Posted on 08/20/2014 7:09:30 AM PDT by xzins
109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded "means-tested programs" — also known as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau has not yet reported how many were on welfare in 2013 or the first two quarters of 2014.
But the 109,631,000 living in households taking federal welfare benefits as of the end of 2012, according to the Census Bureau, equaled 35.4 percent of all 309,467,000 people living in the United States at that time.
When those receiving benefits from non-means-tested federal programs — such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and veterans benefits — were added to those taking welfare benefits, it turned out that 153,323,000 people were getting federal benefits of some type at the end of 2012.
Subtract the 3,297,000 who were receiving veterans' benefits from the total, and that leaves 150,026,000 people receiving non-veterans' benefits.
The 153,323,000 total benefit-takers at the end of 2012, said the Census Bureau, equaled 49.5 percent of the population. The 150,026,000 taking benefits other than veterans' benefits equaled about 48.5 percent of the population.
When America re-elected President Barack Obama in 2012, we had not quite reached the point where more than half the country was taking benefits from the federal government.
It is a reasonable bet, however, that with the implementation of Obamacare — with its provisions expanding Medicaid and providing health-insurance subsidies to people earning up to 400 percent of poverty — that if we have not already surpassed that point (not counting those getting veterans benefits) we soon will.
What did taxpayers give to the 109,631,000 — the 35.4 percent of the nation — getting welfare benefits at the end of 2012?
82,679,000 of the welfare-takers lived in households where people were on Medicaid, said the Census Bureau. 51,471,000 were in households on food stamps. 22,526,000 were in the Women, Infants and Children program. 20,355,000 were in household on Supplemental Security Income. 13,267,000 lived in public housing or got housing subsidies. 5,442,000 got Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. 4,517,000 received other forms of federal cash assistance.
How do you put in perspective the 109,631,000 people taking welfare, or the 150,026,000 getting some type of federal benefit other than veterans' benefits?
Well, the CIA World Factbook says there are 142,470,272 people in Russia. So, the 150,026,000 people getting non-veterans federal benefits in the United States at the end of 2012 outnumbered all the people in Russia.
63,742,977 people live in the United Kingdom and 44,291,413 live in the Ukraine, says the CIA. So, the combined 108,034,390 people in these two nations was about 1,596,610 less than 109,631,000 collecting welfare in the United States.
It may be more telling, however, to compare the 109,631,000 Americans taking federal welfare benefits at the end of 2012 to Americans categorized by other characteristics.
In 2012, according to the Census Bureau, there were 103,087,000 full-time year-round workers in the United States (including 16,606,000 full-time year-round government workers). Thus, the welfare-takers outnumbered full-time year-round workers by 6,544,000.
California, the nation's most-populated state, contained an estimated 38,332,521 people in 2013, says the Census Bureau. Texas had 26,448,193 people, New York had 19,651,127, and Florida had 19,552,860. But the combined 103,984,701 people in these four massive states still fell about 5,646,299 short of the 109,631,000 people on welfare.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, when President Obama was elected, there were 96,197,000 people living in households taking benefits from one or more federal welfare programs. After four years, by the fourth quarter of 2012, that had grown by 13,434,000.
Those 13,434,000 additional people on welfare outnumbered the 12,882,135 people the Census Bureau estimated lived in Obama's home state of Illinois in 2013.
“By the way once again, miss Romney yet. That was the biggest mistake millions of ignorant Americans will regret. You have taken the biggest part in America’s destruction.”
No I don’t miss Romney. He was a gutless buffoon. I voted for him BTW.
His biggest mistake, IMO, was not capitalizing on the 47% remark. He was right. But gutless politician that he is he backtracked and looked weak. Missed a great opportunity to educate the low information voters. On whose backs the Presidency depends. Unfortunately.
I guess Romney should have realized Obama was bad and actually run a campaign against him. His believing Obama was a good man just in a little over his head led him to stay home and not campaign.
Non campaigning, low information candidate, Romney is an idiot foisted on the electorate by RINOs. The RINO elite will ultimately end up paying for their perfidy.
Yup good point. Married filing jointly and income over 44,000combined means 85% of her SS is taxed at our nominal rate. In addition the state of Ct takes a bit and she pays FICA and medicare on what she earns. The taxman is always there.
>I am open to anyone that has a brighter future scenario to share.
Tens of millions of rioters and looters get mowed down in the streets and leave just the “willing to work” to clean up the mess. Welfare is reserved for those who really need it.
How can there be any justification for amnesty and increased (or even sustained) immigration when these issues exist?
