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Gallup: Higher Marriage Rate Could Boost the Economy

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Photo Credit: APMarried Americans spend more than their unmarried counterparts, suggesting that if the marriage rate increases, overall spending in the U.S. might also increase, benefiting the U.S. economy.

Those are the findings of a Gallup Daily tracking survey conducted Jan. 1-Sept. 30, 2013 among 135,537 adults contacted randomly by telephone in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.

To get an estimate of discretionary spending, Gallup asked Americans to report how much money they spent the prior day, excluding payments for normal household bills and major purchases such as homes or cars.

The survey found that married Americans report a daily spending average of $102, followed by $98 among those who are living in domestic partnerships, $74 by divorced Americans, $67 by those who are single and never married, and $62 by those who are widowed. Across all age groups, those who were married spend more than those of other marital statuses.

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IRS Sued By The National Organization For Marriage For Leaking Tax Information

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) filed suit against the federal government and the Internal Revenue Service Thursday, claiming it had “irrefutable proof” someone within the agency illegally leaked the conservative organization’s confidential tax returns to its ideological opponents last year.

NOM is seeking damages from the disclosure, as well as to overturn a statute shielding the IRS from disclosing any information about the incident, according to a complaint filed by the Act Right Legal Foundation on behalf of NOM in the Eastern District of Virginia Thursday.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) obtained the NOM’s 2008 tax returns in February 2012, which contained an unredacted list of donors, including presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

The president of the HRC became a national co-chair for the Obama reelection campaign in 2012 a day later.

NOM Chairman John Eastman said the group was able to remove redaction layers from the PDF documents that were leaked, showing that they came from within the IRS. The unauthorized disclosure of tax information is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

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Lawmaker: Impeach Officials Who Issue Homosexual Marriage Licenses, Refuse to Defend Marriage Laws

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Photo Credit: LifeSiteNewsPennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has followed the lead of Barack Obama and Jerry Brown by refusing to uphold the state’s law protecting marriage between one man and one woman. At least one legislator thinks it is time she paid for violating her oath of office.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, has said Kane’s actions merit impeachment, because they spread “lawlessness.”

“I think breaking the law is worthy of impeachment,” Metcalfe told local media. “Her duty is to defend the law.

Shortly after her announcement, Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes began issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, despite the fact that state law forbids such unions. As of Friday afternoon, Hanes had issued 62 marriage licenses to homosexual couples, and 13 of their recipients have completed wedding ceremonies.

“By her example, this Montgomery County official felt emboldened to violate the law also,” Metcalfe said.

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Going Galt: Why Men are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood and the American Dream

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

[According to Dr. Helen Smith, the author of the new book, Men on Strike,] men are checking out of society . . . because we are making rational decisions about changing incentives.

Let’s take marriage, for example, where higher-educated women seem to be having a harder and harder time finding men worthy (or willing) to tie the knot. “[T]he incentives to marry have changed for men,” explains Smith, “and they are no longer willing to risk so much more than in previous years to gain potentially less.”

In the old days, Smith explains, a man might expect to be king of the castle. Now days, she says, he might be relegated to a “man cave” in the basement, and — if lucky — granted missionary position sex once a week. Or he becomes, as she told me, “some shlub, carrying around a flowered diaper bag.”

But if the benefits of marriage have declined for men, the downsides haven’t. Men who marry can expect to pay disproportionately for a divorce, even if the wife cheats. And as Smith points out, sometimes men are on the hook for child support, even after DNA tests prove they aren’t the father.

“[T]he new world order is a place where men are discriminated against, forced into a hostile environment in school and later in college, and held in contempt by society,” she writes. ”Maybe there is no incentive to grow up anymore,” she continues.

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US Marriage Rate at Lowest Point in Over a Century

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Photo Credit: Mike Kemp, Getty Images/Rubberbal

Photo Credit: Mike Kemp, Getty Images/Rubberbal

The marriage rate is at its lowest point in more than a century, and the number of marriages across the USA fell more than 5% during the recession. But a new analysis projects that pent-up demand and the large population of marriage-eligible Millennials, ages 18-34, means more will be headed to the altar over the next two years.

Cultural changes about whether and when to marry, the fact that two-thirds of first marriages are preceded by cohabitation and the recession’s financial fallout — including unemployment and underemployment — fueled the wedding decline. Projections from the private company Demographic Intelligence of Charlottesville, Va., says the signs are right for a temporary boost in weddings.

The company projects a 4% increase in the number of weddings since 2009, reaching 2.168 million this year; 2.189 million in 2014. Depending on the economic recovery, the report projects a continuing increase to 2.208 million in 2015.

Although it finds marriage numbers are stagnant or declining among those with a high school education or less, younger Americans, and the less affluent, numbers are rising among women ages 25-34, the college-educated and the affluent, which is where “short-term increases in weddings will be concentrated,” says this analysis, released exclusively to USA TODAY. It’s based on a variety of measures, including unemployment and consumer confidence, which reflect the relationship between financial security and the transition to marriage.

“Declines in weddings are likely to set in towards the end of the decade, even though the number of young adults is increasing, because of the nation’s ongoing retreat from marriage,” the report notes.

Photo Credit: National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau

Photo Credit: National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau

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America’s Cousins on Cusp of ‘Gay’ Marriage

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Photo Credit: WNDWhile the U.S. awaits two Supreme Court decisions on the issue, both Australia and the United Kingdom look increasingly likely to follow as the next nations to permit same-sex “marriage.”

And just like in the U.S., the subject is creating deep divisions between segments of the population promoting homosexuality – and vowing to stay true to the Judeo-Christian values that have guided civilizations for millennia.

In Britain, a bill already has passed the lower House of Commons and now moves on to the upper House of Lords, and could be enacted as soon as May 2014.

