It should be noted that this is not a problem with poor people leeching off the taxpayer. This is a Middle Class crisis, as politicians seek to load entitlements and other goodies on to those who used to be considered self-reliant.
Medicare and Social Security are the two biggest Middle Class entitlements but they have been augmented with programs like S-Chip, mortgage assistance, and a host of other government boondoggles that have taken the most productive sector in America and turned them into government dependents.
CNBC:
Government payouts-including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance-make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn't taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.
Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data."The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus," said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients. "Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits."
The economist gives the country two stark choices. In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, "either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion," she said.
It should be noted that much of the push for Middle Class entitlements was made under the administration of George Bush. That increase from 21% ot 35% of wages paid from social welfare benefits is incredible. An increase of 2/3 in less than a decade.
Of course, the Obama administration has only made the problem worse. But that doesn't absolve the GOP - many of whom are still in Congress - from their responsibility for turning America into a nation of dependent sheep who whine if anyone dares suggest that a cut in their benefits is necessary to save us from fiscal disaster.
Getting our fiscal house in order is going to hurt badly. We can start by weaning the Middle Class from the government teat and get them back on the road to self reliance.
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