Thanks to Kent Snyder for pointing out that DC Conservatives are all for Bush’s proposal to use the power of the federal government to promote marriage . Yet these same people have the gall to claim to be against social engineering.

The idea that the federal government can save marriage reminds me of something Ronald Reagan once said: “If government subsidized beaches, we would have a shortage of sand.”

The idea that the government “promote” marriage first surfaced in the GOP’s “welfare reform” bill.
Here is what Ron Paul had to say about marriage socialism during the debate on welfare reform:

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4 further expands the reach of the federal government by authorizing approximately $10 million dollars for new “marriage promotion” programs. I certainly recognize how the welfare state has contributed to the decline of the institution of marriage. As an ob-gyn with over 30 years of private practice, I know better than most the importance of stable, two parent families to a healthy society. However, I am skeptical, to say the least, of claims that government education programs can fix the deep-rooted cultural problems responsible for the decline of the American family.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, federal promotion of marriage opens the door for a level of social engineering that should worry all those concerned with preserving a free society. The federal government has no constitutional authority to promote any particular social arrangement; instead, the founders recognized that people are better off when they form their own social arrangements free from federal interference. The history of the failed experiments with welfarism and socialism shows that government can only destroy a culture; when a government tries to build a culture, it only further erodes the people’s liberty.