his, so he must pay more child support, often robbing him of his right to due process.
Were the financial burden not punishment enough, the memories and milestones missed with children can never be given back. Children who grow up in fatherless households are at a higher risk for criminal behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and can foster a higher risk for suicide.
I believe an Article V Convention to address fiscal responsibility and government overreach is the only way to address federal government incentives that pressure and incent family courts to reward custody to parents who are solely dependent on government assistance of any kind. It would also change the view of successful child support efforts from a focus on the amount of federal money the states receive to the promotion of quality time children enjoy equally with a fit and loving mother and father who have a natural right to parent.
Find our more and sign the petition at: https://conventionofstates.com.
