Almost Half of America on Welfare

Townhall.com ^ | August 24, 2014 | Mike Shedlock

[Kaslin]

Breakdown by Category

• 82,679,000 Medicaid
• 51,471,000 Food Stamps
• 22,526,000 Women, Infants and Children Program
• 20,355,000 Supplemental Security Income
• 13,267,000 Public Housing or Housing Subsidies
• 5,442,000 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
• 4,517,000 Other Forms of Federal Cash Assistance

Population Estimates (2013 estimates)

• California 38,332,521
• Texas 26,448,193
• New York 19,651,127
• Florida 19,552,860

Those four states have a population of 103,984,701. Those on welfare nearly totals that amount.

Full Time Employment



BLS figures show 115.735 million "usually" working full time at the end of 2012. There are currently 118.489 million "usually" working full time.

Obamacare Welfare Expansion

Inquiring minds may be asking "How did Obamacare effect welfare numbers?"

Let's take a look.

Anyone making up to 400% of the federal poverty minimum is eligible for some assistance. That's about 17 million according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Also note that 28 states expanded Medicaid under Obamacare: AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, DC, HI, IL, IA, KY, MD, MA, MN, MA, NH, NV, NJ, UT, NM, NY, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, VT, WA, WV.

On June 4, the US Department of Health and Human Services reported Medicaid Enrollment Shows Continued Growth in April.

"As of the end of April, 6 million more individuals were enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as compared to the period before the initial open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act started."

In addition to regular expansion of welfare, it's safe to conclude Obamacare expanded the welfare rolls by at least 23 million.

More will come.
Welfare vs. Full-Time Employment

Let's take the 2012 welfare total of 109,631,000 and add the 6 million Obamacare Medicaid expansion and the 17 million who get Obamacare subsidies and you have a minimum of 126 million receiving some sore of means-tested welfare vs. 118.5 million who "usually" work full time.

Welfare vs. Population

The 2013 US Population Estimate is 316 million.

Using 316 million as a rough estimate of the 2014 population (it would likely be higher) and 126 million on welfare (that number is also higher, perhaps way higher), about 40% of the country is on some form of means-tested welfare, up from 35.4% at the end of 2012.

Over 50% of the country gets welfare or some other form of non-means-tested assistance. I estimate about 56% or so.

Correction: I originally posted population of 4 states as the number on welfare in those 4 states.

[Kaslin]

Yes he did say that

[Flick Lives]

The Rats have achieved a critical mass of voters on the dole. It’s Rat victories forever! Well, forever until the system implodes.

[Flick Lives]

The Rats have achieved a critical mass of voters on the dole. It’s Rat victories forever! Well, forever until the system implodes.

[stylin19a]

those figures don't seem right based on dollars

Food Stamps in 2012 cost = $80 billion

Plus they forgot:

In 2013

Earned Income tax Credit (EITC) = $63 billion for 21 million people

Child Tax Credit) = $58 billion for 38 million families ( assume an average family of 2.5) = 95 million people

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Apology accepted.

[i_robot73]

Sorry, but are ‘we’ now nit-picking and parsing words like the Left? Theft is theft. A Ponzi scheme is a ponzi scheme

I still ‘cannot partake to lay one finger...’, but, because it’s a ‘cause’ you support (or, in the case of SS, ‘paid into’; though the ‘Law’ still being un-Constititional)...??

All should be debating using facts, not selective moral outrage. But, I guess, that’s why the RNC/etc. have given nothing but loser options and only platitudes to our Founders and Documents.

[corlorde]

Soon, there will be nothing left for anyone. We are close to being bankrupt, and I fear a day of reckoning will be coming, and when it does, it won’t be pretty.

[quesney]

The Rats have achieved a critical mass of voters on the dole. It’s Rat victories forever!

---

...or RINOs who pose no serious threat to this decrepit system. It’ll be interesting to see how/if Rand Paul can weather this reality.

[DBrow]

There is some overlap- you can get housing assistance, food stamps, and medicare at the same time.

It still adds up to a lot of people.

[RedMDer]

[skeeter]

Funny, didn't that idiot Romney say that?

Yep & the media and the democrats came down so hard on him for it - its their rice bowl.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

[RipSawyer]

“There are currently 118.489 million “usually” working full time.”

With full time defined as thirty or more hours weekly that doesn’t mean much at all.

[Klaatu Barada Nikto]

Nope - I wasn’t taking offense at anyone. I am merely stating that the number of people dependent on income from the government, and that includes all those well-earned & deserved pensions, exceeds the number of those paying for it all.

Social security benefits are not self-funded, they are paid for by current employees. Only a portion of military and government pensions and salaries are paid for by the individual while they worked. The rest comes from other taxpayers.

[i_robot73]

Sorry, CLOSE to bankrupt? We’re 17+TRILLION in the hole NOW....

[GeronL]

When you read about countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Greece and others, that is us in a few years