A clarification on the letter to the editor

in regards to this letter, Somebody pointed out to me that you don’t need a lawyer to have your child support reduced. And that is true. I did it without the lawyer, and without any fees (if the case is handled by CSE modifications are free at least in Adams County). However, that’s not how it is perceived apparently by the CSE mentioned in this article, and there’s the irony. Right out of their own mouths comes the major reason why child support is going unpaid: because parents can’t afford to do it and are largely uneducated on how to go about filing a modification. See, they aren’t just big old meanies who want to screw the mother slaving over the hot stove; they actually have problems of their own.
But a picture with more than one color is often too hard for those with simple minds to comprehend in the end.

Update on Utah bills

Contentious child support bills pass

On this one, all I am going to say is props to Rep. Ron Bigalow and Sen. Michael Waddoups for having the political courage to say the truth: that in many cases, the big bad deadbeat is a human being who has his own problems that he’s going through, and neither of these bills help.

Unfortunately, they are both facing the one second-class minority in America which is not only legal to persecute, but popular to do so as well.  We are dealing with a government that means harm to its own citizens and seeks to gain political capital because of it.   I’m fearing the day where all ncp’s will have to call “their caseworker” Massa and report bright and early for work duty.

The President’s Lie to the Union Address

Last night Dubya made his way down to the rostrum and proceded to make everybody perfectly sick with the brown-nosing of the Democrats in his annual state of the union address. I swear, if there had been one more touching moment between him and Pelosi, I would have tossed it. My lunch, I mean, not the TV: I happen to like my set.

But down to the nitty gritty of the speech:

• “Even worse, over 90 percent of earmarks never make it to the floor of the House and Senate — they are dropped into committee reports that are not even part of the bill that arrives on my desk. You didn’t vote them into law. I didn’t sign them into law. Yet, they’re treated as if they have the force of law. The time has come to end this practice” Good, good, and while we’re talking about things not being voted into law yet having the force of law, what about those signing statements?
• Health care. ” And so tonight, I propose two new initiatives to help more Americans afford their own insurance. First, I propose a standard tax deduction for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income on payroll tax — or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on $7,500 of their income. With this reform, more than 100 million men, women, and children who are now covered by employer-provided insurance will benefit from lower tax bills.”Initially, this sounds good; but let’s look at it this way: last year, gross I made $13,000 and I’m single, so pretty much I’m SOL. And even if you do remarry and have children, if you’re income is at $15,000, what are you going to worry about more, a tax break on health insurance you can’t afford, or feeding yourself and your family. And yes, dubya brought out the old herring of frivolous lawsuits. The only thing I’m going to say is to visit this Faces of Medical Malpractice page and ask yourself: who do you want protected, yourself, or the doctor who goes drilling for cysts that aren’t there?
• Illegal immigration: You know, Texicans have a funny way of pronouncing amnesty. They can stretch it out for about five whole minutes when they get going. “We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis” As one of my more enlightened (or drunker) fellow web surfers put it last night “we already have that, it’s called a visa you moron”

In short, we’ll probably be going over some of these points more and more as time goes by, but essentially it was more window dressing and little stuff. The stuff is going to come in the next few weeks.

Snitching Kansas?

Bill would aid child support collections

In other words, if you are a non custodial parent living in Kansas, as soon as you finish telling the Kansas court what you really think about child support, you may want to tell your Assembly what you think of this Big Brother idea of theirs. I own a Tracfone: not the sexiest thing in the world, but cheap, easy, anonymous. If you value your freedom, put in for one of these. Tracfone and Netfone are about the two biggest, but there are other plans out there that don’t require you to register with the government.

Here’s a quote from the above story from Connie Sipes D-New Albany:

“We shouldn’t let parents who skip out on their child support responsibilities get away,” Sipes said in a statement.

In terms of brave statements made by a politician, that ranks right up there with “standing up to tax and spend liberals”, “defending America’s borders”, and “for the American family”; completely vague and useless.

Another letter to the reporter

http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/News/Other+News/200701226

you know the ground rules:  Here’s my letter.

I came across your story today and wanted to ask you about one section that the CSE didn’t seem to respond on.  Specifically, this:

Another problem is the spouse paying the support frequently does not return to court when that person’s income level drops.

‘A bad situation’

State child support payments come from a formula based on the income of the spouse paying it. To get that amount lowered, the person paying must first obtain an attorney and return to court. Instead, Perry said they frequently let the bill go up.

Whether or not you know it, whether or not you believe it, you have hit upon the classic catch 22 of reduction of child support: in order to get it, you have to get a lawyer and pay court fees.  If you can pay a lawyer a retainer and the court fees, then obviously you have money lying around and therefore can AFFORD to pay child support.  Has this dawned on those geniuses at CSE?  Have they thought about streamlining the process so parents can go to a mediator, a “NCP advocate”, somebody who would help them?
Nah, it’s all about the money and how far we can jack up that figure in order to convince lawmakers to implement tougher figures.

Here’s a chance for you in Kansas to be heard

The Kansas Supreme Court is taking comments on how to reform the child support system. Like you, I am very cynical of the government, but cynicism does not change minds. We need to give positive ideas to this government. We may be heard, we may not be heard, but all of you need to give the court an opinion on what you are going through as a non custodial parent. If you live in Kansas, surf on over to kscourts.org and fill out the survey.And while you’re at it, if you do, e-mail me with the comments.

An NCP alert: Father at risk

If any of you read this, I would urge you to give Governor Deval call and ask him to issue a stay on this. Dan Iagatta is three days away from being forced either out on the street or into a “long term care facility” in order to satisfy a divorce decree. And we can all imagine what sort of facilities the government would put him in.

Attention F4J Team –

We have an emergency situation wherein F4J team member Dan Iagatta of Massachusetts is slated to be forcibly removed from his home this Friday unless we are successful in petitioning Governor Deval Patrick to issue a stay on the order. If you are not already familiar with Dan, he is a father and quadriplegic who is fighting to keep his home which has been modified with wheelchair ramps, etc. in order to accommodate his disability. The courts would rather sell Dan’s house, give his ex the profits and commit Dan to a long term care facility which is unacceptable.

We need EVERYONE to call Governor Patrick’s office to beg for him to step in to help Dan. We’re counting on YOU to help us flood their switchboards! Tell them F4J sent you!!

State House
Office of the Governor
Office of the Lt. Governor
Room 360
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: (617) 725-4005
(888) 870-7770 (instate use only)
FAX: (617) 727-9725
TTY: (617) 727-3666

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and effort!

Judi Smith-Phelps
National Board of Directors
Fathers-4-Justice/U.S.*
FIGHTING FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE & EQUALITY IN FAMILY LAW
(614) 448-3276
http://www.f4j.us

*Fathers-4-Justice-US is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) charitable organization.