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Congress Tags Child Support as Luxury Income; Collection System an Economic Failure
MensNewsDaily.com ^ | August 16, 2008 | Roger F. Gay

Posted on 08/16/2008 6:14:49 AM PDT by RogerFGay

Fathers' rights activists have complained about arbitrarily high child support orders for almost two decades. Class action suits were filed, the fathers' rights movement grew, debates broke out in academic journals, a few social scientists demonstrated with calculations and documentation, some men have committed suicide because they were unable to support themselves, and a few serious investigative journalists analyzed in depth.

Congress finally decided to act – with a flat luxury tax on child support income.


(Excerpt) Read more at mensnewsdaily.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: childsupport; digg; fathers
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1 posted on 08/16/2008 6:14:49 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay

Wait, wait, wait. The argument for high child support is that each parent pays a percentage of the child’s expenses.

Dad makes 75,000 a year
Mom makes 25,000 a year

Dad pays 75%
Mom pays 25%

Where is “luxury” anywhere in this????


2 posted on 08/16/2008 6:31:41 AM PDT by netmilsmom (The Party of Darkness prefers to have the lights out. - Go Fierce 50!!!)
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To: RogerFGay

Oh, right...yeah, this ought to help the Dems who are running for re-election this year. LOL


3 posted on 08/16/2008 6:33:48 AM PDT by Allegra (Goodness me, goodness me, industrial disease...)
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To: netmilsmom
Dad pays 75%
Mom pays 25%

Percent of what?

Beld admits that child support collection entrepreneur Robert Williams has had a significant influence on the development of guidelines (715–716). His original 1987 study explicitly states that his recommendations were intended to increase the average child support order by 250%. Source
Most states blindly followed his recommendations.
4 posted on 08/16/2008 6:35:27 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay

Maybe people shouldn’t have children they don’t want to support.


5 posted on 08/16/2008 6:38:15 AM PDT by nobama08
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To: RogerFGay

Won’t matter. The ex will simply go back to court, use the judge touch-pad to dial in the increase that’ll pay for the taxes. (Nope, I’m not divorced, but I’ve seen how this stuff works... and it removes what vestige of respect there is for the law.) You want child support? Place the money into a fund that’s controlled by the judge. Funds go ONLY to the child. See how many yells you get when she can’t make payments on her BMW.


6 posted on 08/16/2008 6:39:01 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: RogerFGay

blind is the correct word.

Most states and government entities in general have absolutely no idea whatsoever how to collect money. So they increase the amount they WANT to collect to make up for the percentage of what the DO collection versus what they assess.

I’ve tried in vain for years to try to get various counties and cities to outsource their collections so that they could up the collection rates by 100+ for a small fee of around 1-3% of above-baseline collection amounts but the liberals bureaucrats in every case referred to it as mercenary work (and continued to help deny money to those who are legally entitled to it: custodial parents, municipalities, counties, various agencies, etc)

When the IRS tell us that they have somewhere in the 1/3T in uncollection assessed taxes on an ongoing basis, you have to wonder why we bother to keep them as an agency since they do little more than what we would collect as a Federal government if we simply allowed people to truly voluntarily pay taxes.


7 posted on 08/16/2008 6:41:09 AM PDT by bpjam (Drill For Oil or Lose Your Job!! Vote Nov 2008)
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To: RogerFGay

that was a slam dunk in the 1970’s.

the radical feminists got the support of fundamentalists to support the family.

afterwards, men started complaining about the unfairness.


8 posted on 08/16/2008 6:44:04 AM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: bpjam
I’ve tried in vain for years to try to get various counties and cities to outsource their collections ..
Are you kidding me? Most state collections are outsourced. The so-called "public-private partnership" in child support collections is what caused all the trouble in the first place. They do nothing to increase the amount collected, but a lot to reduce the amount received by fees and commissions.

Two Strikes for Private Collection Company
9 posted on 08/16/2008 6:48:39 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: nobama08
Maybe people shouldn’t have children they don’t want to support.
Children should be outlawed altogether. There's always a possibility that someone might come along one day and accuse one or both parents of not wanting to support them. It's been a popular thing to say.
10 posted on 08/16/2008 6:50:24 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay; ken21
From Welfare State to Police State
11 posted on 08/16/2008 6:51:51 AM PDT by oblomov
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To: ken21
1970s - you're thinking about the earlier part of the movement - also involving Reagan as Gov. of California, and so-called "no-fault" divorce. The child support scam wasn't developed until Reagan became president, and it went into effect just in time for Clinton to take credit for the spin : "end welfare as we know it"

That's when all the complaining started - the 1990s - and the reaction from the lamestream media was to participate in one of the most intense propaganda campaigns in history.
12 posted on 08/16/2008 6:53:36 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay

Obviously children should be outlawed for some.


13 posted on 08/16/2008 6:56:59 AM PDT by nobama08
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To: ken21

Weitzman’s book: “The Divorce Revolution,” which popularized the myth that woman ended up poor and men wealthy from divorce, wasn’t published till the mid-1980s; mid-way though Reagan’s reign.


14 posted on 08/16/2008 6:57:17 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay

i apologize. it was the early 1980s

when alliances in state legislatures formed between the radical feminists and fundamentalists to “protect families”.

and at the time my friends and i were confused by the agreement of two groups that disliked each other on this issue. and i’m talking about rural, conservative states.

think about it, the feminists alone would not be able to push their agenda through state legislatures. they had to have alliances.


15 posted on 08/16/2008 6:58:36 AM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: RogerFGay

see immediately above.


16 posted on 08/16/2008 7:00:03 AM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: oblomov
I'm quite familiar with Stephen's work, and have read his book: Taken into Custody. Another well known older analysis is from Sanford Braver; Divorced Dads: Shattering the Myths
17 posted on 08/16/2008 7:00:13 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: ken21

Yes, that’s right. And it was no coincidence that it was not long after the creation of the federal child support system, signed into law by Ford in 1975. Reagan and represenatives for N.O.W. were the only people to show up at Congressional hearings in favor of it. It was only passed as an amendment to more popular social services legislation. Nobody was much interested until the level of pork got really impressive. That was the whole thing going on starting in the early 1980s - a federal program what wanted to grow itself beyond any reason - and a President who’d made promises to help himself get elected.


18 posted on 08/16/2008 7:04:01 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: nobama08
Obviously children should be outlawed for some.
And who would that be?
19 posted on 08/16/2008 7:04:44 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay

Anyone who doesn’t want to support them.


20 posted on 08/16/2008 7:10:15 AM PDT by nobama08
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