The phrase “nanny state” is no longer idiomatic.

ABC News reports that the Department of Health and Human Services is spending $50 million in programs to discourage sex among people age 12 to 29 years old.

HHS officials say it’s not a requirement — just another option for states to combat what they call an alarming rise in out-of-wedlock births.

A record 1.5 million babies were born to single mothers in 2004, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. More than half of them were born to women in their early 20s.

AFDC and other government programs spent money to reward bad behavior in the beginning, and now we have to spend more money later on to discourage it. This is a double-hit of government spending that should have been completely avoided. There are more effective social mechanisms which don’t require the confiscation of our incomes.