Posted on 10/05/2011 8:21:41 PM PDT by iowamark
Families were more dependent on government programs than ever last year.
Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4% lived households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.
The share of people relying on government benefits has reached a historic high, in large part from the deep recession and meager recovery, but also because of the expansion of government programs over the years. (See a timeline on the history of government benefits programs here.)
Means-tested programs, designed to help the needy, accounted for the largest share of recipients last year. Some 34.2% of Americans lived in a household that received benefits such as food stamps, subsidized housing, cash welfare or Medicaid (the federal-state health care program for the poor).
Another 14.5% lived in homes where someone was on Medicare (the health care program for the elderly). Nearly 16% lived in households receiving Social Security.
High unemployment and increased reliance on government programs has also shrunk the nation’s share of taxpayers. Some 46.4% of households will pay no federal income tax this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. That’s up from 39.9% in 2007, the year the recession began.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Looks like a recipe for electoral trouble.
and since the government is going broke that means all of us are screwed.
that there is a picture of fabian socialism.
To Obama, that’s mission almost accomplished.
and going parabolic at the end there, no less.
When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can count on Paul’s vote.
Hey. I don’t see it going down after the 2000great election. Just saying...
I get an Army retirement check, for which I served 29 years. I get a SS check for which I worked for 50 years. No entitlement there...I earned those!
Must be the same percentage that does not pay taxes either..... definitely part of that hope and change BS, just ask the AnointedIdiot. =.=
Looks like that day is getting closer to me. Obama winning in 2012 will be the last nail in the Coffin.
Agreed!
Well, according to Elizabeth Warren, if you drive your car on a public road, or if you attended a public school, or waited at a crosswalk until a government-owned electric sign told you to WALK, you have received a government benefit, and now owe everything you accomplish in life to the government. Of course, the government, being the compassionate deity it is, will graciously let you keep a percentage of the money you earn by virtue of your accomplishments. It’s a good system.
And you also paid for medicare, at gunpoint! (It was in your “Social Security”).
That’s the problem with this article. Your earned payments are shown as “government benefits,” same as food stamps or AFDC or student loans or unemployment.
What’s the graph look like if you taken out VA payments? Social Security? Medicare? It’s a different picture.
All this chart does is show that there are a lot of Americans who depend on money that comes from the government. It doesn’t say anything about why they are receiving it.
WOW! This is so UN-American! Whatever happened to JFK saying “ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” ?
The same lazy bunch who did not work hard to learn a difficult skill, are the ones blaming others for their failure and marching on Wall Street.
Where does Ms. Warren believe the money to pay for those benefits came from, I wonder. Welfare recipients?
“Obama winning in 2012 will be the last nail in the Coffin.”
I agree, Comrade. So let’s work really, REALLY hard at our local levels to make sure that doesn’t happen!
I’m all in. Are you? :)
If you receive a multiple of what you paid into social security in your life, it is an entitlement.
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