We've Crossed A Tipping Point: Most Americans Now Receive Govt. Benefits (Happy Dependence Day!)

Forbes ^ | 7/02/2014 @ 4:45PM | Merill Matthews

[quesney]

Obamacare has pushed us over the entitlements tipping point. In 2011 some 49.2 percent of U.S. households received benefits from one or more government programs—about 151 million out of an estimated 306.8 million Americans—according to U.S. Census Bureau data released last October.

Currently, around 6 million to 7 million Americans who have signed up for Obamacare are receiving taxpayer-provided subsidies (though the administration’s numbers cannot be trusted, it’s all we have to work with). There are another 3 million who have signed up for Medicaid.

That means some 10 million Americans—or a total of about 161 million—are now getting government subsidies (though the final number might be somewhat lower since some may have been receiving benefits already).

Thus, perhaps 52 percent of U.S. households—more than half—now receive benefits from the government, thanks to President Obama. And Mr. Entitlement is just getting started. If Obamacare is not repealed millions more will join the swelling rolls of those dependent on government handouts.

[Fightin Whitey]

It was actually an uninformed and bigoted statement. Most of the people that I know who now take food stamps, only did so when it was a choice to accept them or lose their home.

How wonderful for you and the people you know.

I live in a state nearly as red as your home state; we are also enjoying a very good farm and ranch economy, also something of a building boom, and definitely a spillover prosperity from the nearby Bakken play.

Yet my blood boils every time I stand in line at the grocery store watching healthy young people, sometimes with children and sometimes not, emptying their burgeoning shopping carts, food, snacks, dry goods, the customers wearing name-brand apparel and expensive shoes, running the tab up close to a couple hundred bucks---with the "EBT" designation showing bright on the checkout display.

We now have 50 million people, one in five "families," taking food stamps---not to mention other transfer payments of course. Carefree, job-free, shame-free.

Romney was stupid and gutless about a lot of things but he if anything he was over-optimistic about the forty-seven percent. Who would have thought to see the term "bigoted" thrown out by a conservative at FR in reference to our undeniably disastrous welfare state?

[Madame Dufarge]

I remember in the late 70's or early 80's that there was a groundswell of people interested in determining whether it was possible to opt out of Social Security payments in favor of privately investing the money that was extorted from taxpayers at the point of a gun (we were among them).

No way, no how was the answer.

Now we're "leeches" of course.

[delapaz]

The crash is going to happen. I would rather have it happen on my watch, than put it off for my kids or grandkids.

so yes I will take action to bring it about, and I advise everyone to do the same. This is a tragedy of the commons, and it will end when the commons are destroyed.

The commons cannot be saved not by your actions or mine or everyone here put together.

So take what you can out of the commons and be there to explain what happened for future generations sake.

[dervish]

He was also right about Benghazi.

[CodeToad]

Doesn’t matter how it came about, it matter that SSI recipients wouldn’t want it canceled. SSI recipients would vote for the devil if it meant keeping that money.

[1rudeboy]

There was a guy on here, I intentionally dis-remember his screen name, who flat out said that the military and veterans were no better than mercenaries and were paid what they deserved when they were in uniform and should get not one more red cent.

When [Milton] Friedman was a member of the Presidential Commission appointed by President Nixon in 1969 to study how the draft might be eliminated, General William Westmoreland, who had been the commander of the troops in Vietnam and was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army at the time, told the commission that he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. Friedman stopped him and asked, “General, would you rather command an army of slaves?” General Westmoreland retorted, “I don’t like to hear our draftee soldiers referred to as slaves.” Friedman shot back, “I don’t like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher.” That was the last the Commission heard from the general about mercenaries.
link

[upchuck]

Bump to both of you!

From the article:

Some 42 million are seniors receiving Social Security and Medicare. They aren’t getting something for free; they faithfully paid into the system for decades with the expectation that they would be getting it back at retirement.

I paid into Social Security for 50 years. And, yes, I expect to get something in return.

More from the article:

But attitudes can change once people are on the receiving end of benefits, even if they are owed those benefits. Seniors who support limited government and fiscal responsibility—in short, the exact opposite of Obama’s policies—become very protective of their benefits.

If you opened a savings account when you were young and faithfully deposited money week after week, when you got to the point to start making withdawals, wouldn't you be protective of your investment? Yes, I know SS is not a savings account, but the analogy still applies.

[CommieCutter]

But hey, he was a Mormon! So it was only logical to re-elect the Muslim!

