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This week, the NCHS announced that divorce
rates are the lowest since 1970. Marriage is down, and
shacking-up is on the rise.[1]
But the federal government forgot to
mention the biggie – the “missing link”
-- the one statistic proving that Republican “welfare
reform” is a complete disaster: Illegitimacy is
now at new historic record levels.[2] In
1980, 29.4% of children were born out of wedlock. In
2004, 35.8% of children were born outside marriage.[3]
While everyone debates why folks are
shacking (or hooking) up in increasing numbers, nobody
in the media mentioned what happens when people live
together out of wedlock: Illegitimacy explodes.
In 2004, illegitimate births increased
at a record-matching level of 3%.[4] Illegitimacy
rates are still highest for women in their twenties,
but the illegitimacy rate for women age 35-39 nearly
doubled since 1980.[5]
How does all this prove that welfare
reform was a failure? The Personal Responsibility and
Work Act of 1994 (PROWA) accomplished nothing positive.
The welfare state was converted into an even more aggressive
“child support state”, actually increasing
entitlements to have children out of wedlock, and granting
the Department of Health and Human Services and state
agencies the dual powers of arbitrary levy and confiscatory
powers the Internal Revenue Service never imagined possible.
Illegitimacy is now heavily entitled,
and marriage is not. Married families pay taxes to support
illegitimate mothers (who get tax credits in addition
to welfare and child support).
Why are record numbers of women in their
thirties having children outside marriage? Feminists
have been telling women for years not to marry. Have
a career, nail a guy or two before your biological clock
runs out, and Congress will finance the feminist dream.
Let us put the problem of anti-family
federal government in perspective. HHS is the largest
line item in the federal budget – approximately
$612-billion in 2004.[6] It is growing even
faster than our defense budget. In one way or another,
the vast majority of these expenditures go towards undermining
or destroying marriage.
Pop Quiz: What do the District of Columbia,
the Virgin Island, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa,
and the Northern Marianas have in common? Hint: The
illegitimacy rates in these banana republics are over
50%.[7] Poorer states run close to 50%, because
its easier to earn a living having illegitimate children
than it is to work or find a decent husband.
The American public is wise to this,
but neither party is dealing with it. Both parties are
avoiding the issue like Castro avoids Democracy. This
is one reason why Congressional approval ratings in
the latest Gallup polls[8] place President
Bush’s rating 4% higher than the abysmal 29% approval
rating for the “new” Congress.
Political pressure is building in America
for real change in Congress and the White House. Marriage
values cannot be held back or ignored inside the beltway.
Like volcanic magma, there will be a political eruption.
The mugwumps sitting on the rim better start moving.
David R. Usher
is Senior Policy Analyst for the True Equality Network
[1] http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8P1MG601&show_article=1
[2] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf
[3] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf,
p. 11, Table C
[4] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf,
p. 11.
[5] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf,
p. 11, Figure 7
[6] http://www.federalbudget.com/
[7] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf,
p. 61, Table 20.
[8] http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=27589
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