From MichiganDemocrat.Net
Will Michigan Democrats actually solve Michigan's monstrous budget deficit problem by restricting free for all welfare spending programs like Title IV-D to only include actual needy families? See below an excellent synopsis of solving a significant chunk of Michigan's budget crisis by Jason Bottomley who understands the big picture.
Michigan Budget Crisis:
The federal government has already cut funding for the child support enforcement program because of how it operates.
Michigan has been left with the choice of either making up for the federal cuts by using funds from state/local budgets, or to follow in-step with the federal cuts and reduce spending on the state child support program.
Cutting spending on the state program makes sense, because the program is not serving the population originally intended by Congress.
An overwhelming majority of recipient of state child support services are middle and upper class parents who are not facing poverty - and not because they are receiving child support, but because they are simply self-sufficient.
If Michigan were to tighten up the state child support program by refusing to provide these welfare services to affluent divorcing parents who simply don't need them, then the state could get rid of a huge bulk of an unnecessary bureaucracy which eats away at millions of dollars from our state and local budgets every year.
The bureaucratic response to this will surely be that 'children might starve if they don't get their child support'. And the reality is that kids ARE starving - but only because child support bureaucrats have to spend too much time being babysitters who referee
arguments between affluent divorcing parents. This leaves little resources left to go after the ones really at fault: The willfully absent parents who have abandoned their children to poverty.
The not-so-obvious answer here is to ignore the fear-mongering special interests of the child support bureaucracy and do what's right for the state budget. Start by getting rid of government bloat where necessary. Child support bureaucrats are not helping kids - they're babysitting affluent arguing adults instead.
Kick the affluent out of the state's welfare system by removing them from the child support program. That will save the state millions, and help the children who really need help in the process.
----------------
The states also like all the undistributed funds which get absorbed into the general fund. $600 million dollars nation wide is nothing to sneeze at.
Then there is the triple dip, the states get their percentage of all money collected and get interest of the money when they hold it during the "processing period". All this time they garner higher taxes from the taxpayer "for the good of the children".
If they cut expenses and saved millions on taxpayer dollars, they would be out so much. They would be accountable for how the actual tax money is being used. Money from the child support fleecing doesn't have to be accounted for because the government doesn't want to lose its cash cow.
http://hindsightnow.blogspot.com