March 24, 1999 RE: Your Misguided Notion of Child Support

The Honorable Richard Burr
1513 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman Burr,

Your office sent a letter dated March 14, 1999 to one of our members in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, thanking him for supporting increased child support enforcement, when in fact, it is a complaint against this oppressive system. Perhaps you should sponsor a bill for remedial education, then enroll your staff.

You proudly boast how Congress has nullified the Constitutional right of due process when you emphasize that child support can be withheld if the payment is late, "without judicial or administrative hearing." Read Dr. Sanford Braver's book, "Divorced Dads: Shattering the Myths," and you will find out why and when child support isn't paid. Dr. Braver has completed the largest federally funded study of divorced men in the US.

Next, you seem overjoyed about the loss of privacy and the entrance of Big Brother when you talk about the Federal Parent Locator System (FPLS) which tracks the whereabouts of noncustodial parents. This unilateral offense against the family is provided to the custodial parent (at taxpayers' expense) in an effort to collect the all-mighty dollar, while breaking up the family. When a custodial parent kidnaps the children (against court orders), the noncustodial parent is denied access to the FPLS. They must continue paying child support, but they are not allowed any contact with their children or their whereabouts. This is par for the course when it comes to child support legislation.

And now, instead of dismantling this highly destructive policy, you wish to "search for more efficient ways" to pursue noncustodial parents; in other words, you want to destroy families faster and cheaper. Child support has been a policy failure now for over 24 years - how much longer will our country have to suffer until the laws are changed to emphasize parental involvement (that means both parents) instead of money?

Child support - with its excessive awards and draconian punishments - only serves to force the noncustodial parent into exile, causing irreparable harm to children. Shared parenting eliminates the concept of custody and the need for child support. It demands responsibility of both parents and also relieves one parent from overload - something your programs neglected. For proof that child support is excessive, consider the quote from radical feminist Karen Winner, who in her book, "Divorced From Justice," writes: "There is accumulating evidence that men are challenging their wives for custody of the children precisely because it is cheaper to keep them than to pay child support." (p. 52). I couldn't have said it better myself.

Sincerely,

John Smith, Research Analyst