Video evidence - Defends the system
Charles Smith
Executive Commissioner, Texas Health and Human Services Commission; former head of the Texas child support division (as introduced on the panel)
Video: The limited reach of the child support enforcement system | LIVE STREAM
American Enterprise Institute panel, "The limited reach of the child support enforcement system", 2016-12-05
Charles Smith
American Enterprise Institute panel, "The limited reach of the child support enforcement system" - 2016-12-05
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What is said at 54:15
"and it started uh as a cost recovery uh program [...] and while it's easy for for us and for some to say that uh the the state should not recover the the [TANF] funds and that those [arrears] should not uh go to the state, um, what we fail to see is that that custodial parent is receiving those [TANF] benefits [...] because often times that non-custodial parent is not paying child support, and so in an essence what's happened is that the taxpayers have stepped up and begin to pay child support uh for that non-custodial parent."
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions. Checked 2026-10-13.
What they argue
Defends welfare cost recovery as reimbursing taxpayers who covered unpaid support, and opposes broad arrears forgiveness as sending the wrong message, while warning against villainizing noncustodial parents.
Position label: Defends the system. It describes this clip only, and "abolish" is used only when the speaker says it.
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