[risk]

The chances are about 0% that society will decide not to address married couples in one special way or another. You can't avoid this battle by pretending that married couples don't exist from the government's perspective.

[King Prout]

for pete's sake, the government is not the society, or vice-versa.

I am not dodging the battle, I am picking the terrain and limiting my enemy's selection of weapons, so that I can win the battle.

to do otherwise is tactically and strategically unsound.

This subject is outside of the government's mandate - if you give them the power to decide, you lose that power and lose all right to bitch about how they decide the matter for you.

DO YOU GET IT NOW???