Refuting the President's claims on economic growth and improved child support enforcement. An analysis utilizing readily available government statistics drawn from the Administrations own findings. Quotes and citations used in this analysis are available in their entirety upon request from:
Ed Devine, NCFM Texas State Representative (972) 289-6614 (214) 445-5000 E-mail ncfm@fastlane.net
Source: THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (Houston, Texas) For Immediate Release September 28, 1996 Title: RADIO ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE NATION
Analysis
THE PRESIDENT: "Good morning. Today I want to talk to you about a new executive action I'm taking to crack down on deadbeat parents who won't pay the child support they owe."
Response:
"most noncustodial parents of AFDC [Aid to Families with Dependent Children] children do not earn enough to pay as much child support as their children are already receiving in AFDC benefits. ... even the best imaginable program would still leave a large proportion of the AFDC caseload poor and dependent on government." If enforcement measures do not improve collections, Additional government costs for experimental programs will run into billions of dollars.
--Source: Garfinkel and McLanahan
Gay Erwin, Mr. Morales' Executive assistant, said the problem in collecting child support is that it is "difficult to get blood from a turnip." In many cases the father is in prison, unemployed, or as yet unidentified, she said.
--Source:Dallas Morning News August 16, 1996
Texas fathers comply with 95.8% of non-AFDC child support, and even the GAO has found the primary cause of almost (66%) all non-compliance with child support orders, to be unemployment or underemployment
--Source:Health and Human Services, (15th. Annual Report to Congress)
Envisioned to reduce spending, the Child Support Enforcement Program suffered a net loss to the taxpayer of at least $186 million in FY 1990. The program has lost money for at least two consecutive years. The federal program deficit was at least $526 million (OCSE, 1990). Support enforcement administration (extending all the way to the local district attorney's office and officials of family or domestic relations courts) has benefited from federal tax transfers under the IV-D program (OCSE, 1990). In 1990, Dick Darman, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, reported to Congress that there had been similar accounting problems in both the AFDC and Foster Care (FC) programs (referring to GAO reports).
The most prevalent reported cause of non-payment of court ordered child support is unemployment (Young, 1975; Chambers, 1979; Wallerstein & Huntington, 1983; Pearson & Thoennes, 1986; Sonenstein & Calhoun, 1988; Braver, et al., 1988). Braver, Fitzpatrick, and Bay showed that between 80 and 100 percent of due child support was paid voluntarily by divorced fathers who are fully employed.
THE PRESIDENT:"During my time as President, I've had a straightforward strategy: Opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and coming together in a stronger American community. That's America's basic bargain."
Response
"No credible attempt has ever been made to implement or encourage father friendly social policy. Indeed, the value of fathers in the lives of children and to society are never considered, a fact evidenced by the abundance of legislative proposals intent on alienating fathers from their children, and effecting even more draconian policies to effect income transfers from fathers to mothers. As a civil rights advocate, but most importantly, as a father, I would suggest that most of society's current ill's are the direct result of social policy that devalues fathers. Policies that deny the rights of fathers and children in deference to the rights of women. Policies that, were it a question of race or ethnicity instead of gender, would be considered blatantly discriminatory.
We have reduced all divorced men to second class citizen status. Their rights curtailed, or ignored, the valuable role they play in the lives of their children, indeed, their responsibility to their children, their entire value to society, is defined by and limited to their ability to write a check. The family code in most states amounts too little more than "taxation" (of divorced male parents) "without representation" (in the lives and circumstances of their children) and I would submit that American's have fought wars over such issues. Given our reliance on negative, discriminatory anti-father policies, I'm surprised the problem of non- compliance isn't much greater.
