In the hands of Greg Abbott, the Texas child support enforcement program is primarily a source of statistics for him to use in order to congratulate himself in his frequent self-praising press releases. It is an outrage for this slick public relations hound of a politician to use children and distressed family situations in such a manner, and especially to do so on the taxpayers' dollar through the Attorney General's personal print shop.
Every day scores of people affected by the program -- both custodial and non-custodial parents -- experience crisis and panic because either (a) as a custodial parent they are not receiving their child support payments, causing severe economic distress for struggling single parents and their children, or (b) as a non-custodial parent they are erroneously classified as "deadbeats," causing the loss of liberty and/or devastating financial consequences when they are not in fact delinquent in their support obligations.
In case after case, the affected individuals make panicky calls to the Office of Attorney General to find resolution, but then sit through a series of automated voice-mail menus and cannot find anyone to help them. I know this because I have met many of these good Texans â€" at almost every stop in my whistlestop tour of Texas, victims of Abbott's unresponsive system have approached me and pleaded for help. In 247 counties across the great state of Texas, not one time has anyone told me the system worked for THEM. The stories people have told me of being abused by a system that is supposed to provide sustenance for the children are appalling and consistently the same â€" they were disrespected, insulted, demoralized and degraded. They are suffering and even worse, their children are suffering. If the Attorney General were doing his job the child support system would reunite more families, but instead they are ripped into further shreds and the emotional and financial damage caused by distressed relationships is further compounded.
Greg Abbott brags about statistics because statistics are all that is important to him; the individuals and their circumstances do not matter. Instead of working WITH parents to help them provide safe and loving environments for their children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, Abbott chooses instead to use our society's tragic level of human anguish in these situations as a political bragging point that reflects the warped value system of an ambitious career politician for whom human beings are nothing more than fodder for his ambition. To cite the gross dollar amount of child support collected tells us nothing about how individuals are treated, it tells us nothing about the accuracy of collections, and in fact it tells us nothing about the percentage of debt owed that was collected. But it does tell us that the incumbent attorney general is a nonstop public relations machine and self-promoting career politician.
The child support enforcement program needs overhauling and with the help of other honest public servants I will overhaul it. Both parents matter in a child's life and as Attorney General I will do everything in my power to help these human beings through a painful and emotionally draining time by properly addressing each person's rights and responsibilities, instead of simply meeting the mandated "goals" while leaving a trail of human destruction from Texarkana to El Paso and from Dalhart to McAllen. This will be a long-range project and there is no immediate "quick fix", but I am equal to the task.
In my tour of Texas many conscientious local government officials have given me constructive ideas for possible solutions. Early in my term as attorney general I am going to convene a conference of interested local government officials from all over Texas, not to be lectured to, but to be listened to as we brainstorm together for long-range solutions. For example, it may be that some or all of the centralized bureaucracy in the Attorney General's office should be disbanded and some part or all of the program be returned to the counties and districts, where government is closer to the people and generally more responsive.
To deal with the immediate emergencies of the great number of individuals whose crises are not being addressed, when I take office I will immediately establish an office of live ombudsmen with the responsibility to talk to the callers in person and to follow through with rapid investigation and resolution of complaints. While Greg Abbott claims to have an ombudsman unit, the truth is that every caller who contacts the ombudsman division, if they can wade through the voice-mail menus, is immediately referred back to the child support unit where their problems began. Not on my watch.
When you pit one parent against the other in a manner that compounds the conflict, you cannot help but further wound the children involved. This must stop and it must stop now. It is my belief that most parents honestly and genuinely want to do right by their children. Under my administration, each and every parent will be afforded that opportunity to step to the plate, accept responsibility and work together to support their children in every way -- financially, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Those parents who refuse to act in their children's best interests will be compelled to accept financial responsibility through the strict rule of law. If they are defiant of their responsibilities on my watch the official response will be extremely tough. But under Greg Abbott's administration, emotionally and financially distressed parents are not encouraged or given real opportunities to work together constructively for the sake of their children. All is fine with Greg Abbott as long as he gets the statistics he thinks he needs to promote his ambitious political career. Abbott's promotion of himself through the exploitation of children and human tragedies has to stop now. When I am Attorney General, children -- not politics -- will be the most important priority in child support enforcement.
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