"Love and Marriage, Go Together Like A Horse and Carriage," goes a popular song by Frank Sinatra. But according to Warren Chisum (R- Pampa), the powerful conservative House Appropriations Committe chairman of the Texas legislature, it should read more like "Sticks and Carrots."
I have lived in Texas for close to nine years now. During this period Chisum has at various times helped pass anti-gay legislation, attempted to ban the teaching of the theory of evolution (which he considers a Jewish conspiracy) and repeatedly tried to introduce Biblical education in public schools. Now he is going after the marriage and divorce laws of Texas by providing incentives for people to stay married and discouraging divorce. The incentive / disincentive plan is to be put in place through "covenant" contracts for marriages where couples promise to work hard to save their marriage by enrolling in "eight hour" pre-marital counseling sessions with the clergy, faith and community based organizations and mental health professionals. Prospective couples will learn not just communication and crisis management skills but also "forgiveness skills." Those complying with Chisum’s guidelines will be rewarded with a waiver of their marriage license fee of $30 and those who give the program a miss will see theirs double to $60. Also, enrolled couples can get a no-fault divorce after a waiting period of 60 days, the current waiting period in Texas, if their marriage is indeed unsalvageable. Those not taking Chisum’s recommended classes will have to wait for two years! I wonder if the "covenant" couples will also have to renounce the theory of evolution, denounce gays and declare the Bible as the guiding light of their lives. How will affluent couples be affected by this law? Or will they even care?
The plan, according to Chisum and his conservative supporters will reduce the poverty rate for low income single women and their dependent children, the commonest economic victims of a broken marriage. That, according to them will reduce the cost of welfare and other social services. So, where will Chisum get the money to set up his "marriage and morality" program? Why, he intends to take $10 million from the block grant set aside by the state for the welfare program, of course!
AUSTIN — Debate over government’s role in matters of love, marriage and divorce begins today when the Texas House considers a bill doubling marriage license fees to $60 unless couples take premarital classes. Couples agreeing to eight-hour courses in conflict management and communication skills would get their marriage licenses free under the bill sponsored by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, a leading House conservative.
Chisum’s bill, with its carrot-and-stick approach, is part of the Texas Conservative Coalition agenda to ease the demand for poverty programs by reducing divorce rates that can financially hurt the newly single. The package could create voluntary "covenant" marriage contracts with tougher conditions to discourage divorce and lengthen waiting periods for no-fault divorces unless couples undergo marriage crisis classes.
"It’s in the state’s interest for marriages to be saved," said John Colyandro, the coalition’s executive director. "A lot of single-parent households are in poverty. Once they’re in poverty, that makes them eligible for a whole host of programs they might not otherwise be involved with."
Opponents of the bill call it coercion and meddling by the state. But the self righteous Chisum is unfazed by such criticism. (Remember the conservative credo of "Get government out of our lives" when it comes to taxes, regulation of businesses and private property?)
But critics say the proposed measures — especially those lengthening waiting periods for divorces — amount to government intrusion into private lives. While Republicans have long decried the "nanny state" of liberal social safety nets, some House Democrats now complain about GOP meddling into highly personal decisions they say are best left to individuals.
Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said, …. "I just don’t think that’s something the government ought to coerce," Coleman said. "It’s truly getting into someone’s marriage bed. It’s the state going beyond what I think its role is and intervening or coercing or penalizing someone who’s seeking to get married."
Chisum’s bills requiring premarital classes and crisis classes for marriages in trouble include a separate funding proposal for low-income Texans. It would tap into nearly $10 million in a federal welfare block grant to help pay for the classes.
"We’re saying families are important to us," Chisum said Tuesday. "If that’s the nanny state, then so we are. We’re very pro-family."
Oh no, Mr. Chisum. When goody goody liberals meddle in our lives, THAT is the Nanny State. When right wingers like you try to "improve" our lives, it is the the Nurse Ratched State.
Update: The Texas House has okayed Chisum’s Incentive Plan. If the bill becomes law, it would take effect Sept. 1. And instead of the doubling of the marriage fee from $30 to $60 as proposed earlier, the bill will require "non-covenant" marriage applicants to pay the nice round sum of $100 for license.
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