Feds turn eye to healthy marriages

[deadparrot]

Congress approved a $750 million, five-year plan aimed at building healthier marriages Wednesday as part of its deficit reduction bill.

The measure now goes to President Bush. It includes $100 million a year for marriage-related programs and $50 million a year for fatherhood programs. This is the first time Congress has earmarked money for marriage programs, says Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families.

Federal grants to local groups will fund programs such as communication and relationship skills training or community-wide activities for high schoolers. Bush has backed marriage-strengthening efforts, citing research that children from two-parent families are better off emotionally, socially and economically.

"Ultimately, the outcome we're interested in is not more marriages but more healthy and stable marriages," says Wade Horn, an assistant secretary for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/fedsturneyetohealthymarriages

[peacebird]

1. try increasing minimum wage and getting real health coverage for everyone

now THAT would really help save more marriages.

[Warpy]

6. It would, but this is just another way to pay off preachers

and get them to tell the sheep which way to vote.

Remember, this isn't being directed at captains of industry who trade arm candy in every 6 years or so, as the old trophy wife starts to look a little shabby after she's pushed out another heir in order to try to solidify her position as The Wife. This is directed at those nasty, immoral poor people who marry and divorce for the silliest of reasons, like drug addiction or abuse.

Of course, they really don't care about who stays married or why. This is just another payoff to the religious right, a payoff the country can't afford but which is essential to keep the moron vote going to the GOP.

[area51]

23. What peacebird said. (n/t)

[Mythsaje]

2. And this is a job for the feds?

I think not.

Not to mention, the best way to strengthen families is to make sure that good jobs are available and people don't have to work two jobs or 70 hour weeks just to make ends meet.

What a joke these people are.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Next step: Subsidies for E-Harmony

--p!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. With the homelessness, hunger and joblessness in this country...

and these right wing a**holes are going into the business of marriage counseling?

[kineneb]

5. healty marriages equals...

-decent-paying employment for wage-earner (which can be either partner)
-access to affordable health care
-paid leave to deal with children's health problems
-paid maternal leave
-an attitude of caring about the family (access to counseling, if needed)

All unlikely from the current batch of fools.

[xxqqqzme]

7. which utterly incompetent fool is

going 2 B heading up this program? I'd bet a mountain of money some 'faith based bushit' finds its way 2 the pocket.

[mantis49]

36. Someone who's been married 4 or 5 times for practice. n/t

[seasat]

8. Complete hypocrites

They have a welfare bill that is going to cut eligibility for 2 parent families resulting in more one parent families. Yet they want to spend millions promoting healthy marriage.

Here's another way they can promote healthy marriage...single payer insurance. My wife has a student that got his girlfriend pregnant. They want to get married but the child will have to be born out of wedlock so his girlfriend can stay under her parent's health insurance while pregnant. If we had a federal insurance program, that child would be born to married parents.

[we can do it]

9. Oh Great Idea - That Will Really Help With the Deficit

WTF - Is wrong with these people....How about jobs for the parents, decent schools, decent health care......

[Igel]

10. I think it's not the first time the executive branch has

earmarked money for such programs, however.

The research is real enough, and well established: it shows a strong correlation between income and poverty, and children's academic/social success, on the one hand, with family stability, on the other. There are marriages for which it's better for the parents to divorce, but not as many as people usually think.

The problem is explaining the correlation: is it a reasonably successful marriage that produces the results, or do people self-select--those with successful marriages would do well anyway? Now, *that* is a difficult question, and people have varied considerably in their assumptions, and each side has marshalled their not considerable data to support their views.

This might provide data to support or refute one side.

[dweller]

11. shhh...we are in the wiles of Ameerica, stalking the elusive healthy

married cooople. . .

:eyes:

maybe newt gingrich can co-host.

dp

[regnaD kciN]

12. Great...watch for the divorce rate to skyrocket...

After all, isn't what happens with anything once the Republicans start trying to use it?

:eyes:

[bliss_eternal]

13. They can suck on it!

Suck on it long, and hard--idiot bastards!

The last thing I want is the govt. involved in my marriage. This is just another attempt at dividing people over gay marriage. They are full of shit.

Try feeding the hungry, fixing the mess that Katrina left Nola in, housing the homeless, bringing the troops home, allowing ALL citizens of this nation to be married, etc, etc... plenty of other things to focus on OTHER than what's going on with people's personal lives. Fuckers!

[JudyM]

14. Just another excuse to channel our money to the churches...

The gall... with the budget the way it is. And you can be sure it'll be anti-gay rights.

