Child Support Slavery
The Thirteenth Amendment stands for the principle that no man should be made to work for the benefit of another. Child Support Slavery stands at odds with this principle. We at Fix Family Courts have raised the Thirteenth Amendment issues with income-based child-support for many years and few listen. One person wakes up to the idea that the Thirteenth Amendment may be at issue in the abortion debate and its national news.
This article by Andrew Koppelman, in The Hill, raises some of the issues with the way in which restricting abortions implicates the Thirteenth Amendment where the government forces a woman to physically suffer and pay for a child she might otherwise have chosen not to have. Yet nobody bats an eye as compelled child-support payments that are directly tied to a man’s highest earnings potential, denying him all right to change jobs or to take a lesser paying job unless his income be imputed.
The state openly lies to the public claiming this is all about the interests of the child when in reality it is all about government money. Government aggressively pursues child-support payments because when a parent doesn’t pay, the government pays. The child never goes without, so the issue is NOT the child going without. The issue is the State’s purse.
A child’s parents who are married to each other have certain obligations regarding childcare. They must maintain minimum reasonable standards of childcare. In divorce, one parent is held to this standard while the other is held to a higher standard of owing a percentage of their income to the child at that parent’s highest ever income earnings, even where that earning comes from 20 hours per week of overtime pay. That parent becomes a slave for the State coffers and for the child, compelled to work far beyond everyone else’s mere 40 hours per week.
Many argue that this is NOT the chattel slavery that they believe the Thirteenth Amendment was enacted to prevent, but the Supreme Court has many times held that the Thirteenth Amendment is NOT limited in reach only to chattel slavery, stating that subjecting individuals to debts that compel them to work for the benefit of others violates the Thirteenth Amendment.
Child-support takes this even further in depriving the debt holder (duty of care holder or Obligor) of any possible relief in the form of purging the debts through bankruptcy, even where the childcare needs have been met and the child suffers nothing. Then, when a parent is unable to pay the slave wages or refuses to pay extortion prices for support that no other parents are required to pay, that Obligor parent is imprisoned in the State’s civil debtor’s prisons.
Even the civil penalties are not enough. Many states have criminal penalties for not paying the slave’s debt and the federal government jumps on the bandwagon as well with its own federal criminal child support penalties and punishments:
18 U.S.C. § 228- Failure to pay legal child support obligations
Section 228 of Title 18, United States Code, makes it illegal for an individual to willfully fail to pay child support in certain circumstances.
For one, an individual is subject to federal prosecution if he or she willfully fails to pay child support that has been ordered by a court for a child who lives in another state, or if the payment is past due for longer than 1 year or exceeds the amount of $5,000. A violation of this law is a criminal misdemeanor, and convicted offender face fines and up to 6 months in prison (See 18 U.S.C. § 228(a)(1)).
If, under the same circumstances, the child support payment is overdue for longer than 2 years, or the amount exceeds $10,000, the violation is a criminal felony, and convicted offenders face fines and up to 2 years in prison (See 18 U.S.C.§ 228(a)(3)).
Lastly, this statute prohibits individuals obligated to pay child support from crossing state lines or fleeing the country with the intent to avoid paying child support that has either been past due for more than 1 year or exceeds $5,000. (See 18 U.S.C. § 228(a)(2)). Any individual convicted of this crime may face up to 2 years in prison.
Notably, other than in the specific circumstances aforementioned, child support enforcement issues are handled by state and local authorities, and not by the federal government. Furthermore, all child support enforcement matters must be addressed at the local or state level before concerns can be raised at the federal level. And the federal government pays the states for this slavery service through Title IV-D federal incentive money paid to the states for creating child support orders and collecting on them under Sec. 458. [42 U.S.C. 658a]. And the state can use the federal money earned off of forcing you to continue to work at levels and at places you no longer want to work anywhere they want. It doesn’t get much clearer than that when you define modern day slavery.
The federal government pays states to create and manage the child support slave trade all in the name of protecting the federal coffers and saving money on welfare benefits. Always remember, child support is not about the child. Child support is about paying the government and saving the government money.
INCENTIVE PAYMENTS TO STATES
Sec. 458. [42 U.S.C. 658a]
(f) Reinvestment.—A State to which a payment is made under this section shall expend the full amount of the payment to supplement, and not supplant, other funds used by the State—
(1) to carry out the State plan approved under this part; or
(2) for any activity (including cost-effective contracts with local agencies) approved by the Secretary, whether or not the expenditures for the activity are eligible for reimbursement under this part, which may contribute to improving the effectiveness or efficiency of the State program operated under this part.
The state is not required to accept federal assistance, but with a deal this good, they all do. Accepting federal assistance makes the states obligated to do certain things to receive that money. The percentage of incentive money that they receive is dependent on how much they collect. Congress knows the deal they have made with the states on domestic relations. This is also why the federal courts fight so hard to look the other way when you try and complain about the state violating your parental rights and your children’s rights in federal suits. But remember when slavery was sanctioned by the United States Constitution. That got overturned. And there was a lot of money involved in that unjust practice as well. So it is not hopeless, just a son of a bitch to get it overturned.
Abortion cases for Family Law Precedent
Many of the Supreme Court’s essential family law rulings come from abortion cases where the Court wrangles with the family rights issues involved in one parent determining whether a child lives or dies. We look forward to the resolution of the Texas Heartbeat Act, SB 8, for this reason and we look forward to abortion activists continuing to raise the slavery issue in regard to compelled childcare simply because the federal courts care about abortion rights while they care nothing at all for the family rights of living children. With the hopes that finally parents going through child custody will eventually be included in these unjust practices.
Limitations on state child support awards
The State simply cannot create a duty for you to pay a percentage of your income to another person and punish you for taking lesser paying jobs without openly violating the Thirteenth Amendment. The fact that the federal government is enticing the states to violate your rights certainly makes it harder for you to get the state to stop doing it. However, knowing this makes it easier for you to understand what fight you need to make. You have rights that protect you against punitive child support awards, if you will just stand up and assert them.
Conclusion of Child Support Slavery
It takes blogs like this one and Koppleman’s to call out the practices driving the unconstitutional practices so that American citizens know what must be defeated. Until then the states will continue to treat noncustodial parents like slaves to the state, slaves to the ex, and slaves to their children, because you are.
