Mr. Mumbo-jumbo -- Let Them Eat Food Stamps.
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 ...
Ask Elizabeth Warren, why people who have contributed nothing by paying taxes are using the same roads?
It is not the “Why” that is important on Plantation Amerika, it is the “What.”
There are NO balance sheets for ANY business that has a column for “Why.”
The largest business in the world is the US Federal Government.
It has one column for PROFIT, with the last entry being made by President Van Buren, and another column for DEBT.
The “What” is what was spent, the “Why” is Socialism. Deal with it.
I too don't like it when folks who have earned their benefits by work and service get somehow lumped into those that simply live off the system.
The article makes no mention of military or other government pensions. I don’t know if she counts those. It is interesting that many see old age programs Medicare and SSA as a good but see means tested programs as negative.
Of course, the result is that the popular old age programs Medicare and SSA get expanded and, combined with rising life expectancy and low birth rates, they are going bankrupt.
True fairness won't be achieved until 100% of households pay no federal income tax. Mrs. POF and I are waiting for the day when we can be included in that category.
Food Stamp Nation. God help us. This is why I call “BS” every time some conservative commentator says that America is basically a “center right” or “conservative nation. Wrong. Its a nation going soft. Way too many adults are immature children looking for a handout.
but that's just the entitlement side talking....
If you receive a multiple of what you paid into social security in your life, it is an entitlement.
You can’t call Social Security (full ret) an entitlement because entitlements aren’t taxable.
I am not talking about some 25 yo drawing from the Soc Sec System (I would say fund but we all know there is no fund - well, everyone but algore - he is still looking for that lock box).
You know something is wrong with a system when, after paying into it for say 30 years and you offer to ‘opt out’, you keep what I put in, no questions asked, and they tell you that you can’t.
The fall of Rome.
If they had a Video of Obama drowning puppies while he was shooting up Heroin, he would still win by 15 points here.
With Palin bowing out, this Election cycle has gone from picking someone who resonates everything great about America to picking anybody but Obama.
I have hopes for Cain, but his age, history of Cancer and Political inexperience will be the DNC / Media talking points drumbeat if he ends up being the nominee.
I believe the correct term is "Hockey Stick"
How ironic, to find a real hockey stick graph that tracks the results of those who made up a hockey stick graph to further thier cause.
Social Security is not a benefit. It is a person’s own money taken by the government over a lifetime and paid back only if he lives to 65-67. If he dies before that, it’s all gone; not a cent goes to his estate. A spouse may get a benefit but that spouse also contributed over their working lifetime.
On average you have to live to 76 to get back the raw cash you paid in over a lifetime. With compound interest over a lifetime the amount paid in would have grown to a much larger sum in an outside investment, like a savings account. So you really have to live into your eighties to get back the money plus interest that you would have had if you had your own personal savings account.
And your spouse would get any of the leftover if you died before your eighties, not the government.
The takers exceed the producers, then Government owns everyone.
No matter how you argue it. government is not a business. For one thing, a business hires, fires; it doesn’t have the old, sick, disabled, and children on its payroll, with no way to get rid of the drag on the profits. hell, the purpose of government *isn’t* to make a profit, any more than the purpose of a religions’ is (although with some, it’s hard to tell.
Government and business can swap ideas and systems. But they are *not* the same thing.
No matter how you argue it. government is not a business. For one thing, a business hires, fires; it doesn’t have the old, sick, disabled, and children on its payroll, with no way to get rid of the drag on the profits. hell, the purpose of government *isn’t* to make a profit, any more than the purpose of a religions’ is (although with some, it’s hard to tell.
Government and business can swap ideas and systems. But they are *not* the same thing.
...”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!”...
And while way too many people are on the welfare roles, people like you should not be counted as being on the government dole because you did earn your checks.
Then we must agree to disagree.
The ONLY purpose of Government is to do no harm.
Each dollar of Debt does harm to its taxpayers.
The result of unchecked, (pun intended), spending is that the US Federal Government is now Public Enemy Number One to the US taxpayer.
The US Federal Government is trying to Nationalize the Medical and Insurance businesses which account for 1/6 th of the businesses of the USA, on a dollar basis.
The US Federal Government is now without checks and balances, in a financial death spiral, and is the largest and most powerful business that the world has ever known.
The US Federal Government for the last 80 years has been based on the premise: FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY, TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEED. The Debtocrats call it “re-distribution of wealth.”
Since MY needs will always be greater than YOUR needs, the US Federal Government will continue to do maximum allowable harm to its taxpayers, and gobble up all businesses to feed its insatiable appetite.
As I said before, we must agree to disagree, because the gradient of the last 80 years has become asymptotic towards absolute control of all US businesses.
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