Out Of Control Welfare Spending

More than one-third of Americans are now receiving means-tested federal benefits a Heritage Foundation analyst says. The Obama administration is planning to vastly increase spending on welfare and now measures the success of public assistance programs by the number of people signed up for benefits.

The U.S. Census Bureau released statistics showing nearly 110 million Americans lived in households receiving benefits from one or more welfare programs at the end of 2012. That amounts to roughly 35.4 percent of the population. The data show the programs with the most beneficiaries include Medicaid (nearly 83 million people), food stamps (more than 51 million) and the Women, Infants and Children program 22.5 million).

While the 2012 numbers do not represent a huge leap from recent reports, they do confirm the sheer size of U.S. public assistance expenditures this is about one-third of the American population that receives some type of means-tested welfare benefit, which is a huge number. We have a welfare system that continues to increase in cost. There are 80 different federally means-tested welfare programs, so it’s a very large welfare system, and I believes the government has a very wrongheaded approach to determining the success of these programs.

Unfortunately, the federal government tends to measure welfare success by the number of people receiving benefits. I think that’s really the key issue here, the mentality that a huge welfare system is a successful welfare system.

If we look at things like the food-stamps program and other programs, they actually try to pull as many people onto the program as possible. They have recruiting procedures. They advertise to get people onto these programs. That certainly shouldn’t be the goal. The goal should be to help individuals become sufficient rather than to be dependent on welfare.

Any lingering doubts about the deficiencies of Obamanomics can be dispelled with one piece of data: The U.S. has spent $3.7 trillion on welfare in the past five years, with virtually nothing to show for it.

That cumulative spending on welfare during the Obama years has been five times greater than what's been spent on transportation, education and NASA — combined.

Maybe that shouldn't be surprising. Obama, after all, promised a "fundamental transformation" of America. He's fulfilled that promise with a vengeance.

Means-tested aid programs now number about 80. Food stamps, with more than 51 million recipients, have gotten the lion's share of recent attention. But that's just one of 15 food-aid programs. No, I'm not against temporary help for truly desperate people. But welfare spending has grown year in and year out regardless of how the economy has performed or whether unemployment is up or down.

And a lot of welfare spending is pure waste. The IRS admitted to the disbursement of $335 billion in bogus payments over the past decade under the earned income tax credit — a kind of direct welfare transfer from taxpayers to low-income workers.

Unfortunately, the welfare state will only grow. A Senate report earlier this year noted that, based on Congressional Budget Office projections, welfare spending will rise 80% over the next 10 years. That's $21 trillion in welfare spending over that time. Just cutting that growth to 60%, the report found, would save taxpayers $1 trillion. But, as we've seen, that won't happen.

Yet, surely all this money must be making a dent in all the poverty. Nope. Today, 56.5 million Americans live in poverty and more than 70% of all federal spending goes to dependency programs, like Social Security and Medicare. At the same time, nearly half of all Americans no longer pay any federal income tax at all.

This nation was once filled with proud workers and businesses eager to hire them. But, as noted now, a record 92.6 million Americans of working age are no longer in the labor force. 

Logic tells us they have to be supported by (1) their own savings, (2) working children or spouses or (3) welfare.

Increasingly, it seems, (3) is the answer. The Census Department reported just that 49% of the population, or 151 million Americans, got federal aid from at least one program in 2011 — up from 94 million in 2000.

The U.S., sadly, has become a nation of dependents, and Obamanomics is accelerating the process. With debt at $17 trillion and rising, more than $63 trillion in unfunded liabilities, and fewer workers to pay for it all we will soon be bankrupt.

A nation of welfare dependents who won't or can't work or pay taxes cannot prosper. Instead, it becomes stagnant and unproductive. We're well on our way to being some other countries bitch, so hats off to president Obama, this is that fundamental change he promised.

# Two Million Less...

What’s the single most important issue facing the country today? According to a recent Gallup poll, a majority of Americans says it’s jobs.

We need more of them, Millions more. But thanks to the policies of Barack Obama, we’re not getting them. In fact, just the opposite is true. Recent reports from the Congressional Budget Office reveal how two of the President’s pet programs will cost this country millions of jobs. They make very grim reading for anyone concerned about the employment picture in America.

The first report dealt with the impact of Obamacare. The CBO estimates that as the Affordable Care Act becomes fully implemented, some 2 million Americans will either leave the workforce or substantially reduce the number of hours they work. The reason is simple: They won’t want to lose the subsidies for their health insurance. But that’s what will happen as their earnings increase, either because they work more hours or get a higher-paying jobs.

The Obamacare insurance subsidies are gradually reduced as a person’s income rises. In other words, as the CBO report puts it, Obamacare is really “an implicit tax on additional earnings.”

