The Dole: New data on federal public assistance programs show weve reached an ignominious milestone: More than 100 million Americans are getting some form of means-tested welfare assistance. The Census Bureau found 51 million on food stamps at the end of 2012 and 83 million on Medicaid, with tens of millions of households getting both. Another 4 million were on unemployment insurance. The percentage of American households on welfare has reached 35%. If we include other forms of government assistance such as Medicare and Social Security, almost half of all households are getting a check or other form of government assistance. The tipping point is getting closer and closer. So much is shocking and dismaying about these numbers. How is it that the number of recipients and the price tag for many of these programs kept skyrocketing though the recession officially ended in 2009? Normally, youd expect welfare caseloads to fall in a recovery as the unemployment rate dips, but this time welfare participation keeps expanding. Perhaps this is because this administration and many Democrats in Congress, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, have told Americans that welfare benefits are a stimulus to the economy (sic). Apparently, the left believes that if every family were on food stamps, the economy would return to its glory days. The feds have also created outreach programs — including radio and TV ads in multiple languages — to encourage people to sign up for the dole because, as one ad put it, this helps the local community. The new statistics also highlight how limited work requirements are for welfare benefits. In 1996 when a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton enacted landmark welfare reform laws, the old-fashioned cash welfare assistance (AFDC) was replaced with a time-limited assistance program (TANF) that required work for benefits. This was a huge policy success as millions of former welfare recipients — more than half that were enrolled in the program — moved on to the economic ladder by getting jobs. But that program today is only 5% of the welfare safety net. Most of the other dozens of programs do not require work, so welfare reform has been effectively eviscerated. Another shocking feature of these statistics is that they dont even include income-transfer programs such as unemployment insurance and disability. These two add another $250 billion to the cost of welfare and are two of the most abused and scandal-ridden dispensers of federal cash. Read More At Investors Business Daily: news.investors/ibd-editorials/082214-714486-35-percent-of-americans-are-on-welfare.htm#ixzz3BAREy9iY Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 00:31:30 +0000
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