U.S. Has Spent $3.7 Trillion On Welfare Over Past 5 Years

http://www.budget.senate.gov/ ^ | 10/23/13 | Jeff Sessions

[chasio649]

We have just concluded the 5th fiscal year since President Obama took office. During those five years, the federal government has spent a total $3.7 trillion on approximately 80 different means-tested poverty and welfare programs. The common feature of means-tested assistance programs is that they are graduated based on a person’s income and, in contrast to programs like Social Security or Medicare, they are a free benefit and not paid into by the recipient.

The enormous sum spent on means-tested assistance is nearly five times greater than the combined amount spent on NASA, education, and all federal transportation projects over that time. ($3.7 trillion is not even the entire amount spent on federal poverty support, as states contribute more than $200 billion each year to this federal nexus—primarily in the form of free low-income health care.)

Because the welfare budget is so fragmented—food stamps are only one of 15 federal programs that provide food assistance, for example—it makes effective oversight nearly impossible, at the same time disguising the scope of the budget from both taxpayers and lawmakers alike. For instance, it is easier for anti-reform lawmakers to oppose food stamp savings by obscuring the fact that a household receiving food stamps is often simultaneously eligible for a myriad of federal aid programs including free cash assistance, subsidized housing, free medical care, free child care, and home energy assistance.

In the UK, six of the nation’s welfare programs have been consolidated into a single credit and total benefits have been capped at £26,000 (about $42,100 per family) in an effort to both improve standards and decrease net expenditures. A similar reform concept in the United States—combining welfare spending into a single credit—would still result in a surprisingly large welfare benefit while reducing expenditures and allowing for reforms that encourage self-sufficiency. For instance, a CATO study found that an average household in the District of Columbia currently receiving the six largest federal welfare benefits (Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, etc.) receives assistance with a converted cash value of $43,000. In Hawaii, it’s $49,000. Hypothetically, if net benefits from these myriad federal programs were combined into a single credit and capped at even 95 percent of that very large amount, it would save taxpayers billions while enabling reforms to promote self-sufficiency, reduce the penalty for working, and make the system fairer for taxpayers.

[chasio649]

I wish Sessions would run for Prez.....but even as good a Senator as he is...He's been up there too long.

[Dilbert San Diego]

And the liberals will say that these huge sums just aren’t enough, and that we need to spend even more fighting poverty. And that the GOP wants to take food out of children’s mouths...... And Paul Ryan wants to throw Grandma off a cliff.............

[Responsibility2nd]

Interesting observation here...

Obama’s Welfare Cost More than Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Combined
FrontPage Mag ^ | 10/23/2013 | Daniel Greenfield
 

Posted on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 12:00:55 PM by SeekAndFind

[Olog-hai]

Aw, that’s only $740 billion per year on average. The libs still have the defense budget to attack after all.

[fhayek]

I like to run numbers. $740 billion divided by 314 million people comes out to $2,356 for every man, woman and child per year (not just those on welfare). The average cost per person for health care expenditures is about $7,000. The $740 billion could have paid for all of the health care for the poorest 1/3 of the country (the poor are not more sick, on average, than the population at large, are they?) And yet, it was not enough. Also, Obama saw fit not to reform the health care spending spent by the government, but by the part of the health care system not controlled by the government. Tell me the logic in this.

[chasio649]

Interesting!

[chasio649]

LOGIC??? LOGIC??? Surely you jest! and i don’t mean Shirley ;)

[bkopto]

[fhayek]

What I guess I was trying to say was that the federal government has done such a great job managing the health care dollars they are currently spending that they want to force that expertise on the rest of us.

[relictele]

I know that veterans always give the VA glowing reviews.....

[Red in Blue PA]

Escalades cost a lot of money after all.

[relictele]

“means-tested” ..... LOL.

If you can get to the post office box you gets your cash.

[Venturer]

Why would anyone work when they can make more by staying home.

That is why there is unemployment. If there were no welfare the California orange pickers would find workers. They wouldn’t have to look at Mexico either.

[vpintheak]

And over 90 million able-bodied people who are not in the work force. Amazing, simply amazing. Why try when it’s easier to sponge? A slothful and greedy nation, we have become.

[dragnet2]

Hello....

Study: 70% of Texas’ illegal immigrant families receive welfare

In Texas, 54 percent of legal immigrants and 70 percent of illegal immigrants receive welfare assistance, with illegal immigrants generally receiving benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/04/study-70-of-texas-illegal-immigrant-families-receive-welfare/

[vpintheak]

Oh yeah, I forgot about them. Make that 90 million +. I’m sick.