Several House Republicans introduced a resolution on Wednesday arguing that federal welfare programs discourage marriage and hurt family.
The resolution from Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., noted there are 126 different federal programs aimed at fighting poverty, many of which discourage people from getting married because additional income in the family unit could lead to a loss of benefits.
“[M]eans-tested programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, school meals, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program determine eligibility and allocation of benefits by counting all members living within a household, which discourages single parents from raising children in a two-parent home,” it said.
The resolution cited the Earned Income Tax Credit as another benefit that can “penalize marriage” since an unmarried couple can get the full benefit if they are raising a child, but a married couple “may be pushed out of the eligibility range for the full benefit.”
It said the combined marriage penalty for people using these and other programs can be as much as $30,000 per year in benefits.
And it said the results of these programs can be seen in how people live today. “[B]efore the start of the failed War on Poverty program in 1964, only seven percent of children in the United States were born out of wedlock, a number that now stands at over 40 percent,” it said.
The resolution concluded by saying the House recognizes that welfare programs “discourage marriage and hurt the institution of the family in the United States.”
It also said it’s wrong for the federal government to “discriminate against parents who choose to get married before having children” and that the House supports efforts to treat married and unmarried people equally as these federal benefits are disbursed.
Read the resolution here:
