"deadbeat parents"

apparently one of the 4 horsemen of the infocalypse...?!?!
whatever can be used as an excuse to take away rights, eh?


------- Forwarded Message

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 15:18:11 -0500
To: believer@telepath.com
From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: Clinton Signs New Deadbeat Parents Penalties into Law 

Source:  USIA

Clinton Signs New Deadbeat Parents Penalties into Law 
U.S. Newswire
24 Jun 9:06

 President Clinton Signs New Deadbeat Parents Penalties into Law
 To: National Desk
 Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100

   WASHINGTON, June 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released
today by the White House:

  Today, President Clinton will announce new statistics highlighting
the success of Administration child support enforcement efforts and
will sign into law tough new penalties for parents who repeatedly
refuse to pay child support.  At an Oval Office ceremony, the
President will announce that a new child support collection system
launched nine months ago has already located one million deliquent
parents, and the child support enforcement program established a
record 1.3 million paternities in 1997.  Overall, 68 percent more
child support was collected in 1997 than in 1992.  The bill he will
sign into law, the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998, is based
on his 1996 proposal for tougher penalties for parents who repeatedly
fail to support children living in another state or who flee across
state lines to avoid supporting them.  Finally, the President will
reiterate his position that bankruptcy reform legislation should not
make it harder to collect child support and alimony.

  New Hire Directory Finds One Million Deliquent Parents.  Today, the
President will announce that the new National Directory of New Hires
had located one million deliquent parents since its October 1, 1997
launch.  The directory, proposed by the President in 1994, and
enacted as part of the 1996 welfare reform law, helps track parents
across state lines and withhold their wages by enabling child support
officials to match records of delinquent parents with wage records
from throughout the nation.  Approximately one-third of all child
support cases involve parents living in different states.  (See
attached chart)

  A Record Number of Paternity Establishments.  The President will
also announce that the child support enforcement program established
a record 1.3 million paternities in 1997, two and a half times the
1992 figure of 510,000.  Much of this success is due to the
in-hospital voluntary paternity establishment program begun by the
Clinton Administration in 1994, which encourages fathers to
acknowledge paternity at the time of the child's birth.

  A Record Increase in Child Support Collections.  In 1997, the state
and federal child support enforcement program collected a record $13.
4 billion for children, an increase of 68% from 1992, when $8 billion
was collected.  Not only are collections up, but the number of
families that are actually receiving child support has also
increased.  In 1997, the number of child support cases with
collections rose to 4.2 million, an increase of 48% from 2.8 million
in 1992.

  New Felony Penalties for Egregious Failure to Pay Child Support.
The President called for these tough new penalties in July 1996 and
again in his 1997 State of the Union address.  This new law creates
two new categories of felonies, with penalties of up to two years in
prison, for more egregious child support evaders:

   Traveling across state or country lines with the intent to evade
child support payments will now be considered a felony if the
obligation has remained unpaid for a period longer than one year or
is greater than $5,000.

   When the obligation has remained unpaid for a period of longer
than two years or is greater than $10,000, willful failure to pay
child support to a child residing in another state will be considered
a felony.

  This bill was sponsored in Congress by Representatives Hyde and
Hoyer and Senators DeWine and Kohl, and had overwhelming bipartisan
support in both houses.

  Responsible Bankruptcy Reform that Doesn't Hurt Children.  Finally,
the President will reiterate his position that bankruptcy reform
legislation should not make it harder to collect child support and
alimony.  The Administration will work with Congress to produce a
bankruptcy reform bill that asks responsibility of both creditors and
debtors, while stemming abuse.  In those discussions, the President
will continue to make protecting child support and alimony a top
priority.  The House and Senate bills still raise the concern that
additional debts will survive bankruptcy and compete with child
support and alimony payments for scarce funds.

 -0-
 /U.S. Newswire  202-347-2770/
 06/24 09:06

Copyright 1998, U.S. Newswire
- -----------------------
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only. 
- -----------------------





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------- End of Forwarded Message

On 25 Jun 98, Vladimir Z. Nuri was found to have commented thusly:

> apparently one of the 4 horsemen of the infocalypse...?!?!
> whatever can be used as an excuse to take away rights, eh?
> 
> 
[news clip  regarding new Deadbeat Parents federal law excised]

I have a strong feeling that this new law is going to turn around and bite 
the Great Society II (GSII) advocates in their federal ass.  Considering 
some of the minimum limits regarding child support sums in arrears, it 
really won't take any time for prominent members, subscribers, and 
believers in GSII, including Friends of Bill and Friends of Hillary, to 
find themselves on the other side of a federal arrest warrant.  The $5000 
limit could be reached in a matter of a few months, it seems, for quite a 
few of even the "middle-class" child support payers.  (Anyone reading this 
who pays child support willing to divulge how many months it would take 
for them to reach that limit?)  I don't believe that deadbeat parents 
should evade their responsibility, but this law pretty much is the wrong 
way to deal with it.

Prosecutors of any stripe are not going to bother with making a judgment 
regarding 'intent', which they probably don't consider their duty anyway. 
They will have a formulae all worked out in concert with the presiding 
judge--whose duty should be the 'justice' end of any bum rap, deciding the 
issue of 'intent'--to nail anyone who violates the letter (and disregard 
the question of the violation of the spirit) of the law.  The poor will 
necessarily cop a plea and probably do some federal time AND/or find 
themselves assessed federal fines that will essentially make them 
indentured servants to the state for years.  The rich will work a deal to 
stay out of prison since the feds don't want to waste time with the 
delaying tactics of their savvy lawyers.

Perhaps at some point, after thousands of well-meaning but misfortunate 
parents find themselves considered felons in their society because they 
got behind in the support although there was no clear intent to do so, the 
law or certain elements of it will be sensibly repealed or reformed to 
target those whose intent to evade is really indisputable.  There are 
probably as well "minor" provisions and clauses in the law not reported in 
the news clip, but which certainly make life impossible for the well-
meaning to obtain complete rehabilitation;  those parts of the code would 
need attention as well.


Mitch Halloran
Research (Bio)chemist
Duzen Laboratories Group
Ankara   TURKEY
mitch@duzen.com.tr

"Tonight, again, the strong and arrogant opponent
           felt the bitter taste of defeat at your hands"
---Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressing the jubilant Iranian soccer team
        whose very unexpected victory over the US eliminated them
        from the France 1998 World Cup