It’s not exactly news that the United States harbors an enormous number of people on welfare. By one account, more than 100 million Americans are on at least one welfare program run by the federal government. And despite the 1996 welfare reforms, the number of adults on foods stamp skyrocketed from an already high…
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A few weeks ago, the New York Times posted a nice info-graphic on the dispersion of government transfers over time. The report show that American’s income that comes from government transfer programs has more than doubled over the last 40 years, rising from 8 percent in 1969 to 18 percent in 2009. The info-graphic…
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In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Sara Murray reports that “Nearly Half of U.S Lives in Household Receiving Government Benefits.” The pool of Americans relying on government benefits rose to record highs last year as an increasing share of families tapped aid in a weak economy. Some 48.6% of the population lived…
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In “Ex-Solyndra Staff Eligible For TAA Federal Aid; Packages Worth Average $13,000 Each,” Sean Higgins at Investor’s Business Daily reports that after the Obama-acclaimed, model “green energy” firm scammed a half billion dollars from taxpayers through bankruptcy, the White House has now approved even more corporate welfare for those involved: The Labor Department today…
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One in seven Americans now receive food stamps. As yet another indicator of the utter absurdity of Keynesian economics, Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is claiming that food stamps (“Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”) “mean more jobs” and provide “the most direct economic stimulus”. In the process, he somehow fails to mention that food…
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Freakonomics reports yesterday that a new poll from the Pew Research Center and the Washington Post shows more people see raising the debt limit as a bigger risk than not raising it. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner conduct their own poll. Weigh in here! As Ezra Klein reports on the development of the Capitol…
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Yesterday, President Obama threatened that if the debt limit is not raised by the August 2 deadline, he can’t guarantee that Social Security checks will go out. However, for years Democrats have argued that Social Security is on strong fiscal footing, and reform is unnecessary. The argument is that over the years the government…
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Jed Graham in Investor’s Business Daily reports that a new study of the financial condition of Social Security and Medicare indicate that with baby boomer retirements, rising health costs, and the ongoing economic malaise, these federal entitlement programs are producing massive deficits in perpetuity unless major changes are made to cut these unsustainable liabilities….
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Dennis Cauchon in USA Today reports that: Americans depended more on government assistance in 2010 than at any other time in the nation’s history, a USA Today analysis of federal data finds. The trend shows few signs of easing, even though the economic recovery is nearly 2 years old. A record 18.3% of the…
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There is a lot to not like about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, a.k.a. “ObamaCare”), but now that the federal government is spending money allocated by the health care reform law, there’s perhaps even more to not like about it! We’re referring to more than $1.789 billion dollars of corporate welfare…
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