"... would you believe that the federal government continues to fund Robertson's "Operation Blessing?" According to a recent press report, under George W. Bush's faith-based initiative, "the group's annual revenue from government grants has ballooned from $108,000 to $14.4 million.""

http://njdc.org/issues/detail.php?id=494&iss=2

[rodeodance]

15. recommend--intrustions intrusions,

[drduffy]

16. theocracy...

may they all go to hell.... and if there is a Hell and it isn't here on earth, I'm sure it will welcome the neocons and fundies.

[rodeodance]

17. 50 million a year for fatherhood programs. --motherhood?

......The measure now goes to
President Bush. It includes $100 million a year for marriage-related programs and $50 million a year for fatherhood programs. This is the first time Congress has earmarked money for marriage programs, says Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families.

[bleedingheart]

18. Where is the personal responsibility? Why is the government involved?

Once the repukes preached personal responsibility...they also preached that they wanted to keep government out of our lives...but whoa nelly.....now they can't wait to get in your bedroom and coach you along....

ugh!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. Department of Homeland Sexcurity

:scared:

[bleedingheart]

22. you're not kidding....

it is frightening...

Plus this is a huge waste of money.

[havocmom]

19. Gonna use Newt for Poster Boy on this one?

:evilgrin:

[LiberalAndProud]

20. Faith-based initiative?

I'm thinking Pat Robertson and James Dobson will be particularly pleased with this plan. Bet?

[JerseygirlCT]

24. These are the small government guys, right? nt

[Eugene]

25. Conservatives used to denounce this kind of stuff as "social engineering."

Now the party of limited government wants to tell people how run their lives.
Let me guess: these "healthy and stable marriages" are the traditional
nuclear family with the wife subordinate to her husband, at home raising
lots of children.

[BayCityProgressive]

26. I am a liberal

and personally I like the idea of help with marirage counciling and family counciling. I think there are a lot of hurting marriages and families in this country and I would rather see the money going to help people then to more bombs in Iraq.

[TankLV]

37. Which gay partners are not, by law, allowed to participate.

It's discrimination and BAD.

Everything these repuke fucks touch is SHIT.

Count on it.

[moondust]

27. This is discriminatory.

There's probably a good reason this is "the first time Congress has earmarked money for marriage programs": Discrimination. About half of American households are headed by unmarried adults.

[BR_Parkway]

28. Cash to the churches in time for midterm elections.

[madmark]

29. 1) PPl's marriages are none of the govts business, 2) 750 mill for cronys

[lakeguy]

30. everything these pukes do is POLITICS.

instead of doing their jobs and fixing the problems, the throw chump change and rhetoric. what would happen if we increased the minimum wage. reps say, oh no, it will kill small business! no it won't, all that money is going to people who will SPEND it. it will increase gov. revenue and consumer spending. it seems so easy but they don't really care. MORE TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY! yeah, that will make America stronger, no doubt about it.

[AnnieBW]

31. Keep the Government Off Our Backs

Isn't that what the GOP always says - they want to "get the government off of people's backs?" And into their bedrooms!

What's next - putting Jenna out there as the poster girl for abstinence and sobriety?

[leesa]

32. Yes..let's get back to those healthy Republican type marriages, where the

husbands whore around to their hearts content and the wives get stuck with the kids and housework and then get dumped at 35.

[BiggJawn]

33. They want MORE marriages.

More marriages mean more children. More children mean more Teens who have no prospects for a career but for "Your rich Uncle Donald is hiring...$100,000 bonus for signing up for 3 years (give or take a dozen or so) to Spread Democracy(tm) and protect our peeps from 'Tara' anywhere the Murkan Empire desires...."

These "initatives" are usually pretty silent on the subject of subsequent marriages between people beyond child-bearing age.
"No kids? Not planning on adopting? Eh, getouttahere, ya bothering me..." yet at the same time they can't wrap their tiny brainstems aroiund the idea of same-sex marriage...

[AndyA]

34. Government needs to get out of the bedroom!

They need to butt out and mind their own business, and said business is being neglected lately. Most marriages seem to be done in by money problems. A fair wage, good benefits, and some time off for rest and relaxation would do wonders to help married people stay together.

Our leaders just don't get it.

[FlaGranny]

35. There is something to be said

for a program to teach people about good relationships of any kind, including marriage. It goes without saying though, if Bush is promoting this program, it is not good, and will do nothing but enrich friends of Bush. Maybe he can pay ME. I know how to make a relationship work. It's rather simple. Relationships (between people and between countries) are spoiled by selfishness and lack of empathy for others. So there. Now, where's my money?

[NashVegas]

38. I Wouldn't Have a Problem With This, Except

These are the same people trying to ban gay marriage. I don't think the discrimination could be more obvious.

Then you have the Darwinian Sweepstakes:

Researcher and marriage author Stephanie Coontz of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., says marriage-education programs are successful in "weeding out" couples who shouldn't marry but can't solve all the problems low-income couples face.