IP: [FP] National registry to track child support

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

From: "ScanThisNews" <mcdonalds@airnet.net>
Subject: IP: [FP] National registry to track child support
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 06:59:33 -0500
To: ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com

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SCAN THIS NEWS
09/28/98

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Ya know, they could darn near track anyone with this thing...
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09/28/98- Updated 12:15 AM ET
 The Nation's Homepage

National registry to track child support

WASHINGTON - Beginning Wednesday, every one of the 16 million parents
nationwide who are required to pay child support will be logged into a
massive database to help the federal government track down those who fail to
pay.

[Well that's nice, now they'll be in there with the rest of us sheeple.]

The registry will allow authorities to keep tabs on the more than 5 million
parents, most of them fathers, who have moved to another state after a
divorce, separation or breakup.

[Yea, and about 200 million of us who haven't.]

Many reneged or fell behind on support payments, says Michael Kharfen, a
spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which will
run the database.

"Before, it was very difficult for a state to track down where the parent
went, where he was working and how much money he was actually making,"
Kharfen says. "This database will track them, no matter where in the country
they move."

[Hey Keefer, there was a reason it was difficult - it was called liberty!]

Critics of the registry say it violates the privacy of law-abiding parents.
"Because someone gets a divorce doesn't mean their job, their income, should
become an open book," fathers' rights attorney D. Gerald Williams says.

[Wrong answer: critics are opposed to it because it violates fundamental
rights of the "non-delinquent" citizens by forcing them into the same
"locating and tracking" system.]

Kharfen counters that the system is critical to states, which collect only
about 22% of the $50 billion owed in child support every year. By federal
estimates, 60% of parents involved in child custody cases renege on their
payments.

[Keefer - get out of the social payments system altogether. Then, you won't
have this huge problem you've created -- "tracking delinquent parents."]

Officials estimate that the system will recoup $10 billion in delinquent
payments a year.

[Probably about 20% of what the system costs to operate, and about 5% of
what the "system" spends as a whole.]

To track down scofflaws, the government will compare its list of parents
with another new database that contains employment records for more than 140
million workers in the United States. That database, which was unveiled in
October 1997, lists an employee's identity, address and salary.

By cross-referencing lists, "we'll be able to tell the state that's looking
for him whether they should start going for his paycheck," Kharfen says.

[And it's about time for the citizenry to start going after some
Congressmen's paycheck Keefer, then, perhaps, yours to follow!]

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

[With comments by Scott McDonald - today]

http://search.usatoday.com/plweb-cgi/fastweb?getdoc+default+news+5734+0+wAAA
+registry

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[thanks to J. Groom for the forward]
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