/sarc

[quesney]

“Doesn’t matter how it came about, it matter that SSI recipients wouldn’t want it canceled. SSI recipients would vote for the devil if it meant keeping that money.”

---

And that’s exactly where we are and why a true reformer (forget a successful Tea Party candidate) will not win another election again until the system collapses on itself. We’re too far gone.

Democrats have effectively neutered whatever support there might have been to downsizing big government. In Obama’s words, they won.

[quesney]

“Romney was stupid and gutless about a lot of things but he if anything he was over-optimistic about the forty-seven percent. Who would have thought to see the term “bigoted” thrown out by a conservative at FR in reference to our undeniably disastrous welfare state? “

---

You really nailed it. Dems won. In presidential elections, it’s Dems or RINOs forever because of this. A real believer in downsizing governemnt doesnt stand a chance. Too many are too invested in big government. Dems won.

[redgolum]

It is attitudes like that that have resulted in the situation we are in. SS is a government benefit. The money you and I paid in was spent right away. The current benefits are being paid with by loans.

[ReformationFan]

There was uproar because what he said in that instance was true.

[redgolum]

You nailed it.

However most people here want to cut everyone else’s benefits, but increase their own.

SS, military and non military pensions, Medicare, and every other government benefit will have to be cut back. Not maybe, it will have to be. Either through inflation or out and out cuts.

A few years back, I realized that real conservatism in a fiscal sense was dead. Many complain about the cost of government, no one really wants to cut it because it would mean they would have to accept cuts themselves.

We are screwed.

And it will get ugly. If I have the choice to feed my family, or support SS or pensions, you know which one I will choose.

[redgolum]

And you shouldn’t feel guilty.

But you need to recognize that at some point it has to stop. There is no money. None.

But today, enjoy it while it lasts. It won’t last for much longer.

[abb]

If SS is a government “benefit,” then ANY payment from government in any form is also a “benefit.”

But, you say, military, contractors, and employees are not, because they provide labor and materials (something of value) in exchange for money.

Well, for the forty years that I worked, me and and my employers paid money (something of value) into something called the SS trust fund, in exchange for the promise (however tenuous it may be) that when I retired, I would be able to collect.

So there.

I suggest the only people who collect government “benefits” are those who never put up anything of value (whether money, labor, or materials) in exchange for a government check.

You surely can figure out who those types are.

[quesney]

You nailed it. However most people here want to cut everyone else’s benefits, but increase their own...
A few years back, I realized that real conservatism in a fiscal sense was dead. Many complain about the cost of government, no one really wants to cut it because it would mean they would have to accept cuts themselves.
We are screwed.
And it will get ugly. If I have the choice to feed my family, or support SS or pensions, you know which one I will choose.

---

Great summary. Yeah, we’re dead. And what you describe is exactly what it’s going to come down to. It’ll be damn ugly in a way that will make American politics look more like Africa’s. We’ve already become a third-world banana “republic”.

[quesney]

I suggest the only people who collect government “benefits” are those who never put up anything of value (whether money, labor, or materials) in exchange for a government check. You surely can figure out who those types are.

---

You’re not getting it. Because the government stole your contributions a long time ago, on paper, from a purely financial perspective, you’re benefits are equivalent to the beenfits of those “other types” — all of it is a growing burden to current, working taxpayers, most of whom never signed on to that promise. And it’s unsustainable.

[laplata]

You are exactly right.

[redgolum]

It is a benefit.

When I have money put into my 401K by my employer, it is called... a benefit. When times get tough, and the employer cuts that program (which is happening a lot and will probably happen to me), that’s life. It was a benefit, not a death pact. I have been making other plans outside of any benefit program because quite honestly I don’t trust the government or corporations to give a rats rear end about me.

SS is a benefit. It is money stolen from workers with a limp wristed promise. It represents the largest portion of the budget deficit. It will change, it will be cut, and it will cause massive pain.

I will never retire. Never. I will have to work to the day I die in order to pay off those who choose to not work. So be it. However, if it comes to making my children starve in order to fund a second adolescence for government workers and retiree’s, I will vote to cut them off. I will save my own first.

I am screwed. I have to pay for your benefits. I will not live nearly as long as my parents did. I will never be able to retire to some nice little condo on the beach and have Uncle Sam pick up the tab for my health care. I will, because I have little choice, have to be responsible for myself.

[babygene]

Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about Welfare running out of money?

What’s interesting is the first group “worked for” their money, but the second didn’t.