It is a LOT about the tax benefits. Too bad a conservative gay couple (I’m sure there are some out there) couldn’t come up with the idea that ALL people should get the marriage break. Of course then the courts would probably just rule in “fairness” to get rid of the tax break altogether.
>> It is a LOT about the tax benefits.
Which argues for the elimination of the income tax. It is a chief mechanism of social engineering.
In 1999 I attended a wedding and at the rehearsal diner we just happened to be seated at the table with the principle involved in the gay marriage initiative from Hawaii. Remember that? And how Rush laughed at it? Well, I understood his angst and he was on a screed, as he couldn't visit his sick lifemate ( that has now changed ) but when he started on not being able to inherit his estate and access to gov't benefits, I quietly said to my better half, he doesn't need marriage, he needs a good Financial Adviser. ( tangent to this, in a less than 2 years, I got to see professionals that did just that, but that is another story)
I have posted this story a few times here in FR over the years, and no one bites to my theory, and that is maybe Marriage wasn't the proper solution, but a Flat Tax and or Fair Tax was. ( yes it is too late for that, potentially ). If their is an ample individual exemption ( or none at all ) and no filing status differences and no Death Tax than doesn't that get them parity?
Correct me if I am wrong here, but I don't see any other "contracts" they can't have access too, I can't see why a life insurance agent couldn't find insurable interest for a life policy for example.
However the Gov't "Free Cheese" is what concerns me. Yes this will give them parody but the Irony is SSI, Medicare, and Medicaid are unsustainable without true reform / privitization, so you are getting access to something that is an unsustainable legacy cost like Detroit's pensions and GM's health care? This is a "victory"? If it is, is it a hollow one given many gay entrepreneurs may have more fiscal Libertarian leanings that we might know about and understand these programs are a mess and we might agree on free market type reforms.
Baldwin isn't crazy with his tweet, this trick to try to beat Inheritance Taxes, I think in New Jersey someone is trying to do this, and I can't remember if the Judge said no.
Their was a brilliant Jurist / Ethical go to guy on Bill Bennett's show after the Supreme's rulled and noted the unintended consequences of this and the legal quick-sand trap it will be with continued legal upheaval and eventual challenges to freedom of religion will be mind boggling.
Unfortunately the fundamental transformation continues...