Social policy that selectively discriminates based on gender, race, religion, educational attainment, past or future ability to earn, is still discrimination. That Legislator's continue to foment such discriminatory policies, especially in view of growing evidence of the negative societal effects of such policies, is socially irresponsible, ethically bankrupt, and morally unconscionable. I know of no credible research that indicates that the attributes of compassion, understanding, commitment, or the ability to responsibly parent children is the sole province of only women. If we are to improve the lives of children, we must put and end to social policies that espouse a double standard for women and men, and that essentially state that "women have rights" and "men have responsibilities."
-- Ed Devine, NCFM Texas State Representative, Testimony; Senate Interim Committee on Juvenile Justice and Child Support, Senator Chris Harris, Chair.
THE PRESIDENT:"We've worked hard to offer every American an opportunity, the chance to make the most of his or her own life. We've got 10.5 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 7.5 years, the deficit has been cut by 60 percent. And just this week, we received more news that our strategy is working and America is on the right track. According to the U.S. Census, the income of a typical family went up $1,600 over inflation over the last two years. In just the last year the increase was almost $900, the biggest increase in a decade. The number of people living in poverty and the rate of income inequality in our country dropped faster than at any time since 1968. Our economy clearly is on the right track to the 21st century."
Response:
"Real median household income fell 7.0 percent from $33,685.00 in 1989 to $31,241.00 in 1993"
--Source:Population Profile of the United States 1995, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
"From 1992 to 1993, real median earnings of year round, full-time workers 15 and over declined by 2.2% for men, and 1.2% for women."
--Source:Population Profile of the United States 1995, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
THE PRESIDENT:"No area cries out for greater personal responsibility than the quiet crisis of child support. No one should be able to escape responsibility for bringing a child into the world. That is our first and most fundamental duty. But today, too many fathers have tried to walk away from that obligation."
"When a father leaves the home it can throw a mother and children into poverty. In fact, one of the main reasons people go on welfare is because the father has failed to meet his obligations of child support."
Response:
"Even if the full amount of child support had been received, it would have had little impact on the poverty statuses of custodial mothers and fathers."
--Lydia Scoon- Rodgers, Income Statistics Branch (301) 763-8576 Source: Population Profile of the United States 1995; U.S. Department of Commerce, March 1996
"The Census Bureau finds that women who are heads of households have a net worth that is 141% of the net worth of men who are heads of households"
--Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstracts of the U.S. (as of 1992), 109th.. Edition, p. 459, table 747 - Household Net Worth.
"Today, when the successful single woman meets the successful single man, they appear to be equals. But should they marry and consider children, She almost invariably considers three options:
Option #1 Work full time
Option #2 Mother full time
Option #3 Some combination of working and mothering.
He considers three "slightly different" options:
Option #1 Work full time
Option #2 Work full time
Option #3 Work full time
--Source: Dr. Warren Farrell,PhD. "The Myth of Male Power", Simon & Schuster,
1993.Study finds that in 2/3 of cases it's the wife who dumps the husband.
With all measures, the wife would be designated the dumper in about 2/3 of the families. This result is directly counter to the prediction of Guttentag and Secord's (1983) sex-ratio theory, which posits that the number of opposite-sex partners potentially available to men or women has profound effects on sexual behaviors and patterns of marriage and divorce.
Since there is a numerical excess of women relative to males, one would expect men to have the upper hand in marriage, and in the marriage market. The findings of this research doesn't support this propostion.
--Source:Sanford L. Braver, Marnie Whitley and Christine Ng. "Who Divorced Whom: Methodological and Theoretical Issues." Journal of Divorce & Remarriage Vol 20(1/2) 1993, p.1. Dr. Braver can be contacted at the Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104.
--Source:Marcia Guttentag and Paul F. Secord. _Too Many Women? The Sex Ratio Question_. Beverly Hills: Sage. 1993. The principal author is deceased.
THE PRESIDENT:"If all the parents in this country paid the child support they owe, we could move 800,000 women and children off the welfare rolls tomorrow."
