Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 67

Out of Focus on the Family
63
big reason: It’s cheap. On average, it would add 1 percent—2
percent tops—to employers’ benefit costs,” says Susan
Sandler, editor of a newsletter, HRfocus, for the Institute of
Management and Administration in New York. .
“Legalizing gay marriage isn’t that costly in economic terms.
In fact, research suggests it should save money for federal and
state governments.”
It would seem same-sex marriage would be good for government and good for
business.
7. Social Security will be severely stressed.
The whole of this argument reads:
Again, with millions of new eligible dependents, what will
happen to the Social Security system, which is already facing
bankruptcy? If it does collapse, what will that mean for elderly
people who must rely totally on that meager support? Who is
thinking through these draconian possibilities as we careen
toward “a brave new world”? (59)
“Who is thinking through these draconian possibilities?” The
Republican Party is, and made the case to the U. S. House Judiciary
Subcommittee during May 2004 hearings on the proposed Federal Marriage
Amendment. Rep. Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican, cited a recent
General Accounting Office report that detailed 1,138 federal laws in which
marital status is a factor in receiving benefits, rights, or privileges. The laws
affect everything from a spouse’s ability to collect Social Security, disability,
and veterans’ benefits to legal rights to file joint tax returns, apply for joint
homeowners’ insurance, or claim family leave to care for a sick partner. Bachus
also cited a Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of a bill proposed by
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to offer domestic-partner benefits to federal
employees. The CBO predicted that providing health care and retirement
benefits to the partners of current and former federal workers would cost an
estimated $1.4 billion between 2004 and 2013 (www.cbo.gov). $1.4 billion
between 2004 and 2013? In late 2003, President Bush spent $1.5 billion on a
single faith-based PR campaign to “protect marriage.”
In 2004 the Congressional Budget Office found that allowing same-sex
couples to marry would actually boost federal income tax revenues by $400
million per year until the end of this decade mainly because of the so-called
“marriage penalty.” Social security payments would rise over time, as would
spending on spousal health insurance benefits for federal workers. Other
expenditure items would be much lower, however, since spending on Medicaid