One reason single parenthood has risen over the past half century is that federal welfare programs penalize marriage: When a couple marries, their household income is larger and benefits are accordingly reduced. From the perspective of federal budget makers, eliminating marriage penalties can be costly. However, in the Earned Income Tax Credit program, the cost of errors, fraud, and waste are much greater than the cost of fixing the program’s marriage penalty. Robert Rector calculates that $19 billion could be saved with reforms, while fixing the marriage penalty would cost about $3.3 billion.
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