Joe Walsh: Child Support Claims 'Wildly Inaccurate,' Will Fight Them Privately

Freshman Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) told supporters at a town hall meeting on Thursday that claims of his sizable missed child support payments are "wildly and off-the-charts inaccurate."

"When I go to my grave a year or 10 or 100 from now, there's only one thing I want on my tombstone, 'He tried to be a hell of a dad,'" Walsh said at the rally, according to the Northwest Herald in Illinois. "This is different because this is personal."

The news of the child support claim first broke in the Chicago Sun-Times last week, which reported the story in the heat of the debt-ceiling debate. The paper got a hold of a court filing by Walsh's ex-wife, seeking $115,294 in back payments with interest.

In her filing, Laura Walsh claims that Joe only paid limited child support from November 2005 through March 2008, and stopped paying altogether at that point.

The congressman refuted that claim in a press release at the time, calling the Sun-Times story a "hit piece." He stepped up his rhetoric against the media at the town hall meeting.

"This is something I'm going to fight, but I'm going to do it privately and legally," Walsh said, according to the Lake in the Hills Patch. "There is no way the media will get me to talk about my three kids. I won't do it!"

As a member of the House of Representatives, Walsh currently makes $175,000 a year.

Comments

[mr e vader]

05:57 PM on 08/09/2011

He's right: having him as a dad would be hell.

[Gordon Hoeft]

11:53 AM on 08/09/2011

Dirt Bag

[Chris Sirhc]

07:59 AM on 08/09/2011

While high profile cases like congressman Walsh make headlines, most child support arrearages are owed by poor fathers. From two months ago in the Huff Post, in California 80% of the debt is owed by people earning less than $15k/year.

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­2011/04/21­/californi­a-child-su­pport-_n_8­52341.html

"Non-custo­dial parents owe a near-recor­d $19.2 billion in delinquent child support payments in California – a stubbornly large amount that researcher­s blame primarily on the state's high interest rate for debt.

The Department of Child Support Services arrears – which peaked at $20 billion in 2007 – has been largely driven by the number of low-income parents in the program. The debt load has been accruing since 1975 and the department estimates that about 80 percent of the arrears is owed by parents who make less than $15,000 a year.”

[Jolene Clark]

08:36 PM on 08/08/2011

At one of my hearings, my judge, and a woman at that, told my ex "Don't pontificate with me, Mr. ____. If you don't pay your child support, next time you come to court, you'd better bring your toothbrush with you because you'll be spending the night". It did my heart good! Walsh's exwife didn't pull that 100k+ number out of her butt; the fact that it's in court papers lends it a great deal of credibility. He should be in jail, like all the other "regular" citizens who don't pay.

[DHa7763100]

05:07 PM on 08/08/2011

At my divorce the judge told my soon to be "dead beat dad", that if he did not pay, then he was in contempt of court and would go to jail. I wonder if Walsh has been threatened with jail??

[DHa7763100]

04:59 PM on 08/08/2011

For those of you who said Facebook and other methods of contacting him are not working...I just sent a fax to his office in Congress in DC. The fax number is 1-202-225-7830. I tried faxing his Illinois office but there was no answer.
I agree that he is a waste of space. I don't understand why we can't get these people out of office when we find that they are not holding up to their end of the bargain with the public. Why do we have to wait until the next election ? They work for us and we should be able to fire them without any retirement or benefits...just like the rest of the world..

[hotbarb2614]

05:53 PM on 08/08/2011

Thank You, I agree F&F

[ronniesbrain]

03:33 PM on 08/20/2011

I agree whole heartedly with you. On the bright side. Joe Walsh has been redistrcted out of a job after the next election, and with this hanging over his head as well as being a bagger, it is highly unlikely he will find a district that will take him.

[bass1451]

03:37 PM on 08/08/2011

How hard would it be for him to provide proof of his payments?

[Joyce Wickizer Nielsen]

02:55 PM on 08/08/2011

When I tried to ask about thison his Facebook Page when it first surfaced - I was blocked! This has only happed with him and Doug Lamborn (R-CO).

[ronniesbrain]

03:42 PM on 08/20/2011

Joe doesn't like to hear negatives about himself. I have emailed him on this and several other issues, and have only gotten back form letters from him expousing his bagger talking points. I am one of those unfortunates that life in this clowns district. One the upside though, Joe has been redistricted out of a job. His district won't exist after the next elections, and in the new 8th district Tammy Duckworth will be running on the democratic side, so even if he could run he would lose easily. To tell the truth, and I know it's a long way off, but I don't think the republicans will do well at all in the 2012 elections. There are way too many people angry with this congress.

