| MND COMMENTARY |
October 30, 2003 by Jim Untershine Stephen Baskerville continues to "stomp on the terra", referring to the Family Law battlefield that pits families versus government in America. Stephen Baskerville and Roger Gay teamed up to expose profiteers disguised as advocates for "Marriage" and "Responsible Fatherhood" in the recent Men's News Daily Roundtable Discussion. Tom Sylvester and Rebecca O'Neill both wondered why more scholars didn't agree with Baskerville and Gay, when they needed to count scholars who didn’t. Baskerville was finally challenged by a fellow Political Science Professor (Jo Michelle Beld) who was reacting to Baskerville's article entitled "The Politics of Fatherhood", published in Political Science and Politics. The Beld rebuttal, "Revisiting 'The Politics of Fatherhood'", seemed to be an attempt by the author to "toot her own horn" by describing her involvement with the recent Federally mandated Minnesota child support guideline review. In Beld's attempt to explain away any inherent problems with the child support bureaucracy, she was forced to reinforce Baskerville's allegations. As Baskerville pointed out in his immediate response entitled "The Politics of Child Support", "Indeed, she seems to establish some parts of my case better than I did." Beld mentions, "My principal responsibility has been to provide leadership and research support for the review and revision of Minnesota's child support guidelines". A recent article in the Star Tribune mentions, "A plan to overhaul Minnesota's child support system by recalculating the way the state determines payments drew criticism as unrealistic during a House committee hearing". Beld may come to realize that the "winds of change" must achieve hurricane strength, to fill the sails enough to move a heavily anchored pirate ship already overloaded with ill-gotten booty. The new Minnesota plan was credited to R. Mark Rogers, an economist from Georgia, who was quoted to say "It offers an economically sound way to calculate child support payments. For the first time, payments would be based on research on the cost of raising children, instead of the income of the noncustodial parent". Opponents to the new plan seem to think "the plan didn't reflect the real cost of raising children", "it could significantly reduce child support granted to many families", "it might not comply with federal guidelines", and "the plan is tremendously complicated". Donald Enockson, chairman of the family law section of the Minnesota Bar Association was quoted to say "The state will have to put satellite offices of H&R Block in every child support office". Minnesota (along with California) ranks 4th in the nation demanding 25% of a parent's net income for one child. A parent earning $4,400/mo would be required to pay $1,100/mo in child support. The taxpayers would be forced to pay $630/mo in welfare benefits if the working parent became unemployed. The inherent alimony built into the Minnesota (and California) child support guideline provides a parent $470/mo profit that is tax-free and untraceable. Donald Enockson may be on to something big, but the satellite offices of H&R Block should be nearer to the parents evading taxes. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. Although R. Mark Rogers’ home state of Georgia only ranks 3rd in the nation demanding 28% of a parent’s net income for one child, Georgia leads the nation regarding inherent alimony by allowing a parent to reap a tax-free profit of $794/mo ($1,232/mo CS - $438/mo TANF). Georgia provides the highest payoff for paternity fraud in the nation, due to this elevated inherent alimony. The Georgia child support guideline was recently ruled unconstitutional for a little while, until cooler heads prevailed. As reported by Athens Banner-Herald, "'We knew it was a long shot', said attorney Daryl Lecroy, who asked the court to take the case on appeal". The halfhearted attempt to fill the sails of this pirate ship ended when it became apparent that it already sank, overloaded with ill-gotten booty, and is now ready to be scuttled. Indiana startled the nation by changing their child support guideline, as reported by the Courier-Journal, "The Indiana Supreme Court has approved a sweeping change in the way child-support payments are calculated - one aimed at providing a financial incentive for noncustodial parents, usually fathers, to see their children more often". "But some divorce attorneys believe they will give custodial parents an incentive to minimize the time children spend with the other parent. Others fear a parade to county courthouses to seek changes in existing custody orders". Indiana is erroneously touted to have the most aggressive child support guideline in the nation without exceeding the state’s welfare benefits, according to the Institute for Family and Social Responsibility (FASR). FASR has laid anchor at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, captained by Maurene Pirog and her shipmate Marilyn Klotz. Speaking of pirates that give retards a bad name, Policy Studies Inc. of Denver Colorado has changed their image. This band of profiteers, who so recently aspired to "Do socially useful work, have fun, and make money", have sown their wild oats and now only aspire to "Do socially useful work". PSI refuses to acknowledge whether they are still "creating an environment where their employees can take risks without being punished for their mistakes". As reported by the Rocky Mountain News,"PSI's values-driven philosophy is dictated in large part by the social-services business it specializes in. Much of its work is in outsourced child support enforcement programs in all 50 states. PSI does everything from tracking down deadbeat parents to administering health insurance for indigent children". The article also includes testimonial from the Virginia Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Social Services, Nick Young (probably one of the rat bastards who kicked Baskerville off the Virginia child support guideline review panel), "Not all companies want to do full-service child support (enforcement), they have to exercise extreme behavior modification, i.e., making adults do something they don't want to do. It makes the job very difficult", "PSI has worked in Virginia for nine years, and runs the state's child support enforcement offices in Hampton and Chesapeake. In addition, PSI helped Virginia develop its test program for the National Database of New Hires". Families unaware of this perilous environment can take great comfort in the fact that the "winds of change" are gathering forces, due to hurricane Baskerville and others. This perfect storm is approaching, but if we are to be prepared for it, we must first shed our fear of it. |
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