Monday, November 14, 1C33
Dally Nebraskan
may fooM Skiaimiol Mvi?G of (gEoMdhreini
Every once la a whils, we actually come up with a
solution to a problem. Thb b an event so unusual In
pur complicated, embattled society that it should be
immediately elevated to the status of news. "Man
bites dog" stories pals beside such reader-grabbers
3 "Congress solves problem!
H
E
lien
Goodman
The solution that appears to be on hand is called
"The Child Support Enforcement Amendments of
1 0S3." With luck, a bill to reform and strengthen the
payment of child support may get as far as a con
gressional vote before Thanksgiving.
The problem, of course, has been around for a
long time. One study after another has shown lha
an extraordinary proportion of divorced parents
mostly fathers also divorce their children, at least
financially.
It has been popular to assume that the only men
who don't pay for their kids cant pay. Perhaps the
court demanded too much, perhaps their incomes
produced too little. This is true in some cases. But
the statistical picture that has emerged lately is less
kind to these fathers. The Census Bureau reports
that child-support payments represent only about
13 percent of the average male income. A Stanford
study shows that men who earn $50,000 a year are
no more likely to pay their child support than men
who earn less than $10,000.
It is clear now that the quickest way for a mother
and children to get poor is to get divorced. Most of
the poor children in the country live in single-parent
homes. In California a year after divorce, the aver
age wife's income drops 73 percent, while her hus
band's rises 42 percent ; :
By last January, child-support enforcement was
not only in the women's Economic Equity Act but in
the president's State of the Union address. By July, a
VZZ of bills were proposed, heard and studied.
August was dubbed Child Support Enforcement
Month by the president
The bills were bogged down in details during the
early fall and ran into opposition from divorced
fathers' groups. Some men complained about wildly
varying child-support judgments. Others testified
that money was their only weapon in the fight with
mothers who denied them access to their children.
But one piece of legislation was finally wrought
out of compromise, brought out of subcommittee,
and reported out of the House Ways and Means
Committee, close to a legislative track record. The
bill beefs up enforcement of child-support pay
ments for both welfare and non-welfare families.
The central point is that states will not be required
to withhold money from the paychecks of fathers
who are 30 days late with their payments.
States also will be able to withhold tax refunds
from men whose families are on AFDC, make liens
against the property of any. deliquent parent, and
add the bad news of unpaid child-support to his
credit rating. A full 70 percent of the costs of admin
istration will come from the feds, money that also
will support clearinghouses to monitor and track
payments.
This is not a perfect bill, but it's about as decent a
compromise as could be wrought out of this odd
alliance. The unhappy reality here is that the
government has had to step in where parents
dropped out. The Census Bureau tells us that when
divorcing parents make their own agreement, there
Is a much less trouble with payments. But a large
proportion of the people who couldn't make their
marriage work cant make their divorce work either.
This bill is the end result of failed marriages, and
failed divorces. But for the moment, at least the
Congress is acting the way parents should: in the
best interests of the child.
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