Similarly, in Australia, the Greens (far left) party’s deputy leader has indicated he will seek to have his Marriage Equality Amendment Bill brought on for a vote in the House of Representatives on June 6. The amendment, if passed, would make same-sex marriage lawful in Australia, following 14 other countries and several American states that have moved on the issue.

The rapid emergence of “gay marriage” as a matter of prominence has stunned many in both nations, in line with America’s surprise when Maine, Maryland and Washington State endorsed moves to allow gay marriage in last year’s election.

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See, I Told You So …

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Photo Credit: RichardBowen

I remember when the debate over same-sex marriage first began.

I debated homosexual activists in the media and explained that it really wasn’t a matter of “marriage equality” as they claimed. After all, if marriage is no longer limited to unions between men and women, why should the institution be limited to couples?

“Ridiculous,” I would be told. “There’s just no demand for polygamy and group marriage.”

I remember laughing and explaining to homosexuals activists, who represent, at most, 1 percent of the population, that polygamy is supported by perhaps 20 percent of the population worldwide, including one of the three major religions.

It was inevitable, I explained, that you could not change the definition of marriage without opening up a Pandora’s box of other taboos like polygamy.

That box has now been blown open – and not just by Muslims, who have been strangely quiet about the same-sex marriage debate, in part, I suspect, because they know where it will lead. It has also been blown open by liberal, secular women, including Jillian Keenan in an article in Slate.

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Homosexual Activist-Journalist Admits True Purpose of Battle is to Destroy Marriage

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Photo Credit: Illinoisfamily.org

Even knowing that there are radicals in all movements, doesn’t lessen the startling admission recently by lesbian journalist Masha Gessen. On a radio show she actually admits that homosexual activists are lying about their radical political agenda. She says that they don’t want to access the institution of marriage; they want to radically redefine and eventually eliminate it.

Here is what she recently said on a radio interview:

“It’s a no-brainer that (homosexual activists) should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist. …(F)ighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there — because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie.

The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don’t think it should exist. And I don’t like taking part in creating fictions about my life. That’s sort of not what I had in mind when I came out thirty years ago.

I have three kids who have five parents, more or less, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t have five parents legally… I met my new partner, and she had just had a baby, and that baby’s biological father is my brother, and my daughter’s biological father is a man who lives in Russia, and my adopted son also considers him his father. So the five parents break down into two groups of three… And really, I would like to live in a legal system that is capable of reflecting that reality, and I don’t think that’s compatible with the institution of marriage.”

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Media Silent as “Massive Group” Marches For Traditional Marriage In Washington, D.C.

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Photo Credit: The Gateway Pundit

On Tuesday, a massive group of pro-traditional marriage supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. to participate in a “March for Marriage,” the Christian Post reported. But despite a gathering of “hundreds, if not thousands” of supporters, Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit said the major media did not cover the event.

Saying that the march “did not fit the media’s narrative,” Hoft said that it was though the event “never happened.”

As of this writing, a Google search reveals that aside from the Christian Post and various blogs, the “mainstream media” did not cover the march.

The Christian Post said the event, sponsored by several groups that support the traditional definition of marriage, started at the National Mall and moved to the Supreme Court where justices were hearing oral arguments regarding California’s Proposition 8.

The march featured contemporary Christian music and speakers from across the religious spectrum.

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The Argument For “Marriage Equality” Is NOT a Conservative One

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marriage equality

Photo Credit: RedState

This week the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on same California’s Prop 8 and a section of the Defense of Marriage Act which deals with benefits for same sex couples. Same sex marriage is front and center once again and I’ve heard some interesting arguments on how supporting government involvement in defining marriage is a “conservative” ideal. During the Sunday morning talk show circuit, former Bush communications adviser took the moderate position emerging within the GOP against American Values’ Gary Bauer. Nicole Wallace tried to argue that supporting “marriage equality” is a conservative position. No, it is not.

I’ve never understood how anyone who spent the past four-plus years lamenting the size of government could then argue for its increase by inviting it into the discussion of marriage. We complain about government in health care, we complain about government in education, we complain about government regulating soft drink size, but suddenly some of us have no problem with more government in people’s relationships with one another. Marriage is a covenant between a man, woman, and God before God on His terms. It is a religious civil liberty, not a right granted by government. It should never have been regulated by government in the first place, and government shouldn’t have an expanded reach in further regulating it now. There is no allowance constitutionally that invites our government to define the religious covenant of marriage.

I’ve no issue with same sex couples entering into contractual agreements with each other or sharing benefits (the military decisions should be made by those with the credit of service day in and day out, not civilian advocacy groups). Isn’t that the goal of this conflict? If so, to me, that’s an issue separate from marriage. In suing over “marriage” itself one is demanding that God change His definition of the union between a man and a woman. If recognition of status, ease with other contractual obligations, and other issues are the issues, why the need to force people of faith to alter recognition of God’s Word on the matter? The people may bend as reeds to lawfare, but God will not. Frankly, I see no point in being on any side other than God’s on any matter, and God is more small government than any player in the scene.

In suing over marriage one is demanding that others modify their beliefs to accommodate another. Do not people of faith retain their First Amendment liberty of freedom of religion?

California voters in Prop 8 are awaiting to see if elections in their state matter. Advocacy groups vilified Mormons yet according to numerous local media reports based on exit polling data, black and latino communities provided “key support” in the passage of Prop 8. The left had a more difficult time vilifying these voting blocs because it’s harder to ask them for votes later. Despite democracy in our constitutional republic working as it should, voters were sued to have their votes in a taxpayer-paid-for election overturned. The gap in the door will widen for lawsuits if the goal of homogenization isn’t realized. Prop 8 is just the beginning. Do you doubt?

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