Response and analysis
Child Support - Award and Recipiency Status of Custodial Parent: 1991
ALL CUSTODIAL PARENTS CUSTODIAL PARENTS BELOW POVERTY LEVEL
TOTAL NUMBER PERCENTAGE MOTHERS FATHERS NUMBER PERCENTAGE MOTHERS FATHERS
11,502,000 100 3,720,000 100 3,513,000 207,000
PAYMENTS 6,190,000 54
9,918,000
1,584,000 1,438,000
39 1,368,000
71,000
AWARDED
SUPPOSED 5,326.000
46 5,542,000
648,000 1,257,000
34 1,200,000 57,000
TO RECEIVE
PAYMENTS
IN 1991
NOT 864,000
8 659,000
205,000 181,000
5 168,000
14,000 SUPPOSED
TO RECEIVE
PAYMENTS
PAYMENTS 5,312,000 46
4,376,000
936,000 2,282,000
61 2,145,000
136,000
NOT
AWARDED
SUPPOSED 5,326,000 100
4,376,000
936,000 1,257,000
100 1,200,000
57,000
TO RECEIVE
PAYMENTS
ACTUALLY 4,006,000 75
3,728,000 278,000
859,000 68
845,000
14,000
RECEIVED
PAYMENTS
IN 1991
RECEIVED 2,742,000 51
2,552,000
189,000 499,000
40 497,000 2,000
FULL
AMOUNT
RECEIVED 1,265,000 24
1,176,000
89,000 360,000
29 348,000
12,000
PARTIAL
AMOUNT
DID NOT 1,320,000 25
1,156,000
164,000 398,000
32 355,000
43,000
RECEIVE
PAYMENTS
RECEIVED 19,217.00 (X)
18,144.00
33,579.00 5,734.00
(X) 5,687.00
(B)
CHILD
SUPPORT
PAYMENTS
IN 1991
MEAN
TOTAL
MONEY
INCOME
(DOL)
MEAN 2,961.00
(X) 3,011.00
2,292.00 1.910.00
(X)
1,922.00
(B)
CHILD
SUPPORT
RECEIVED
(DOL)
B= BASE TOO SMALL TO MEET STATISTICAL STANDARDS FOR RELIABILITY X=NOT APPLICABLE
THE PRESIDENT:"So our administration has waged an unprecedented and sustained campaign to collect child support and make deadbeat parents pay up. We required states to set up programs at hospitals to find out the identity of fathers at the time a baby is born. Two hundred thousand fathers have been identified through this program. We're requiring mothers who receive welfare to tell us the name of the father of the child."
Response and Analysis: The results of Governmental intrusion and anti-male, anti-family social policy.
Household composition:
1970 to 1994
(IN PERCENT)
1970
1980 1990 1994
FAMILY HOUSEHOLDS MARRIED COUPLES WITH CHILDREN 40.3
30.9 26.3
25.8
MARRIED COUPLES WITHOUT CHILDREN 30.3 29.9 29.8 29.0
OTHER FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN 5.0 7.5 8.3 9.2
OTHER FAMILIES WITHOUT CHILDREN 5.6 5.4 6.5 6.6
NON-FAMILY HOUSEHOLDS PERSONS LIVING ALONE 17.1 22.7 24.6 24.3
OTHER NON-FAMILY HOUSEHOLDS 1.7 3.6 4.6 6.2
"There has been a sevenfold increase in unmarried-couple
households since 1970."
--Source:Arlene F. Saluter, Marriage and Family Statistics Branch (301) 457-2465, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1994, forthcoming.
"Twenty-Six percent of all children born in 1994 were out-of-wedlock births."
--Source:U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, March 1995
"Under the new welfare law, states will suspend drivers licenses of deadbeats who don't pay and the national government will take away passports. This year, at my direction, the IRS will collect $1 billion in child support by withholding part of tax refunds."
