![Contrary to “Entitlement Society” Rhetoric, Over Nine-Tenths of Entitlement Benefits Go to Elderly, Disabled, or Working Households
Some conservative critics of federal social programs, including leading presidential candidates, are sounding an alarm that the United States is rapidly becoming an “entitlement society” in which social programs are undermining the work ethic and creating a large class of Americans who prefer to depend on government benefits rather than work. A new CBPP analysis of budget and Census data, however, shows that more than 90 percent of the benefit dollars that entitlement and other mandatory programs[1] spend go to assist people who are elderly, seriously disabled, or members of working households — not to able-bodied, working-age Americans who choose not to work. (See Figure 1.) This figure has changed little in the past few years.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m84zqmPn9u1qgegu7o1_400.jpg)
Some conservative critics of federal social programs, including leading presidential candidates, are sounding an alarm that the United States is rapidly becoming an “entitlement society” in which social programs are undermining the work ethic and creating a large class of Americans who prefer to depend on government benefits rather than work. A new CBPP analysis of budget and Census data, however, shows that more than 90 percent of the benefit dollars that entitlement and other mandatory programs[1] spend go to assist people who are elderly, seriously disabled, or members of working households — not to able-bodied, working-age Americans who choose not to work. (See Figure 1.) This figure has changed little in the past few years.
STOP SCROLLING AND READ THIS ARTICLE: The Sharp, Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class
Janis Adkins hadn’t been back in Santa Barbara long before she needed to apply for government assistance. She had never asked for aid before. At the California Department of Social Services, she filled out the form for emergency food stamps.
“I didn’t wear my best clothes, but I wore a light blouse and jeans, and I guess I was just a little too dressed up,” she recalls. “Because the woman just looked at me and said, ‘Are you in a crisis? Your application says you’re in a crisis.’ I said, ‘I’m living in a van and I don’t have a job. I have a little bit of money, but it’s going to go fast.’ The woman said, ‘You have $500. You’re not in a crisis if you have $500.’ She said anything more than $50 was too much.”
If Adkins had filled her tank with gas, done her laundry, eaten a meal, and paid her car insurance and phone bills, it would have used up half of everything she had. But emergency food stamps, she was told, are not for imminent emergencies; they’re for emergencies already in progress. You can’t get them if you can make it through the next week – you have to be down to the last few meals you can afford.
“The money’s for my phone, it’s for gas, it’s for my bills,” Adkins said.
“Why are you in a crisis,” the woman asked, “when you have a phone bill?”
“I need the phone so I can get a job. You can’t look for a job without a phone.”
“Why do you have bills?” the woman asked. “I thought you didn’t have a place to live.”
“I live in my van,” Adkins said. “I have insurance.”
“You have a 2007 van,” the woman said. “I think you need to sell that.”
“Please, I need a break,” Adkins said. “I need some help. I need to take a shower.”
“Why didn’t you have a shower?”
“I live in a van.”
The woman told Adkins to come back when she really needed help.
…
The Great Recession cost 8 million Americans their jobs. Three years after the economy technically entered recovery, there are positions available for fewer than one out of every three job seekers. In this labor market, formerly middle-class workers like Curtis and Concita Cates and Janis Adkins and Sean Kennan cannot reliably secure even entry-level full-time work, and many will never again find jobs as lucrative and stable as those they lost. Long-term unemployment tarnishes résumés and erodes basic skills, making it harder for workers to regain high-paying jobs, and the average length of unemployment is currently at a 60-year high. Many formerly middle-class people will never be middle-class again. Self identities derived from five or 10 or 40 years of middle-class options and expectations will capsize.
GOP Rep Describes Pushing 300k Children Off Lunch Program To Protect Military Spending As "Trimming The Fat"
“Yesterday, House Republicans moved legislation forward aimed at preventing any reductions in military spending, even if that means cutting much needed programs for the nation’s poorest. The House Armed Services Committee’s bill provides $554 billion for the Pentagon — $29 billion more than DOD had requested — while the GOP-led Budget Committee packaged six bills that would ‘slice $261 billion from food stamps, Medicaid, social services and other programs for struggling Americans.’”
Makes sense to me: those people should have to kill for their benefits like everyone else…
House Budget Committee OKs Massive Social Cuts to Preserve Military Funds
“In news from Washington, the Republican-led House Budget Committee approved a plan Monday to cut at least $260 billion in social spending over the next decade in order to protect military spending. The cuts would target food stamps, child tax credits and Medicaid healthcare for the poor. The Republican bill also abolishes the Social Services Block Grant that provided $1.7 billion last year for programs such as Meals on Wheels. The full House is expected to approve the measure later this week, but it is not expected to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.”
[T]he Reagan/Bush administrations also realized that racializing welfare by painting it as a program that unfairly benefited Blacks was a sure-fire way to win White votes. This context created the controlling image of the “welfare queen” primarily to garner support for refusing state support for poor and working-class Black mothers and children. Poor Black women’s welfare eligibility meant that many chose to stay home and care for their children, thus emulating White middle-class mothers. But because these stay-at-home moms were African American and did not work for pay, they were deemed to be “lazy”.
Source: wretchedoftheearth
Ron Paul's Tax Hypocrisy
“Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to abolish all income taxes — but he says he’ll have to completely destroy the ‘welfare system’ to do it… [He] includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the welfare system. in addition to food stamps and other programs to aid the needy. He would replace income tax with a sales tax that would decrease taxes on the rich and increase them on everyone else.”
I still don’t get why this guy has such a following, particularly among the so-called left…
Actually, I think the GOP is all about having an ample supply of poor, disenfranchised youth who will be forced, in order to gain a college education, to become military recruits 18 years in the future…however, imho, the Republicans are not thinking things through…I mean, after all, won’t these Democratic Babies grow up and vote AGAINST the GOP?
“Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers.” ~ George Carlin
Social Security Retiremen @plus.google.com
