Good “Dads Matter” study from State Auditor Shad White emphasizing the tragic impact of fatherlessness on children, but he offered feeble solutions.
“Fatherlessness creates myriad costs, both social and economic,” the study notes. Drawing from data provided by the National Fatherhood Initiative, the Family Research Council, and others, the study cited higher school drop-out rates, unemployment rates, incarceration rates, and teen pregnancy rates for boys and girls who grow up in fatherless homes.
“Fatherlessness poses threats to both the economic and social wellbeing of Mississippi communities,” the report concluded.
White called for strengthening JROTC and mentoring programs to aide children from fatherless homes, but suggested nothing to actually reduce fatherless homes.
A significant cause of the rise of single parent families has been well documented – means-tested welfare programs. “It is no accident that the collapse of marriage in America largely began with the War on Poverty and the proliferation of means-tested welfare programs that it fostered,” stated a 2014 report from the Heritage Foundation. Means-tested welfare “penalizes low-income parents who do marry,” the report continued. “When a low-income mother and father marry, they will generally experience a sharp drop in benefits, and their joint income will fall. The anti-marriage penalty is often most severe among married couples where both parents are employed.”
So long as single-parent moms are better off under means-tested social welfare than living in low-income two parent settings, fatherless homes will persist. As will the “cruel” cycle of dependency Gov. Tate Reeves laments but does little to fix.
The fix to put fathers back into homes and break the cycle of dependency requires changing means-tested programs so that they encourage, rather than penalize, two-parent families.
One of those is Medicaid. A non-working mom with young children is covered in Mississippi. Add in a husband making minimum wage and neither parent is covered. Another is the much abused TANF program. Means limits are higher for SNAP, Section 8 housing subsidies, and other programs but still penalize two-parent families. Even federal Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Care Credit programs, which encourage and enable poor families to work, have marriage penalties.
While the state has limited control over means-testing required by federal programs, it does have three options it could pursue to reduce fatherless households.
It could expand Medicaid. Not only would this mitigate the anti-marriage barrier it would also improve healthcare and expand the economy.
It could better coordinate programs to maximize benefits for two-parent working families. The National Governors Association provided examples in its “Two-Generation” demonstration project.
It could put in place state programs. For example, in 2014 Gov. Phil Bryant proposed – and the Legislature killed – a state Earned Income Tax Credit program to reduce taxes for low-income working families.
It is one thing to point out Mississippi’s systemic problems, but quite another to go all in to fix them.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” – Galatians 6:9.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
21 comments:
He points fingers at the governor but neglects to hold the legislature responsible or part of the solution.
Didn't the government start this whole problem themselves? Now they are going to solve the problem. Does anyone think they will do anything except make the problem bigger and more severe?
Come on Bill, this stuff just makes too much sense to implement. Plus it would get in the way of the conservative war on the poors. How else are the ones in power supposed to force them the poors to submit? It's hard to crush their dreams if the have the ability to improve their lots in life.
A CEO, a Tea Party member and public employee sit at a table, with 12 cookies on a plate. The CEO grabs 11 cookies and tells the Tea Party member, "You better watch him. He wants your cookie."
The CEO took 11 out of 12 cookies. This isn't a question of what's fair. The CEO has the economic power to take 11 cookies, and he does.
A conservative blog explained this point of view. The CEO deserved 11 cookies. Without the CEO, the 12 cookies would never have been baked. No one would have anything without the CEO. Not only did the CEO deserve 11 of the 12 cookies, but if we somehow had 15 cookies, the CEO would deserve 14. If the CEO made 24 cookies in China, he should get 23. The Tea Party member and the public employee should thank the CEO for their one cookie.
Wouldn't want those "lazy" poor people (who work) getting 2 cookies, now, would we?
Fatherlessness would be reduced if those that get someone pregnant would marry or take responsibility for the mother and child. Continuing to push “their” responsibility to others is complete bullshit for those of us take take our parenting seriously. Don’t give me the crap about it reduces costs, it just serves “fatherlessness” with more handouts.
1:19, Hear, hear!
Or simply use contraceptives, which are simple and cheap. And since it's the women who get stuck with the kids it should be them on the pill.
I got 30 days in the Facebook hole for quoting LBJ although I redacted the N word. I was accused of 'hate speech'.
If you can't quote a president of the United States, who can you quote? Why redact or pretend the President didn't say what he said. It's our history.
“I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years. [Said to two governors regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to then-Air Force One steward Robert MacMillan]”
― Lyndon B. Johnson
I'm here to say that Biden's inflation has left me with very little cookie.
So, big brain Bill's answer is to give more free stuff.
Who will pay for said free stuff? Will it just materialize out of the air?
I have wrestled with making this post for a while. Kingfish can print it, or not, it will still be true.
The fatherless problem isn't the government's responsibility to solve. There is nowhere else to point the finger of blame, except at the silent pulpits of churches.
After the 2nd 'fatherless' child on the dole ... the mother AND father need to be sterilized. End of problem. Can't feed 'em - don't breed 'em. Make them stand in line for food, government provided cheese, peanut butter, canned ham, bread, beans, crackers, etc. Just like before this welfare crap. No one was hungry and they didn't have a plastic card to buy junk food. We spend hundreds of millions a year on processed junk food. This won't be published ... but oh well.
“strengthening JROTC”
What a f’ing joke.
How about requiring child support by the fathers of these bastards?
How about actually requiring single moms to pay for their own kids?
How about some shame in getting knocked up?
The Family Research Council is one of the most hate filled morally bankrupt groups in the country.
2:21 is exactly correct. LBJ was the one who signed all of this into law. I do not know what his ulterior was but only to benefit the Democratic Party by any means possible. To allow a sector of society to become totally dependent on another sector is the most dangerous ideology one can conceive. It creates anger, bitterness and hatred toward those who don’t have to do anything to get something for nothing yet enjoying life while the rest of us are working from sun up to sun down and can to can’t to provide for our families.
i know of someone who has three kids and does not work so he can avoid paying any child support. in turn, he sponges off his wife (who is a co-worker)
how is this the governments fault? how could the government help?
he’s sticking it to people on one end and sticking another for his living expenses.
nothing that biden, trump, reeves, lumumba, shad white or the state of ms, city of jackson can do that will make less absentee fathers. they don’t want to be fathers but enjoy the act of making babies.
More excuses. I grew up fatherless and motherless, but I did just fine. There’s plenty of people who would have done better without their own kin raising them.
I grew up and was working at age 2, full time. These lazy poor people always want a GubMint handout. Not like the PPP program or Farm Welfare or bailouts, where we earned that extra money!
Here's what Shad failed to mention about JROTC: 95% of the students enrolled in Jackson Public Schools in JROTC get college scholarships.
People who go to college have far fewer out-of-wedlock babies.
So do female athletes in High School.
Democrats have to keep em poor and dependent so they continue to vote Democrat in return for promises of more free stuff. It’s the 21st century version of slavery.
The various federal programs were intended to help the blameless children, not the parents.
2:21 PM, its undeniable what leftist Democrats have done to the poor people in our country. It won’t be long and some of those poor people will be paying their housing rents to the hard working immigrants coming from places like Mexico.
3:00 PM is correct. The silent pulpits are more concerned with 501 c 3 status and making sure they don’t lose any members i.e. tithers than to risk being politically incorrect.
7:57 AM nailed it! In addition to keeping em poor and dependent, Democrats keep crime rates high on purpose. Can’t have low crime cause people would move back into leftist controlled cities like Jackson that possessed enough intelligence to vote their sorry asses out of office.
What kind of job did you have at age 2. Asking for the Department of Labor.
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