Imagine a late-night television commercial aimed at Washington’s wonks: Tired of your same old tax credits and grant proposals? Ever dreamed of a policy tool that improved children’s health, bolstered income and eradicated poverty — all without costing the government a penny? Then, a smash cut to a wedding scene.
With Democrats and Republicans pitted against one another in a vicious election-year battle over how to alleviate poverty, marriage is the policy solution du jour. Take a speech given by Senator Marco Rubio last month on the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, Lyndon B. Johnson’s governmental campaign to boost the opportunity and incomes of the poor. When it started, “93 percent of children born in the United States were born to married parents. By 2010 that number had plummeted to 60 percent,” Rubio said, calling marriage “the greatest tool to lift children and families from poverty.”
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