Political Quotes

“today I'm introducing two pieces of legislation intended to address the ongoing and utter failure of our Nation's child support efforts. Last week, the General Accounting Office released a long-awaited report on efforts to collect child support throughout the country. It paints a picture of a broken child support system: One where four out of five parents legally required to pay child support simply ignore court orders to do so; one where nearly three in four custodial parents--and their children--who receive no child support live in poverty (as of 1991); and one where a staggering $34 billion in child support payments remain uncollected. The current system of child support is not just a failure by the States to collect money. It's a nationwide failure to care for America's children. Imagine what parents could do for their kids with these billions in unpaid child support obligations. Currently, Congress and the President are engaged in a heated debate over how to provide health insurance to the 10 rac{1}{2} million kids who don't currently have it. We might not be having that debate if the child support system was working. Imagine how much better parents could prepare their children to get the right start in life. With each passing day, we are learning about how incredibly important the first years, months, even days of life are to a child's future well-being.”