I feel the same way about fatherhood as I do about abortion — I don’t care what you do in private, just don’t make me subsidize it. But along comes a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans who think the solution to a myriad of social problems is to simply throw millions of dollars into fatherhood programs.
Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh and Republic Sen. Pete Domenici propose spending $380 million over 5 years to promote what they call “responsible fatherhood.” Noting that up to one-third of children currently live with homes out there father, and that there is a direct correlation between absentee fathers and a host of social ills, Bayh and Domenici want to spend the money on programs that would provide counseling and parenting programs for men.
“We must try to counsel men to wait until they are ready to assume the awesome responsibility of bringing a child into the world,” Bayh told Hearst Newspapers.
Up to $25 million of the funding would pay for public service announcements about marriage and responsible fatherhood.
Ugh. Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t see anywhere in the Constitution where COngress is empowered to aid in establishing “responsible fatherhood.” Besides which, if other government programs designed to alter deeply ingrained social attitudes about things like drug usage are any indicator, it is all but given that such a program will have little if any impact on increasing the number of responsible fathers.
Source:
Senators push solution to the father of all problems. Hearst Newspapers, May 2, 2001.