Bill Press is a syndicated columnist, the co-host of CNN's Crossfire, which airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 p.m., and author of the newly-published book Spin This!

Bill Press: Bush's marriage push turns politics upside-down

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- I can't believe it, but it's true. I have had the political equivalent of a sex-change operation. I am no longer a liberal. I am a conservative.

I repeat. I, Bill Press, long-time liberal, am now a conservative.

I must be a conservative because I do, indeed, believe in keeping government out of our private lives, which is what all conservatives believe in. And that's why I oppose George Bush's plan to have the federal government play matchmaker.

Bill Clinton stole the issue of welfare reform from Republicans in 1996. He actually accomplished what Republicans starting with Ronald Reagan had just talked about. Clinton shook up the welfare system, requiring recipients who were able to work to get off the dole and get a job, cutting welfare rolls in half and effectively "ending welfare as we know it."

Now, with eyes on the November midterm elections, George Bush is trying to steal the issue back. He has presented his own welfare reform plan to Congress, the centerpiece of which is -- get this, fellow conservatives! -- convincing welfare moms to get married.

Yes, if Bush has his way, the federal government will spend $300 million a year on marriage counseling, education and technical assistance to unmarried mothers. One administration source told the New York Daily News that the proposal "could allow mothers to get paid for getting married."

Now, back when I was growing up in Delaware, shotgun weddings were not unusual. My own family had its share. But never before has the federal government been the one toting the shotgun. We conservatives know this is a dumb idea. It's not government's role to force people to march up the aisle or else.

Of course, marriage is a wonderful life experience -- or can be. And a healthy, two-parent relationship is the best environment for a kid to grow up in. But people have known that for centuries, on their own, with no prompting from Big Brother. Do poor women really need the federal government to tell them why, when and to whom to get married? Isn't this what we conservatives used to condemn as "social engineering?"

And what about the fact that half the children born out of wedlock are born to teenagers? Is the best solution for them to hurry up and get married at age 14, 15 or 16? Forcing pregnant teens to get married just creates more problems, and more demands for taxpayer dollars down the road.

There's another problem with Bush's plan: Marriage is not always a dream experience -- and a forced or rushed marriage can make things worse, not better.

"In much of the policy debates about fatherhood and marriage, it has been assumed that two-parent families are better for children than one-parent families," concludes a recently published report by Johns Hopkins University. "But a number of studies now suggest that the well-being of children in mother-stepfather families is no greater, on average, than in single-parent families."

The fact is, millions of single moms and dads are doing an excellent job raising their children today. Instead of suggesting that they are somehow inferior parents by staying single, and pressuring them to get married, Bush should give them the help they really need.

Child care, for example. Democrats propose adding $1 billion to increase the availability of child care for welfare moms -- which, for many, is absolutely essential to landing, and keeping, a job. Bush is opposed.

Everybody agrees, the key to getting off welfare is a job. This is why Democrats also proposed more funding for job-related programs like education, job training, literacy and job skills, as well as transportation and housing subsidies. Bush opposes them, too.

He just wants welfare moms to get married. He doesn't care whether they have a job or a roof over their head.

Even conservatives like me, who believe in smaller government, understand that, if you're spending money anyway, it's better to spend it helping people get a job than convincing them to get hitched.

However it works out, the debate over whether government should ring wedding bells has turned politics upside-down.

George Bush wants to expand the role of government. George Bush wants to insert more government into people's private lives. George Bush wants to experiment with taxpayer dollars by telling people to get married.

It's hard to tell who's a liberal and who's a conservative anymore.