"My kind of town, Zimbabwe is....."
Posted on 10/18/2012 6:45:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Total annual spending on federal means-tested welfare programs has hit $1 trillion. The Congressional Research Service is out with a new memorandum on spending on these programs. Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate budget committee who requested the memo, has crunched the numbers and come up with the astonishing figure of $1 trillion in annual total spending on these programs as of fiscal year 2011, nearly $750 billion in federal dollars and another roughly $250 billion in state funding. Senator Sessions explains:
Ranking Member Sessions and the minority staff of the Senate Budget Committee requested from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) an overview of cumulative means-tested federal welfare spending in the United States in the most recent year for which data is available (fiscal year 2011). The results are staggering. CRS identified 83 overlapping federal welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011—more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these 80-plus federal welfare programs amounts to roughly $1.03 trillion. Importantly, these figures solely refer to means-tested welfare benefits. They exclude entitlement programs to which people contribute (e.g., Social Security and Medicare).
CRS estimates that exclusively federal spending on these federal programs equaled approximately $746 billion, and further emphasizes that there is a substantial amount of state spending—mostly required as a condition of states’ participation—on these same federal programs (primarily Medicaid and CHIP). Based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance, Budget Committee staff calculated at least an additional $283 billion in state contributions to those same federal programs,1 for a total annual expenditure of $1.03 trillion. By comparison, in 2011, the annual budget expenditure for Social Security was $725 billion, Medicare was $480 billion, and non-war defense was $540 billion.
The exclusively federal share of spending on these federal programs is up 32 percent since 2008, and now comprises 21 percent of federal outlays (this share too is more than Social Security, Medicare, or defense).
As a historical comparison, spending on the 10 largest of the 83 programs (which account for the bulk of federal welfare spending) has doubled as a share of the federal budget over just the last 30 years. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the amount expended on these 10 programs has increased by 378 percent over that time.
Many factors have contributed to the growth in federal welfare spending, causing it to rise during times of both high and low unemployment. Persistently weak GDP growth over the last several years is unquestionably a factor in the record amount of money now being spent. But understanding the growth in federal welfare expenditures must also be understood in the context of a federal policy that has explicitly encouraged growth in welfare enrollment—combined with a weakening of welfare standards and rules.
Tax print or borrow? What’s new about that? What needs to happen is serious spending cuts, lower taxes thru tax reform. We need to make it more attractive to earn your own way than mooch off others.
there is no question we need a reliable safety net. However, welfare benefits have ballooned far above what can be considered reasonable. Much of the trillion dollar welfare cost can be taken away with a Congress with the guts.
Look at this and weep!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luo40WjBKWI&feature=related
Or, we can just let it be more attractive to earn your own way than starve.
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said “If you don’t work you die”.
Might need to give some “a whiff o’ the grape”, “pour encourager les autres”.
We sell something.
Timber, cows, crops, land, that boat or bike....
If we have no hard assets, we sell more of our time....
Get a second job, get a job that pays more or whatever.
But we sell something.
Our government does not understand that basic principle.
The US has more hard assets than any country in the world but we are marking most of them as off limits.
Not smart.
Obama borrowed 6 trillion $ so far. No one in the world has this kind of money nor will ever. Obama is destroying the U.S.A by borrowing and printing trillions to give to his democrats who live off of welfare and don’t work.
Good point.
Adjusted for inflation that is the same per annum deficit that occurred from 1942 to 1945. We are spending at World War II pace?!?!?!?!
Paging Dr. Cloward, Paging Dr. Piven, please pick up the red curtosy phone.
Reminds me of a [somewhat] military saying: it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
So let 'em destroy the cities. Really, most of the large cities have become nothing but playpens for the freeloading deadbeats anyway. If they destroy their own homes, who are we to stop them?
Now, if they come for my home or my family's home, then they can expect to be removed from among the living. I really don't give a snot about them anymore. They're no different than German soldiers circa 1942.
I think the “if’s” are over. It IS going to end badly, and I don’t think a lot of folks can comprehend the magnitude of it. Romney, of course is much better than what we have now, but he can’t stop it,either.It’s been too long in the making.I have two thoughts about these last days before economic collapse. Should one “hunker down” and severely curtail spending in order to conserve everything he can, Or buy everything he might think he will ever need and stretch his credit beyond his limits, and just try to struggle and pay on it as much as he can until everything does collapse? Many of those things won’t be there to get then.By spending now, it would help our failing economy, too,IF everything wasn’t made in some other country. Since the world hasn’t yet been through a situation like what is coming, What are the answers?
C’mon,now, Many German soldiers were respectable,hard working citizens who just got caught up in a political coup.Wrong to compare most of them to the garbage living in many of our inner cities. I know what you are saying, though, and i agree, I could care less about those people...
Dependent broken people for for democrats... there’s a plan behind this madness...
>> Since the world hasn’t yet been through a situation like what is coming, What are the answers?
I sure wish I knew, FRiend. Personally, over the long haul I don’t see any way out besides some form of currency debasement; that argues towards putting yourself in “hard assets”, which means different things to different folks.
But how long before the debasement scenario takes hold and plays out? Anybody’s guess, and between now and then the current period of essentially deflationary behaviour could be prolonged.
I can tell you what I’m doing personally: moving to the country and buying the tools necessary for “country life” as I can afford them. Think dirt, tractors, implements, energy; I’m not a big believer in the full blown “stuff hits the fan” scenario, but it does seem sensible to me to get a *little* better control over my food, my water, and my space.
Good luck, and FRegards. And if you discover the real answer, please let me know right away! :-)
[ Most people like you are bigots. ]
THATS NOT TRUE,,, there are four choices..
The fourth is.. STOP SPENDING.. requiring less revenue.. lessening the deficit reducing or eliminating the need to borrow..
STOP SPENDING.. spend less, reduce current spending, eliminate federal government on EVERY LEVEL..
correction of the quote: Tax, Print or Borrow ....
RE: The fourth is.. STOP SPENDING.. requiring less revenue..
We all know that, but given the HUGE dependency on Food Stamps, Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment and all other sorts of welfare programs, I have to say — GOOD LUCK WITH THAT (unless of course, you want to see riots on the streets like Europe is experiencing ).
What about:
“If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”
???
"My kind of town, Zimbabwe is....."
[ GOOD LUCK WITH THAT (unless of course, you want to see riots on the streets like Europe is experiencing ). ]
Riots in the streets will happen anyway... better to be prepared for them..
To fix America they MUST HAPPEN..
The progressives according to Saul Alinsky their main guru has set it up that it MUST HAPPEN..
They are preparing for it happen (the UNIONS).. to force it to happen..
Whether Obama WINS OR LOOSES...it will happen... they WANT it to happen..
Top down, bottom up, inside out.. <<- Beck displayed this for weeks..
They WANT instability and revolt.. to demand Martial Law..
George Soros even said it...
**->> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5-kDx6gOZY
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