Posted on 04/15/2007 9:23:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Maybe the era of big government isn't over, after all.
As Americans finish their annual tax-filing flurry to meet a Tuesday deadline, it is true that tax rates are lower than they were a few years ago. But according to a different yardstick, the federal government's reach is expanding.
Slightly over half of all Americans 52.6 percent now receive significant income from government programs, according to an analysis by Gary Shilling, an economist in Springfield, N.J. That's up from 49.4 percent in 2000 and far above the 28.3 percent of Americans in 1950. If the trend continues, the percentage could rise within ten years to pass 55 percent, where it stood in 1980 on the eve of President's Reagan's move to scale back the size of government.
That two-decade shrink-the-government trend now appears over, if for no other reason than demographics. The aging baby-boomer generation is poised to receive big payments from Social Security and government healthcare programs.
"New Deal programs persist," despite the Reagan revolution and its aftermath, says James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas in Austin. "They persist because they are largely successful and highly popular."
Mr. Shilling's analysis found that about 1 in 5 Americans hold a government job or a job reliant on federal spending. A similar number receive Social Security or a government pension. About 19 million others get food stamps, 2 million get subsidized housing, and 5 million get education grants. For all these categories, Mr. Shilling counted dependents as well as the direct recipients of government income.
Many Americans, in surveys, say they don't like the way their tax money is spent. And a majority now says, in a reversal from a year ago, that their federal income taxes are too high, according to an April Gallup poll.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
This is why New Jersey is the “canary in the coal mine” for the rest of the country. New Jersey is arguably the most corrupt state in the union, fully owned and operated by the education mafia. Everybody knows it, but everybody continues to vote for the likes of Corzine and the rest of the scum because they are either in on the corruption or they want a piece of it.
That, of course, is insanity since it completely negates the whole idea of personal retirement savings plans in the first place. Coming from the scumbag Democrats, however, it certainly is believable.
By the way, I noticed you didn't include pensions. Why would the Democrats exclude pensions from their tax-hiking scheme?
Society got more complex. The founding fathers could not have anticipated the infrastructure needed to maintain a modern country.
The Social Security Act of 1935.
Because I hadn't heard it .... give them time and I'm sure some demokrat dimbulb hellbent on sucking the life out of this country will put it forth for 'due consideration'
Actually, I guess I should have added /sarc to my post.
The scumbag Democrats will not include pensions in their tax-hiking schemes because pensions are what union members have. IRAs and 401ks are what “rich” Republicans have.
Regards,
LH
Geriatrics don’t need to riot, they vote.
Did you forget the sarcasm tags? The Founders are not the problem. The problem is bad people choose not to follow the rules. The founders over and over admonished that, in so many words, only smart good people can live by the rules they created. Which is not surprising considering they basically codified 99.9% of the world's wisdom and well, dumb bad people don't get the world's wisdom.
Point is, complex society ain't got squat to do with any of this except that it, complex society, gives dumb bad people an e.z. out to bypass the rules.
Individual Responsibility, Limited Government, Free Markets, Private Property plus the Bill of Rights and the Constitution can handle 99.9% of the present US's complexity. Unfortunately, only about 2% of us can tolerate Individual Responsibility, Limited Govt, Free Markets, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
ping for later... God help us all...
Assuming you’re right — what’s the solution? We kick the other 98% overboard?
A little economic bump called the "Great Depression" and a "temporary" government fix called the "New Deal."
This story is including military and civil service pensions for retirees under the title “dole.” That is scarsely accurate, imho.
Unions
People over 65 who are now collecting Social Security are not on the dole. They are getting back their own money that they paid in over a lifetime of working.
If retirees put all the money they paid out in SS tax into an interest bearing account, they would all be rich today.
Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme that is going to collapse under its own weight.
Medicare is four times bigger than all the rest combined at $85 trillion it will destroy our currency forcing a return to Constitutional govt and the demise of the parasites.
BUMP
here come the baby boomers....hopefully most have saved a penny or two on their way towards old age and extra wont need government assistance.
they paid into the system already
By the way, one third of the total food stamp budget goes to Puerto Rico and as you know that don’t pay a penny of federal tax. Is this a great country or what?
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