We also need to face the fact that there are plenty of corporations that are strong supporters of amnesty and increased immigration, in order to have access to cheaper labor. They don't care about Americans, and are multi-national and somewhat impervious to what happens here.
We could actually cut the welfare budget in half without touching their benefits, not that this would be enough though. Most of the cost of welfare goes into the bureaucracy, the article doesn’t mention how many work in the welfare bureaucracy does it?
Nominating the wrong candidate did cause a lot of problems
Don’t blame me for my country’s destruction because I didn’t vote for Romney...Blame the GOP for shoving a big government, draft dodging, baby-killing, father of homo “marriage”, lib down our throats.
People died for my right to vote so my vote is sacred to me and I won’t waste it on the likes of Romney.
I’m a Conservative...I vote for Conservatives.
And what is the GOP-E “leadership” doing to stop Obama? NOTHING. They are just as bad.
Not to mention the liberal progressive information propaganda outlets or LSM that helped cause this all.
CGato
The parasite class? Well, they see us all as parasites. (ironically, THEY are parasites as much as the welfare class) That's the question--as soon as their usefulness is no longer, they will rid themselves of them. First, unfortunately, I believe they set them loose on us.
PING
I don’t think so - the problem will continue to grow. What do people with nothing to do, with their lifestyle and their kids subsidized by someone else, do? Well - one thing is that they procreate, and usually at a higher than normal rate. And the chances are pretty high that all of those children will grow up on welfare as well.
This is what is frustrating - those striving to be “compassionate” are just making the problem worse and more untenable. I’m guessing on purpose - they will be there to pick up the pieces when it collapses
That tipping point was mentioned above. Interest rates, particularly on the federal debt, can’t stay down much longer. Eventually the Fed runs out of room to rathole the bonds and they have to go on the market. NO ONE is going to buy them at 2% or whatever stupid low rate they are now. When the interest rates start climbing the unicorns will start dying. And remember this: If what the Fed is doing now to keep rates down is such a heckuva good idea then why didn’t they do it in the Carter years when we had to live with a decade and a half of stoopid high rates? And Nobody could afford a house?
Screw the French and their revolution. Our own leaders simply need to look around and count American gun owners. 80 million of my closest friends and I are not going to take their krap or even look to them for help if stuff gets tense. If they look like part of the problem instead of the solution they will be history. It amazes me that the regular folks in Ferguson have already not gone Postal on both the cops and the looters. But the good news is that some of the folks have indeed broken out the firepower and are protecting their own places. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling a couple days ago reading about four gals who armed-up to protect their car wash business-—quite successfully.
It’s a real sucker’s bet to take your social sec. benefits at 62 unless you really, REALLY need the bucks, or are in bad health and might not make 70. But the Work Credit benefit that runs to 70 will nearly double the benefit that you would have gotten at 62. Even if you are a lifetime payer who would be a max recipient at 65 makes the discount you have to take at 62 a bad deal. Make sure you know how much you will be losing by taking early before you make the move because there’s no going back. I promise you will bitch the rest of your life if you take the early discount and then need more income later-—it won’t be there.
Sadly the USA has had a string of Presidents and Congresspeople that have worked hard since 1965 to turn the USA into 3rd world country....
1- by sending our economy and good manufacturing jobs and security to China etc;
2- by frittering away trillions by waging wars that had nothing to do with defending the USA borders;
3- by writing 1965 immigration law that opened the gates to every country in the world thus purposely changing our makeup and culture;
4- and with even that immigration leniency they failed to enforce the borders and illegal immigration.
5- We bailed out Wall Street bankers and lost public assets instead of sending them all to a cell block.
While we sheep argue about the left and right, many that we elect are corrupt hacks selling out the USA for profit and for their cronies.
CHINA APPEARS READY TO DUMP ITS U.S. TREASURY BONDS
Although investors hang on every comment by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to get insight on the direction of interest rates and what it means for the economy and asset prices, the real power to determine U.S. interest rates may be in the hands of China, according to Lombard Street Research. Facing an overvalued currency that is hurting corporate profits and slowing growth, China appears ready to dump its $1.3 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds to drive U.S. interest rates up and strengthen the dollar.
In my situation, you take the money now and travel with it, or whatever. We don't know what our future holds.
And when I say it takes 8.5 years for the 65 value to catch up with the 62 value... that’s assuming you don’t reinvest the 62 value. A person could take the 62 value and invest it in a real investment earning a much better rate of return than the SS investment percent. I didn’t even factor that because its not my strategy.... But it could be for some.
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