Posted on 03/03/2010 4:43:34 PM PST by quesney
Welfare State: A major newspaper looks at the data and finds that Americans have become more dependent on government than at any time since the Depression. Something's gone terribly wrong in our country.
We Americans pride ourselves on our independence. Our nation's founding document even uses that in its title — the Declaration of Independence. But this spirit is fading with each new year, each new state and federal program, each new unkeepable promise made to a growing throng of citizens looking to government — not their own abilities, savvy, learning and hard work — to get by in life.
A Washington Times report underscores this shift. Last year, "for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes," it has determined.
Transfer payments — unemployment, Social Security, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and other forms of government welfare — grew $231 billion last year to just over $2.1 trillion. Meanwhile, individual taxes shrank $325 billion to $2.1 trillion, slightly less (before rounding) than transfer payments.
Let that sink in for a moment: We, as a people, are taking more in welfare than we're paying in taxes.
[...]
The temptation is to write off all this as a fluke, a recession-based aberration. But the trend has been in place for years.
[...]
So much for the idea that "the era of big government is over..."
Economist Gary Shilling has his own dependence gauge. His most recent report, in 2007, showed that 52.6% of Americans got "significant income" from government. Seven years earlier, it was "just" 49.4%. In 1950, it was 28.3%.
This makes today's debate over the government's takeover of health care — one-sixth of the economy — and other key industries, such as autos and banking, all the more urgent.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Free Republic’s gone. When someone like Medina can’t even get into the runoff in place like Texas (barely 20% of Republican primary vote), you can (almost) forget someone like Palin making national.
It’s over, folks. Obama knows what he’s doing. My fear is that he knows America better than the rest of us think we do.
IMPORTANT REMINDER:
Obama is a creation of the same Chicago Black Socialist Network that spawned ACORN’s predecessor, George Wiley’s National Welfare Right’s Organization, who’s goal was to sign so many people up on welfare and Public Assistance that it BANKRUPTED AMERICA, opening the door for Communism to take hold.
And Obama has all but said that is his exact goal.
Well I’m going to wait until the votes are counted. Obama has the country he wants right now but I’m not going to sit and take it....Not on your Nellie!!!
Many people who’ve been conned by these promises know now that they can’t be kept, and they are not willing to push the nation over a cliff in the attempt to do the impossible.
They should pass a new law...If you are currently on unemployment or other Govt. subsidy, you can’t celebrate “Independence Day”, instead you will celebrate “Dependence day” on 5th of July .
“Obama knows what he’s doing. My fear is that he knows America better than the rest of us think we do.”
He knows that if he can keep 15 million people on Unemployment benefits come November, they will ALL vote Democrat to protect thier checks.
AND HE’S RIGHT...
It’s not over ‘till it’s over. And it ain’t over yet. Don’t go wobbly on us before the most important election since 1860. We’ve still got a decent chance.
Now if that don’t work out, we’ve still got a better than even chance with bullets and bayonets!
Sure, just like government union workers, private union workers and lawyers.
Medina had a chance. Then she revealed her true stripes and threw it away. Your argument would work better were she a Conservative.
Why in the word would you think someone as criminally inexperienced as Medina either could or should get into a runoff for the governorship of the 2nd most populated state in the union? Medina hasn't run so much as a Taco Bell, and yet she has the temerity to believe she can manage a state with a budget as massive as the Texas budget? It's ridiculous.
The fact that she couldn't get 20% of the vote, says nothing about government dependence and everything about the sanity of the TX primary voters.
People in Texas generally noticed the whack job 911 conspiracy comments (DM).
We also noticed the lack of a border fence (KBH).
We also noticed our spot at the near top of the economic and jobs ladder (RP).
We know what Perry is and isn’t. He was the best option in this election.
Now you see how people felt in Germany around 1938 watching evil grow!
IBTZ!
obummer is a THUG nothing more. We can and must fight him off and just as a thug he’ll back off only when and if he realizes power from the other side. We just have to be better at projecting power to this scumbag miscreant. He has a few more months of glory and then party’s over for him and his gang. I have no doubts about it.
I’ve said it before. It feels like, “Please board the train. You have nothing to fear.” This president is so flippin’ scary...
“Free Republic’s gone. When someone like Medina can’t even get into the runoff in place like Texas (barely 20% of Republican primary vote), you can (almost) forget someone like Palin making national.”
Medina has nothing to do with Palin or our dependency nation.
Medina was a terrible candidate. Period. She didn’t deserve to make it into a runoff against Perry.
As to the issue of the USA becoming a welfare state, yes, this is a problem so bad that I seriously doubt it can be undone short of massive social upheaval.
There will be no way to repeal Obamacare. It is too big and will get its tentacles into every part of our healthcare system. It will fail, as I assume we all already know on this forum, but the solution from the US Congress will most certainly be MORE government. The left already knows this, and it is part of their big picture strategy - why by the way, they openly admit when speaking amongst themselves.
We are on the road to Western European socialism. The US has been headed down that path for a long time, and under Obama this trend marches forward. Sadly, Bush was not a whole lot better.
Well said.. and accurate.
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