Selected thoughts from readers on the whole welfare reform marriage promotion racket

Josh Orr has this to say about what he calls "Welfare Deform":

'Tis stories like this that make me want to start smacking the sense into people. How can a son of a President Texas oil hound even claim to know anything about the life of a single mother, much less what is good for her? I guess what irks me the most is that they are dumping the limited funds available into these crap programs, making it sound like enough government intervention will actually make people want to marry each other when they otherwise would not. Around where I live(a semi-rural suburb of Chicago) there is a wonderful group called the 4C. They manage to actually make a difference in the life of a would-be welfare mother. They provide daycare assistance, food assistance (on approved food, thus promoting child health, instead of twinkie cravings), and job training. This group has a hughly positive impact on the quality of life for both the mother and child. Why can't Bushy find programs like these to dump money into, instead of his flawed attempts at social engineering?

My guess is: because he doesn't want to.

I also received an email beginning in the following manner from Philip Pangrac: How can you argue with that? The nuclear family is a natural sociological structure, and it is the best one at that. Not that those evil evolutionists would have you believe that-they seem to have some crazy idea about "tribes", where (get this) everyone would work together for the good of all, rather than splitting into little groups within the one group and having it be "everyone for themself". But look in the Bible: the first people in existence were a nuclear family: husband, wife, and 2.5 kids. Of course, one kid did kill the other, but they were NOT on welfare! Actually, they might as well have been, after being kicked out of the Garden of Eden, which didn't happen until after Adam and Eve got married... But that's all in the past. We've worked the kinks out of marriage and there is absolutely NO reason why anyone would NOT want to be married, at all. In case you hadn't noticed, (I admit it took me a minute) this is sarcasm, and the email continues in a more serious vein: My parents got married shortly out of high school and now they're divorced, and there is nothing that would get them back together. It would have been better for everyone involved if they had waited until after college at least before tying the knot. Plus, correct me if I'm wrong, businesses don't look at a person's marital status when interviewing them for a job, right? I mean, the only way your chances of getting a job improve upon marriage is if your new in-laws have an opening in their company for you, and I doubt nepotism is the solution to welfare. So thanks for all the nice letters, folks, and keep them coming! Remember to let me know if you want to be added to my cartoon notification email list (I won't spam you, I'll just let you know when new cartoons are posted).