Welfare Revisited

Senior Research Fellow on Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation Robert Rector said at the September 22, 2009 Conservative Bloggers Briefing that while some blame military expenses for bankrupting the United States, 2.5 times more money has been spent on the “war on poverty” than has been spent on the military in all of United States history. Rector went on to explain that Americans spend about $8 billion a year on the war on poverty; if there are 40 million poor in America, this means we spend about $20,000 per person with low income. So why are so many people still poor, when they are receiving so much money in government subsidies and services every year?,p> One point Rector was quick to make was that the American definition and measurement of poverty is lacking. Americans are “poor” if they make less than $22,000 in a year—and no one ever factors in how much the “poor” make when government welfare is thrown in the mix. This is why, Rector explained, the government could triple welfare payments and the number of American “poor” would not decrease, simply because of how the government measures poverty.

Rector noted that President Barack Obama has already spent more on welfare than Bush spent on the entire war in Iraq. Not only that, Rector went on, but Obama also has no plans of reducing spending once the recession has passed. Currently, Rector said, we spend two times as much on welfare as was spent during the Carter administration, and one seventh of all federal spending goes to off-the-record assistance to “low-income” families. “We are mortgaging the future,” Rector said.

Here is the Rector Study. It is the most important thing he has produced since Importing Poverty: a Book of Charts Well worth a read. This should be major news but there is hardly a ripple in the MSM

"In fiscal year (FY) 2008, total government spending on means-tested welfare or aid to the poor amounted to $714 billion. This high level of welfare spending was the result of steady permanent growth in welfare spending over several decades rather than a short-term response to temporary economic conditions."

"In his first two years in office, President Barack Obama will increase annual federal welfare spending by one third from $522 billion to $697 billion. The combined two-year increase will equal almost $263 billion ($88.2 billion in FY 2009 plus $174.6 billion in FY 2010). After adjusting for inflation, this increase is two and a half times greater than any previous increase in federal welfare spending in U.S. history. As a share of the economy, annual federal welfare spending will rise by roughly 1.2 percent of GDP."

According to President Obama’s budget projections, federal and state welfare spending will total $10.3 trillion over the next 10 years (FY 2009 to FY 2018). This spending will equal $250,000 for each person currently living in poverty in the U.S., or $1 million for a poor family of four.

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