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Over Half of Americans On the Government Dole
NewsMax ^ | April 16, 2007

Posted on 04/15/2007 9:23:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Maybe the era of big government isn't over, after all.

As Americans finish their annual tax-filing flurry to meet a Tuesday deadline, it is true that tax rates are lower than they were a few years ago. But according to a different yardstick, the federal government's reach is expanding.

Slightly over half of all Americans – 52.6 percent – now receive significant income from government programs, according to an analysis by Gary Shilling, an economist in Springfield, N.J. That's up from 49.4 percent in 2000 and far above the 28.3 percent of Americans in 1950. If the trend continues, the percentage could rise within ten years to pass 55 percent, where it stood in 1980 on the eve of President's Reagan's move to scale back the size of government.

That two-decade shrink-the-government trend now appears over, if for no other reason than demographics. The aging baby-boomer generation is poised to receive big payments from Social Security and government healthcare programs.

"New Deal programs persist," despite the Reagan revolution and its aftermath, says James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas in Austin. "They persist because they are largely successful and highly popular."

Mr. Shilling's analysis found that about 1 in 5 Americans hold a government job or a job reliant on federal spending. A similar number receive Social Security or a government pension. About 19 million others get food stamps, 2 million get subsidized housing, and 5 million get education grants. For all these categories, Mr. Shilling counted dependents as well as the direct recipients of government income.

Many Americans, in surveys, say they don't like the way their tax money is spent. And a majority now says, in a reversal from a year ago, that their federal income taxes are too high, according to an April Gallup poll.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: biggovernment; incometaxes; taxes; welfare
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To: Centurion2000
"Civil War seems to be about the only remedy that is left. Not advocating one just making the observation."

That would either be outsourced or would involve movements of hobbling, crawling, old revolutionaries, crying for rocking chairs, afghans and lapdogs. ;-)


41 posted on 04/15/2007 10:17:53 PM PDT by familyop (Essayons (has-been))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is why New Jersey is the “canary in the coal mine” for the rest of the country. New Jersey is arguably the most corrupt state in the union, fully owned and operated by the education mafia. Everybody knows it, but everybody continues to vote for the likes of Corzine and the rest of the scum because they are either in on the corruption or they want a piece of it.


42 posted on 04/15/2007 10:18:00 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Centurion2000
Democrats are already talking about a 15% tax on all IRA's and 401K's ..... what's the point again?

That, of course, is insanity since it completely negates the whole idea of personal retirement savings plans in the first place. Coming from the scumbag Democrats, however, it certainly is believable.

By the way, I noticed you didn't include pensions. Why would the Democrats exclude pensions from their tax-hiking scheme?

43 posted on 04/15/2007 10:23:11 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Society got more complex. The founding fathers could not have anticipated the infrastructure needed to maintain a modern country.


44 posted on 04/15/2007 10:26:07 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
What happened?

The Social Security Act of 1935.

45 posted on 04/15/2007 10:27:23 PM PDT by William Terrell (Individuals can exist without government but government can't exist without individuals.)
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To: Lancey Howard
By the way, I noticed you didn't include pensions

Because I hadn't heard it .... give them time and I'm sure some demokrat dimbulb hellbent on sucking the life out of this country will put it forth for 'due consideration'

46 posted on 04/15/2007 10:30:07 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Killing all of your enemies without mercy is the only sure way of sleeping soundly at night.)
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To: Centurion2000

Actually, I guess I should have added /sarc to my post.
The scumbag Democrats will not include pensions in their tax-hiking schemes because pensions are what union members have. IRAs and 401ks are what “rich” Republicans have.

Regards,
LH


47 posted on 04/15/2007 11:11:09 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Centurion2000

Geriatrics don’t need to riot, they vote.


48 posted on 04/15/2007 11:20:55 PM PDT by jwh_Denver ("Planet of the Apes" happened because people wouldn't proof read their posts.)
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To: durasell
Society got more complex. The founding fathers could not have anticipated the infrastructure needed to maintain a modern country.

Did you forget the sarcasm tags? The Founders are not the problem. The problem is bad people choose not to follow the rules. The founders over and over admonished that, in so many words, only smart good people can live by the rules they created. Which is not surprising considering they basically codified 99.9% of the world's wisdom and well, dumb bad people don't get the world's wisdom.

Point is, complex society ain't got squat to do with any of this except that it, complex society, gives dumb bad people an e.z. out to bypass the rules.

Individual Responsibility, Limited Government, Free Markets, Private Property plus the Bill of Rights and the Constitution can handle 99.9% of the present US's complexity. Unfortunately, only about 2% of us can tolerate Individual Responsibility, Limited Govt, Free Markets, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

49 posted on 04/15/2007 11:23:45 PM PDT by FreeRadical (Pray. Make Babies. Teach. Repeat.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Wasn't the government formed to defend the country, deliver the mail, and assorted other minor tasks? What happened?

People voted for statism every election for 100 years?
50 posted on 04/15/2007 11:25:51 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

ping for later... God help us all...


51 posted on 04/15/2007 11:30:18 PM PDT by navyguy (We don't need more youth. What we need is a fountain of SMART.)
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To: FreeRadical

Assuming you’re right — what’s the solution? We kick the other 98% overboard?


52 posted on 04/15/2007 11:30:42 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
What happened?

A little economic bump called the "Great Depression" and a "temporary" government fix called the "New Deal."

53 posted on 04/15/2007 11:47:00 PM PDT by semaj (Just shoot the bastards! * Void where prohibited.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This story is including military and civil service pensions for retirees under the title “dole.” That is scarsely accurate, imho.


54 posted on 04/15/2007 11:58:01 PM PDT by Ronin (Ut iusta esse, lex noblis severus necesse est.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
For those who want to know but were afraid to ask;

http://taxfoundation.org/

55 posted on 04/16/2007 1:32:45 AM PDT by Herakles (Diversity is code word for anti-white racism)
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To: Lancey Howard

Unions


56 posted on 04/16/2007 1:54:05 AM PDT by Jonathan E (Sustainable Development/Smart Growth is "Environmental Sharia")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

People over 65 who are now collecting Social Security are not on the dole. They are getting back their own money that they paid in over a lifetime of working.

If retirees put all the money they paid out in SS tax into an interest bearing account, they would all be rich today.

Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme that is going to collapse under its own weight.


57 posted on 04/16/2007 2:02:21 AM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO "We are going to take things away from you for the Common Good")
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To: cherry
worse than SS....federal, state, county and city civil service pensions

Medicare is four times bigger than all the rest combined at $85 trillion it will destroy our currency forcing a return to Constitutional govt and the demise of the parasites.


BUMP

58 posted on 04/16/2007 2:28:32 AM PDT by capitalist229 (Get Democrats out of our pockets and Republicans out of our bedrooms.)
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To: Centurion2000

here come the baby boomers....hopefully most have saved a penny or two on their way towards old age and extra wont need government assistance.

they paid into the system already


59 posted on 04/16/2007 3:29:13 AM PDT by river west (river)
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To: kcvl

By the way, one third of the total food stamp budget goes to Puerto Rico and as you know that don’t pay a penny of federal tax. Is this a great country or what?


60 posted on 04/16/2007 3:36:45 AM PDT by BTCM (Death and destruction is the only treaty Muslims comprehend.)
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