Stay Away from Marriage (Updated)

No, that isn't a warning to young couples looking to make more binding commitments than the sharing of a letter jacket. It's a plea to the government to step away from the entire subject.

President Bush continues to act in a very prototypically left-leaning manner on a social issue: he's coming to the conclusion that there isn't a social ill that exists that can't be buried conveniently under a mountain of tax dollars.

Bush administration officials are planning a $1.5 billion election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Administration officials have worked with conservative groups for months on the proposal, the paper said, and are weighing whether President Bush should promote the plan next week in his State of the Union address.

The plan would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain “healthy marriages,” the paper said.

This is not a wise expenditure of tax dollars, it is not a place the government needs to stick its nose, and it isn't "conservative" in any sense of the word that I can imagine. If President Bush wants to represent my wishes (and those of a good percentage of his base) he'll start looking for ways to cut expenditures, not for ways to expand government's reach.

This is bad policy and bad politics and utterly indicative of a dangerous tendency in America right now: the rush to create America in Europe's economic image. Expanding social programs will ultimately require higher taxes. Higher taxes will slowly erode American economic growth and our personal prosperity.

In 2008, not only will I be looking to find a candidate who is a strong leader on international and military policies, but for a genuine fiscal conservative who will be devoted to a better economic policy that isn't hell bent on bankrupting the country.

Not that I have an opinion on the subject.

Read the story.

Update: Vodka Pundit has a similar view on the subject...

Posted by zombyboy at January 14, 2004 10:43 AM | TrackBack