Like a lot of people, my favorite holiday special is “How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” I love watching the change that comes over the Grinch as he realizes the true meaning of the holiday season, and the real value of community. As clichA?© as it sounds, though, I’ve realized how much the federal government has in common with the Grinch since becoming a state legislator.
The latest “gift” from the Bush administration to the people of Maine is a lack of federal assistance for child support enforcement. More than a quarter of Maine’s children live in single-parent families, and we’ve tried very hard at the state level to help provide support for these families to make sure that non-custodial parents live up to their responsibilities. However, these federal cuts represent a 20-percent reduction in services.
In Maine, we’ve worked hard to create progressive policies in order to make responsibility to children a priority. State policies, such as suspending driving and professional licenses, garnishing wages, placing liens on property or vehicles, and collecting tax refunds, have proved to be successful measures of collection from many deadbeat parents.
The state’s Support Enforcement Division estimates that collections from non-custodial parents will drop by 16 percent in light of these federal cuts. In a program that is supposed to encourage responsibility in non-custodial parents, the feds have shown once again that they are good at shirking their own responsibility to families.
As a child, Christmas at the Bryant home was always a modest affair. My Dad worked double shifts at the mill to help put food on the table and buy presents for my nine siblings and I. Neither my wife nor I could ever imagine how financially, not to mention emotionally, difficult it would be to try to raise our kids alone. Many of these single parents live paycheck to paycheck, and are doing their best to provide for their kids even though family circumstances have changed. Like these single parents, the state will have to adjust to the federal cuts, and find some way to keep doing more with less.
These federal budget cuts have nothing to do with fiscal responsibility. Like the Grinch, the Bush administration is selfishly rewarding its wealthy friends with tax break after tax break. Working families, the people who are struggling the most to get by, are paying for some billionaire’s Christmas with their health, safety, education and environment.
The message of my favorite holiday special, is that where there is community, there is hope. My hope for this holiday season is that the Bush administration wakes up to realize that asking working families to bear the brunt of tax breaks for the wealthy isn’t right, and it isn’t fair. In the meantime, the state of Maine will wake up on Christmas morning like the Whos, just happy to have each other, and with a promise to always protect its neighbors.
If I can answer any questions about upcoming legislation, or be of assistance on any state matter, please feel free to call me at home at 892-6591, or e-mail at repmarkbryant@yahoo.com, or through my legislative Web page, www.mainehousedems.org/mbryant.
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