Here’s a game to play:

You have $150 million to spend on anything you want that you think would help the United States. Really, you can spend it on anything. Education, environmental issues, the war effort, you name it.

President Bush is spending that large sum of money on marriage.

For the next five years, the U.S. government is setting aside $100 million a year to promote marriage and another $50 million a year to produce committed fathers.

The thought behind it is that if the government can get more low-income families to tie the knot and stay together, then those families are less likely to need federal assistance later.

While it seems like a good idea, there are flaws. First being that all one has to do to get a piece of that money is apply for a federal grant for your marriage counseling group. And there seems to be no cap.

The Associated Press reported that a “tiny business in Fresno County, Calif.”, Marriage Mentoring Ministries Inc., applied for two grants – that totaled $800,000. Churches often do marriage counseling for free or for small fees. It leads to questions of what kind of counseling these companies are doing that they need that much money.

It’s obvious something is wrong with this. These counseling companies can be good, but we should consider whether they are so helpful that they need $150 million of our tax money.

With the way divorce rates have been increasing, this seems like a waste of money for the amount of marriages that it might save. With many problems facing this country, I bet most people could spend $150 million more effectively.