[ronniesbrain]

03:45 PM on 08/20/2011

Excuse me, I meant to say 'live in his district', not life in his district.

[NOV42008]

02:55 PM on 08/08/2011

Anyone know if this guy included his children to receive government health care, the one he receives?

[thelilithian]

01:44 PM on 08/08/2011

A few years back I was working as a claims reporter for a major insurance company, and received a call from a client who had rear ended a brand new shiny back Jag going less than 5 miles an hour in a grocery store parking lot. The client was a teenage girl, and the owner of the Jag was a middle aged man. There was allegedly no visible damage to either vehicle due to the low speed and even though the client had offered Jag Man her insurance information numerous times, he insisted on calling police to the scene anyway. Over the telephone I could hear him screaming at her and calling her a myriad of colorful sexist names. She eventually had to lock herself in her car to shut out his abuse. Long story short- the police showed up per his request, ran Jag Man's license info and discovered the pompous blowhard owed over $150,000 in unpaid child support. His ridiculous car was impounded immediately.

My point being: sometimes justice is swift and sweet. Here's hoping, Congressman Walsh!

[ronniesbrain]

03:50 PM on 08/20/2011

Thank you for the feel good story.

[Pam Harris]

11:25 PM on 09/14/2011

Loved this story!

[gDogMan]

12:53 PM on 08/08/2011

Dat dirty ol' media. Always stirring up trouble for dad's who find it difficult to maintain their celebrity lifestyles and contribute to their kid's livelihoods. It's enough to make you climb down off the personal responsibility soap box and protest publication of your lack of personal responsibility.

What is America coming to when you can't abandon your responsibilities as a parent in private? Do we need a constitutional amendment to protect the privacy of non-supportive parents? Is there a national association of deadbeat dads to protect this abused minority of Americans? ;-)

[lombardsouth]

02:34 PM on 08/08/2011

I agree. In the old days you could drive drunk, slap the wife and kids once in awhile, have a little bit of sexually harassing fun, and tell bigoted jokes without getting a second look. And none of it was anybody's business but your own.

"Boy the way Glen Miller played, songs that made the hit parade, guys like us we had it made, those were the days, and you know where you were then, girls were girls and men were men, mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again, didn't need no welfare states everybody pulled his weight, gee our old Lasalle ran great, those were the days!"

---- All in the Family

[ronniesbrain]

03:53 PM on 08/20/2011

You can rest assured if such an association did exist, Joe would be the groups president.

[kareemachan]

12:30 PM on 08/08/2011

joey's a liar, joey's a liar.

[riverhouse]

11:55 AM on 08/08/2011

I don't believe in a high profile case the ex wife's attorney would have put in false sums in a court filing. Regardless of the amount owed, owing any money for the support of one's children is despicable behavior for a parent.

[ronniesbrain]

04:09 PM on 08/20/2011

No attorney worth his salt would take a chance on misrepresenting those figures in a court filing. Also I agree, it really doesn't matter if you owe anything you need to make it right.
According to the filing, he stopped paying any child support in March 2008. Funny thing, it was about this time that Joe loaned his campaign $35,000. So his arguement that he was out of work at the time, according to his attorney in a previous article, begs the question where did the $35,000 come from? According to the court documents, he was only paying partial child support payments from Nov. 2005 until he stopped altogether after March 2008.

[ronniesbrain]

04:15 PM on 08/20/2011

Sorry, I made a mistake, he laoned the $35,000 around March of 2010. I guess he just saved up his childsupport payments so he could run for office.

[ChangeAgent007]

01:31 AM on 08/08/2011

He brought his kids into his rhetoric by stating and I quote, "I will not place another $1 of debt upon my kids backs". Every month that passes in which he doesn't pay child support is placing several dollars of debt upon their backs.

Nice try, hypocrite.

Poor little Joey is getting picked on by the big bad media. Go cry me a river.


After looking at the records and doing the math, the accusations are not wildly inaccurate. He owes them a lot of money. Why it's taken him this long to address it, I have no idea. I cannot imagine a viable excuse for such a delay. Even if the amounts were inaccuate, he could have been paying something in the last two years and has not.

Actions speak louder than words, and this tells me that his kids are not a top priority.

[coolhandfreak]

12:54 AM on 08/08/2011

If this was a Democrat all of the Republican,holy roller screeching meemies would be all over this like flies on smelly mud.