The White House immediately put its own enthusiastic spin on the CBO’s projected job loss. Believe it or not, it said this was really good news, because it meant that many people would finally have the freedom to stay home with their children or maybe start their own businesses. Yep, the Obama Administration said we should all be happy about the loss of 2 million jobs because it meant that “Individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods and have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.

Sure thing. That “dream” no doubt helps explain why nearly 50 million Americans have signed up to collect food stamps. Welcome to the Obama's version of the American dream which is rapidly becoming the American nightmare for those of us who have to pay the taxes to keep the shell game going.

The employment picture is already pretty grim, with the lowest labor-participation rate since the 1970's. The way the Feds like to count, the unemployment rate in the U.S. is now less than 7 percent, a finding that led to all sorts of back-patting and self-congratulations from the White House. But of course, “the way the Feds like to count” is as crooked as a corkscrew. As soon as someone stops looking for work, he is no longer counted among the unemployed. So while the Bureau of Labor Statistics sees only 10 million unemployed Americans, the reality is that there are another 92 million Americans — more than nine times that number — who don’t have jobs. Some of them don’t need or want to work, of course. They may be retirees or stay-at-home moms. The number also includes full-time students, the disabled and anyone else who doesn’t need a job. But even after making every possible allowance, it’s clear that the real unemployment number in this country is considerably higher than the government’s official figure.

The second bit of bad news for the Democrats concerned their campaign to increase the minimum wage by almost 50 percent. They want it raised from $7.25 an hour, where it is now, to $10.10 I’ll leave aside for now the whole question of whether the Federal government has any business setting wages in this country or whether it has the Constitutional authority to do so. Of course it doesn’t. But the three branches of government haven’t agreed with me on this one since 1938, when the first law was passed by Congress establishing a Federal minimum wage.

Now comes a report from the CBO estimating that raising the minimum wage to more than $10 could cost anywhere from half-a-million to a million jobs According to the Labor Department, about 3.6 million Americans earned $7.25 an hour or less in 2012, the latest year for which numbers are available. Almost half of them were between the ages of 16 and 24. The vast majority were working in entry-level jobs, mostly in restaurants and other service industries. But here’s the good news: Most people who start in minimum-wage jobs in this country won’t stay there. 

After they've increased their skills and experience, they become worth more to an employer. That just makes sense. There are 146 million people employed in this country, according to the Labor Department Some 118 million hold full-time jobs, while another 28 million are working part-time. And you know what? Most of them got their first jobs working for minimum wage at McDonald’s or some other fast-food joint. Many, if not most, of the people reading this column could probably say the same thing. How many of those first-time jobs will be lost if the minimum wage goes up by almost 50? That’s why the National Restaurant Association warned that increasing the minimum wage will “significantly limit the entry-level opportunities businesses can provide, hurting employees with limited skills or experience and looking to enter the workforce.”

The Origins of Obamacare

A book documents for the first time the radical origins of President Obama’s health-care law revealing the principal author of the foundation for the legislation while tracing the law itself to a group funded by George Soros“Red Army: The Radical Network that must be defeated to save America” also finds the founders of the controversial Apollo Alliance run by a slew of radicals, helped craft the marketing campaign behind the health-care initiative. 

Aaron Klein

The new book, by authors Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott, exposes what is characterized as “the radical socialist network that seized political power in Washington over decades, shaped Obama’s presidential agenda and threatens the very future of the U.S.” On Obamacare, “Red Army” documents how the legislation, deliberately masked by moderate, populist rhetoric, was carefully crafted and perfected over the course of decades and is a direct product of laborious work by a coalition of radical groups and activists, many with socialist designs. 

Brenda J. Elliott

Those activists seek to “reform” the U.S. health-care industry, which accounts for a significant portion of the U.S. capitalist enterprise.“Red Army” reveals the principal author of the foundation for Obamacare is third generation progressive academic Jacob S. Hacker, a Yale professor who is an expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy. 

Hacker is author of Health Care for America, the centerpiece of the George Soros–funded Economic Policy Institute’s Agenda for Shared Prosperity. “Red Army” finds Hacker’s proposal for so-called guaranteed, affordable health care for all Americans is the foundation for Obama’s healthcare plan. Hacker’s plan had its origins in the professor’s multiple other major policy papers on health care, including a 2001 plan for the Covering America project. 

