Nearly Half Of Americans Live In Households With Government Aid
Families were more dependent on government programs than ever last year.
Nearly half, 48.5 percent, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4 percent lived households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.
The share of people relying on government benefits has reached a historic high, in large part from the deep recession and meager recovery, but also because of the expansion of government programs over the years. (See a timeline on the history of government benefits programs here.)
Means-tested programs, designed to help the needy, accounted for the largest share of recipients last year. Some 34.2 percent of Americans lived in a household that received benefits such as food stamps, subsidized housing, cash welfare or Medicaid (the federal-state health care program for the poor).
That fact takes on still more relevance when you consider that going all the way back to 1992, the Republicans have won a plurality of the national presidential vote exactly once. That once-in-20-years moment came in 2004, when George W. Bush rode the post-9/11 wave of patriotic fervor to a very narrow victory over John Kerry.
This statement could easily be revised. how about:
That fact takes on still more relevance when you consider that going all the way back to 1968, the Democrats have won a plurality of the national presidential vote exactly twice. Those twice-in-40-years moments came in 1976 and 2008. Clinton didn’t get pluralties either time he won.