The
erosion of marriage throughout the past four decades has had
large-scale negative effects on both children and adults and lies
at the heart of many social problems with which government
currently grapples. The beneficial effects of marriage on
individuals and society are beyond reasonable dispute, and there is
a broad and growing consensus that government policy should promote
rather than discourage healthy marriage.
Recognizing the widespread benefits of
marriage to individuals and society, the federal welfare reform
legislation enacted in 1996 set forth clear goals to increase the
number of two-parent families and to reduce out-of-wedlock
childbearing. Regrettably, in the years since reform, most states
have done very little to directly advance this objective. Out of
more than $100 billion in federal TANF funds disbursed over the
past seven years, only about $20 million (a minuscule 0.02 percent)
has been spent on promoting marriage.
President Bush's
Initiative to Promote Healthy Marriage
To deal with this shortcoming, President George W. Bush
has sought to meet the original goals of welfare reform by
proposing, as part of welfare reauthorization, a new model program
to promote healthy marriage. The proposed program would seek to
increase healthy marriage by providing individuals and couples
with:
- Accurate information on the value of
marriage in the lives of men, women, and children;
- Marriage-skills education that will enable
couples to reduce conflict and increase the happiness and longevity
of their relationship; and
- Experimental reductions in the financial
penalties against marriage that are currently contained in all
federal welfare programs.
All
participation in the President's marriage program would be
voluntary. The initiative would utilize existing marriage-skills
education programs that have proven effective in decreasing
conflict and increasing happiness and stability among couples;
these programs have also been shown to be effective in reducing
domestic violence. The pro-marriage initiative would not merely
seek to increase marriage rates among target couples, but also
would provide ongoing support to help at-risk couples maintain
healthy marriages over time.
The
plan would not create government bureaucracies to provide marriage
training. Instead, the government would contract with private
organizations that have track records of success in providing
marriage-skills education.
A
Future-Oriented Policy
The President's healthy marriage initiative is a
future-oriented, preventive policy.
It
will foster better life-planning skills--encouraging couples to
develop loving, committed marriages before bringing children into
the world rather than having children before trust and commitment
between parents has been established.
It
will encourage couples to reexamine and improve their relationships
and plan wisely for the future rather than stumbling blindly into a
childbirth for which neither parent may be prepared.
The
program would also provide marriage-skills education to married
couples to improve their relationships and reduce the probability
of divorce.
By
providing young couples with the tools needed to build healthy,
stable marriages, the marriage initiative would substantially
reduce future rates of welfare dependence, child poverty, domestic
violence, and other social ills.
Conclusion
There is now broad bipartisan recognition that healthy
marriage is a natural protective institution that, in most cases,
promotes the well-being of men, women, and children and that it is
the foundation of a healthy society. Yet, for decades, government
policy has remained indifferent or hostile to marriage. Government
programs sought merely to pick up the pieces as marriages failed
or, worse, actively undermined marriage.
President Bush seeks to change this policy
of indifference and hostility. There is no group that will gain
more from this change than low-income single women, most of whom
hope for a happy, healthy marriage in their future. President Bush
seeks to provide young couples with the knowledge and skills
necessary to accomplish their dreams. The Senate would be wise to
affirm their support for marriage by passing welfare reform
reauthorization and enacting the President's healthy marriage
initiative.
Robert E. Rector is Senior Research
Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies, and Melissa G. Pardue is a
Policy Analyst in the Domestic Policy Studies Department, at The
Heritage Foundation.