Jacob S. Hacker

In 2003, Hacker first devised a public health insurance program called “Medicare Plus,” which would offer coverage to all legal residents not otherwise covered by Medicare or employer-sponsored insurance. Employers would be required to either provide a minimum level of coverage to their workers or pay a payroll tax. That plan was the basis for the U.S. National Healthcare Insurance Act, which was first introduced Feb. 2, 2005, in the House by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. The act was sponsored by several other congressmen, all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus“Red Army” documents how the Progressive Caucus was founded by the Democrat Socialists of America. 

Buy Red Army Now

The book charges the caucus works as a Marxist-socialist block in Congress to introduce progressive legislation with socialist intent. Red Army” documents how a little-known marketing outfit called the Herndon Alliance helped to market Obamacare, even providing suggestions on which words supporters should use the promote the bill Acceptable phrases include “quality affordable health care”; “American solutions”; “giving security and peace of mind”; “fair rules”; “government as watchdog”; “smart investments, investing in the future”; and “affordable health plans.” 

Celinda Lake

Unacceptable words include “universal health care”; “Canadian-style health care”; “Medicare for All”; “regulations”; “free”; “government or public health care”; and “wellness.” Red Army” found the research component of the Herndon Alliance was provided by Celinda Lake, who teamed up with a marketing research firm American Environics. AE uses social-values surveys to gauge public opinion Lake, herself, worked for a number of leftist institutions and unions, including the AFL-CIO and the SEIU. 

Robert Borosage

She also serves on the board of directors of the Progressive Congress Action Fund alongside Robert Borosage, whose Healthcare for America Now anticipated spending $42 million in its final push for passage of Obamacare. AE was founded in 2004 by a team of American strategists and Canadian researchers. In April 2005, current AE managing partners Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger started AE’s American branch. One year before Shellenberger did imaging for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. 

Van Jones

Nordhaus and Shellenberger co-founded the Apollo Alliance sometime around 2002 and were two of its original national board members“Red Army” exposes how Apollo helped draft not only the president’s green jobs programs, but also the $787 billion economic stimulus bill and other proposed new energy legislation Apollo is led by a slew of radicals, including Van Jones, Jeff Jones, who heads Apollo’s New York branch and is a former top leader of the Weatherman terrorist organization, and Joel Rogers, a founder of the socialist New Party. Obama’s controversial former “green” jobs czar, Van Jones, sits on Apollo’s board. 

Dr. Quentin D. Young

Meanwhile, several major groups were founded to lobby for the legislation that became Obama’s healthcare law Healthcare-NOW, not to be confused with the organization Health Care for America Now, was established in 2004 for one purpose – to lobby on behalf of single-payer healthcare. Healthcare-NOW’s broad base includes socialist, labor, church and community organizations and, most notably, Physicians for a National Health Program. National Health Program. Healthcare-NOW co-chairmen include Dr. Quentin D. Young, who is considered father of the single-payer movement.

Medea Benjamin

Young advised Obama during his days as a senator. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the radical Code Pink anti-war group, is a member of Healthcare-NOW’s board of directors. Another major group leading the charge to transform health care has been Campaign for America’s Future. CAF was founded in 1990 by Robert L. Borosage. Roger Hickey, co-founder of the Soros-funded Economic Policy Institute which “Red Army” ties to the health-care bill, is credited as being a CAF co-founder as well CAF unveiled the lobby, Health Care for America Now, or HCAN, which “Red Army” documents deceptively maintains that it is a “national grassroots campaign.” HCAN’s lead member organizations include ACORN; MoveOrg; AFSCME; Americans United for Change, Planned Parenthood Federation of America; SEIU; United Food and Commercial Workers; and the Soros-funded Center for American Progress Action Fund, which is highly influential in advising the White House. 

“Red Army” documents how Obama and progressive Democrats are deliberately overloading the U.S. financial system, using socialist designs to remake the economy. The book, with nearly 1,500 endnotes, documents how these radicals aim to remake the American financial system with massive government control.“Red Army” contains a number of other major scoops while exposing the radical socialist network that seized political power in Washington over decades, shaped Obama’s presidential agenda and threatens the future of the U.S. Some other highlights from “Red Army”: 

The existence of a powerful “Marxist-socialist” bloc in Congress (explicitly formed as an arm of the Democratic Socialists of America) and how it is behind legislation in areas that affect all Americans, including the complete socialization of health care and comprehensive immigration reform, which, the book exposes, seeks to change the very nature of the American electorate In two chapters that every American must read, entirely new information s laid bare on the left’s unprecedented assault on America’s already over- liberalized education system. 

The multipronged policy offensive aimed at disarming America by emboldening its enemies within and without, spurning traditional allies subjecting the nation to the authority of foreign tribunals and systematically dismantling the U.S. military How elements of the news media not only collude with these radical groups but are in some cases members of the very extremist organizations they ought to be investigating.