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He also brings a refreshing, and unusual, perspective to Washington each day: He says what he believes, floats ideas that might offend some, and doesn't hesitate to admit when he realizes he's wrong. After all, once a guy's beaten cancer, how much is he going to be frightened by critics and bureaucrats?

"If there are groups out there that want to stand in the public square and tell the American people that marriage is a horrible institution that needs to be deconstructed, well, fine, it's America. They can do that," he says. "I just don't think that's a message that resonates with most Americans around the kitchen table."

First, a cultural snapshot: Ninety to 95 percent of Americans are married, have been married, or will be married, Horn says. Despite the drivel you may have read about the popularity of "starter marriages," most Americans aspire to one, lifelong marriage—not a series of marriages. And scholarly research is showing that marriage, by and large, makes people happier, healthier, and better off financially.

Now the bad news: America's divorce rate, while a little lower than it stood a decade ago, remains "unacceptably high," Horn says. Out-of-wedlock births are historically high. Most concerning of all to Horn is "a false impression by young couples that the best way to insure a long-term, lifelong marriage is to cohabit before marriage—to make sure they're right for each other." He's not just moralizing. Indisputable evidence shows that couples who live together before marriage stand a far higher chance of getting divorced.

So we can agree that marriage as an institution isn't as healthy as it should be. But should government be in the business of providing access to marriage counseling, through vouchers for either religious or secular agencies? And aren't conservatives such as Horn all about family values, but also about government keeping its nose out of those private matters?

Horn contends government is already involved in family life. "Except it's all involvement after marriages fail, or fail to form in the first place," he says. "We spend extraordinary amounts of money to pick up the pieces after a marriage has failed, or when a child is born out of wedlock. It seems to us not unreasonable to spend a little bit of money to try to prevent some of those things from happening in the first place.

"You want to talk about government being involved in the intimate affairs of life?" Horn asks. "Go get a divorce. You're going to have the courts and government agencies telling you when you can see your kids, how often you can see your kids, how much money you have to spend on your kids. That's pretty intrusive."

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