Response:
"using the statistics cited in your letter with regard to the state of Maine, of the delinquent obligor's who had their drivers licenses revoked, only 28% (approximately) of those obligor's subsequently were able beg, borrow or steal enough to pay the child support and have their licenses reinstated. This number is significant in that it further supports the GAO study referenced above. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that much of the improvement in Maine's statistics may have been the result of changes in other areas of state policy, rather than the simplistic threat depriving non-custodial parents of their rights and liberties."
--Ed Devine, NCFM Texas State Representative in response to letter from Texas State Senator Judith Zafferini
"it should be apparent from this brief that there are any number of non-punitive, non-discriminatory solutions to the problem of child support compliance."
--Ed Devine, NCFM Texas State Representative in response to letter from Texas Lt. Governor Bob Bullock
"Even a cursory analysis of the available data indicates that C/S statistics have been skewed for political reasons. The fact that legislator's are intent on discriminating against male divorced parents is evident,,, non-custodial parents financial contributions, whether court ordered or not, are always considered "post income tax", and the not inconsiderable "tax deductions" for dependents are always accorded to the custodial parent.
If one were to consider such deductions as income to the custodial parent, the governments claims that "deadbeat" fathers are, or ever have been responsible for any percentage of this nations welfare problem cannot be supported."
--Ed Devine, NCFM Texas State Representative, Testimony before the Senate Interim Committee on Juvenile Justice and Child Support, Senator Chris Harris, Chair.
"We now have new evidence of how effective this crackdown has been. in four years, child support collections in our country have risen from $8 billion to $11.8 billion -- a nearly 50-percent increase in child support collections. And nearly 800,000 paternities were identified. That's an increase of 50 percent over 1992."
Response:
"The aggregate amount of child support received was $11.9 Billion in 1991, 33 percent, or $5.8 Billion short of the $17.7 Billion due. Custodial mothers received practically all of it -- $11.2 Billion -- while custodial fathers received $0.6 Billion."
--Lydia Scoon-Rodgers, Income Statistics Branch (301) 763-8576 Source: Child Support for Custodial Mothers and Fathers; 1991, forthcoming, quoted in Population Profile of the United States 1995; U.S. Department of Commerce, March 1996
"We've made a real difference. But we can do more and we must do more. This past week, the Justice Department proposed legislation making it a felony and increasing penalties for crossing state lines to avoid paying child support or to refuse to pay support for a child in another state."
Response:
Child support owed is a "cumulative" figure, i.e. not an annual representation but rather a number representing all child support payments, both past and present, that remain unpaid. The fact that many parents are able to make only partial payments on their C/S is supported by the GAO's finding that 66% of obligors fail in their C/S obligation as the result of unemployment or underemployment. Therefor, given that $11.9 Billion in payments were received during 1991, leaving an outstanding balance of $5.8 Billion in unpaid C/S payments, the Presidents claims of an "economy that is on fire" and 50% improvement in C/S collections, the $11.8 Billion cited in his recent speeches, is neither quantifiable in the overall statistics, nor verifiable in the context, other than to indicate (if anything) a complete lack of knowledge of the relevant facts on this issue.
Essentially, I would question how claims of $11.8 Billion in C/S payments represents a 50% increase in collections over larger 1991 figure of $11.9 Billion? Especially in view of statistics that indicate that, as of 1991 (the most recent date for which reliable data exists) only $5.8 Billion in outstanding C/S payments (all the outstanding C/S payments, past and present that were owed) was determined. If the President is speaking purely about collections, his claims indicate a decrease in overall C/S collections since he assumed office. If he is claiming credit for a 50% increase in collections for "unpaid C/S payments", his figures are again incorrect, as $11.8 Billion in collections on a debt that was only $5.8 Billion in it's entirety, can hardly be considered a 50% increase.
That the President chooses to disparage only "fathers" in his rhetoric, when the statistics indicate that custodial fathers and their children are the ones who suffer most from non-payment of C/S, is further evidence of this administrations anti-male, anti-father, and tragically anti-family agenda.