Posted on 08/27/2014 3:07:02 AM PDT by markomalley
One hundred ten million! That’s how many Americans now live in households that receive some form of means-tested welfare benefit from the federal government. According to a report from the Census Bureau released last week, that’s the highest absolute number in American history, and it represents 35.4 percent of the American population. Think about it — more than one out of every three Americans live in households that are now on welfare. Looked at another way, America’s welfare state now has nearly three times the population of the largest actual state.
Because many of these households include more than one person, the number of individual households is smaller, but still a record – roughly 33.5 million, more than a quarter of the country’s households. Worse, 10.5 million households receive benefits from three or more separate programs.
While liberals would undoubtedly like to blame this on the bad economy, the welfare rolls have actually grown by nearly 4 million households since the end of the recession. Welfare is rising even as unemployment declines.
On the other hand, the growing welfare caseload cannot be blamed solely on President Obama. True, the number of people on welfare has increased by 12.5 million since he took office. But welfare also increased during the Bush administration: The proportion of households receiving SNAP (food stamps), TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), or SSI (Supplemental Security Income for the disabled) increased 36 percent during his presidency.
And none of these numbers include the middle-class social-welfare programs like Medicare and Social Security. Counting these programs, more than 153 million Americans, nearly half the population (49.5 percent), are living in households now dependent on government for a significant portion of their income.
Of course seniors may object to linking entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare with welfare programs, since they paid payroll taxes that they were told financed those programs. But, in reality, payroll taxes are simply taxes like any other form of tax and are unrelated to benefits. As the Supreme Court held in Helvering v. Davis (1937), “The proceeds of both [the employer and employee] taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like internal revenue generally, and are not earmarked in any way.”
Besides, if you counted taxes paid into the system, today’s seniors get back far more than they ever contributed. For example, a two-earner middle-income couple will pay roughly $150,000 in Medicare taxes over their working lifetimes. While that is a great deal of money, that family can also expect to receive more than $350,000 in benefits. Young people may end up net losers when it comes to Social Security, but today’s retirees can expect to be big winners.
There are also some 2.76 million non-military federal employees, and millions more who depend on government contracts. Nor should we forget government subsidies paid to corporations, farmers, and others.
According to calculations by Harvard’s Greg Mankiw, based on data from the Office of Management and Budget, roughly 60 percent of Americans receive more in government benefits than they pay in federal taxes. A Tax Foundation study suggests that as many as 70 percent of Americans are net recipients of government largesse. Those numbers will only grow worse in the future.
Increasingly, the welfare state is us.
These numbers should scare us for two reasons. A healthy economy cannot realistically depend on an ever-shrinking number of people to produce the wealth that will be distributed to the larger population. As Margaret Thatcher reputedly said about the problem facing modern welfare states, eventually they “always run out of other people’s money.”
Yet, it should also be clear that the more people there are who depend on government programs, the harder it becomes to cut those programs. That is not to say that the people on those programs are freeloaders or refuse to take responsibility for their lives. But it does mean that they have a vested interest in maintaining those programs. Simply look at what is happening in European countries today. Despite the fact that their welfare states have become unaffordable, any attempt to trim benefits leads to massive resistance.
Have we reached that tipping point yet? No, but we may be getting perilously close.
All those with their hands out to Uncle Sugar for cash and benefits vote Democrat.
The Democrats thus have a hugely vested interest in handing out more and more stuff courtesy of the American taxpayer - that poor, embattled SOB who’s just trying to mind his own business and make his way through the world.
This is resulting in a generational conflict similar to that in Europe today; young people refuse to accept that their standard of living and options must suffer so that older people (both working and retired) can enjoy the standard of living from the “before-times”. It is no coincidence that “right-to-die” legislation is heating up in the US; Europe has already decided that for the most part. Death panels are to cut the losses of young taxpayers on older non-workers.
One in five Americans has a do-little government job to service the one in three on welfare. Half the economy is government spending. We're the new USSR.
Have we reached that tipping point yet? No, but we may be getting perilously close.
“As the Supreme Court held in Helvering v. Davis (1937), “The proceeds of both [the employer and employee] taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like internal revenue generally, and are not earmarked in any way.”
To save paper, they could have simply stated “It is legalized theft”
The tipping point was when prescription drug coverage was passed. Everybody involved knew there was no way to pay for it, yet it passed anyway.
and 100,000,000 adults in America who aren’t working. I’m not drawing welfare but I am steadily looking for work.
FUBO
Don’t disagree with you one bit.
In many ways, W was a disaster.
We’re getting closer and closer to finding John Galt. Burger King and Buffet appear to be avidly looking for him - and I don’t blame them.
The article says “Americans” but I’ll bet that the reason for the increase over the last 20 years is due to the influx of illegals that were granted amnesty.
Prayers up for you to find work.
. Maybe. But for anyone not already retired and making a decent income, no way. I'm 51 and will have a large net negative return on SS, assuming I get anything at all. I would have been better off sticking it all under a mattress.
“Have we reached that tipping point yet? No, but we may be getting perilously close.”
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Is this guy kidding? Of course we have gone far beyond the tipping point, how could anyone believe otherwise? He didn’t mention that those who ARE fortunate enough to have employment are in many cases drawing assistance from the government and most employed people are working for an actual pay rate that reached its peak about forty five years ago. The 1969 minimum wage was 1.60 an hour and that would buy five gallons of pure gasoline with no ethanol which costs me right now about $20.00 per hour but people in this area seem to think $15.00 an hour is pretty good pay. The minimum wage is $7.25 which won’t even buy TWO gallons of pure gasoline. I am not a minimum wage supporter, I just use this as an illustration of the position we are in. Fifty years ago young men finished high school, went to work and by age twenty two were married homeowners with children, that was common. Now they finish college at twenty two plus in most cases and live with parents because they can’t earn enough to buy their own groceries. Wake up America!
Baby boomers might outvote young taxpayers, but they won’t outvote those who don’t want to share government dollars with them. The fact that ObamaCare is being funded in part by cuts to Medicare shows the writing on the wall; our retirees will be sacrificed to buy the votes of the next generation of gibsmedats (many of whom are being trafficked here).
Time to stop working. Enter the underground economy. Get out of the urban jungle. Leave it to Ubama’s sons. Screw these leeches.
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