[John O]

Government exists to provide for the betterment of life for all it's citizens. On prerequisite of a better life is a better next generation. Children as best raised in a home where their father and mother are married to each other. Government encourages the production of the next generation of citizens by protecting the marriage contract.

[GovernmentShrinker]

This doesn't do a thing for all the kids born outside of marriages, and/or within marriages between irresponsible people, and those are where the real problems lie. There is no evidence to suggest that getting government out of the marriage business will have any negative effect on those families with meaningful marriages that contribute to good child-rearing. Those people have better reasons for running their lives the way they do, than some government-issued license (the same license issued to "J-Lo" and her past and future "husbands", to Cher for her 8-day marriage to Gregg Allmann, to Elizabeth Taylor and her dizzying series of 8 husbands, and countless non-celebrities who seek to legitimize their flimsy fleeting useless-to-society relationships by getting government-issued "licenses" for them).

[Kevin Curry]

You're right, of course.