Benefit spending soars to new high

Benefit spending soars to new high

www.usatoday.com

Benefits, such as Social Security, food stamps, unemployment insurance and health care, accounted for 16.2% of personal income in the first quarter of 2009, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That's the highest percentage since the government began compiling records in 1929.

In all, government spending on benefits will top $2 trillion in 2009 — an average of $17,000 provided to each U.S. household, federal data show. Benefits rose at a 19% annual rate in the first quarter compared to the last three months of 2008.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This article is very good. Short and to the point and contains a couple of details that I'd not heard before.

one of every six dollars of Americans' income is now coming in the form of a federal or state check or voucher.

16.2% of personal income is government benefits. What the heck are we doing?????

Driving this figure is

•Unemployment insurance. One-fourth of the extra spending covers jobless benefits, a program started in the Depression. The stimulus law, passed in February, increased benefits.

• Social Security. The bad economy has prompted a 10%-15% jump in early retirements, the program's actuary says. A 5.8% increase took effect January 1. Bottom line: $55 billion in new costs.

• Food stamps. Enrollment hit a record 33.2 million people in March, up 5.2 million from last year. The stimulus law boosted the size of the benefit. Average March benefit: $114 per person.

10-15% increase in early retirements due to the bad economy. I bet those numbers aren't in the unemployment figures but ARE costing us $$ now that we can't afford.

Adam Lerrick, economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, says the benefits' explosion will eventually lead to an economic crisis.

No, duh???

"We've seen this movie before in many countries. It always has the same ending," he says.

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I just realized the use of health care in the first sentence of the article. Why did the author feel compelled to include it in the list of "benefits" that are costing us outrageously?? Health benefits are not income but I guess because Obama is trying to pass this socialist health care system, everyone has been ordered to put it in their articles - regardless of if it makes sense or not.

What about defense spending? So what that benefits spending is up? Better benefits spending is up and folks are being taken care of than spending it on defense when we already have enough munitions to blow the world up 100 times over. I receive V.A benefits because I earned them and need them to live. What do we do? just eliminate all folks over 62 and people who are sick. A little socialism wouldn't hurt not Fascist socialism but the kind where everyone has a right to health care, food and shelter. It's all rather disgusting. I hope I didn't go to far off the topic. Peace and have a good day.

reply to post by ablue07


16% of TOTAL personal income in the U.S. is now provided by the government. Who pays for this? All the people getting the benefits as well as the people who are not do. The higher this percentage the LOWER your personal income will be because they are taxed. The lower your personal income, the lower the tax revenues and therefore taxes increase to pay for them.

Get it? It's a vicious cycle - one which the people getting the benefits do not benefit from except for keeping them on the brink of poverty (and not over it) - for now. It WILL collapse and those which the government are "taking care of" will be the first to fall into poverty.

We need to scrub the defense budget not cut it. Cutting the defense budget would be like giving a pay cut to a family that spends all their cash every week.

The correct thing to do would be to spend the cash and audit the budget and get rid of what doesn't need to be there.

As far as benefit spending, it just keeps growing and growing and growing. It isn't helping anybody. I remember when Clinton reformed welfare to workfare, the number of people collecting welfare dropped significantly.

I don't have a problem with some things like the VA and disability, but welfare doesn't work. All it does is allow people to be lazy. Welfare is supposed to work by helping people get back on their feet, but all it does is make people dependent.

What happens when the money runs out? Those people will be the first ones to rob and or kill you because that is the only way they know how to provide for themselves. The only way we are going to have a better society is to teach people that they have to do for themselves.

Yeah....just not buying it....are they trying to tell me that 1 out of every six dollars I bring in to my home is given to me by THEM? What a crock.

How many here are NOT unemployed, NOT on foodstamps and NOT on social Security?

Last I checked, about 30% of everything I EVER MAKE goes to THEM.

Sounds to me like someone wants us to think they are working really hard to take care of us.

reply to post by KSPigpen


Well yes, obviously it is on the composite number. But what does that say to you being one of those who isn't receiving the benefits? Sound reasonable to you?? It doesn't to me!

Oh, and if you're giving 30% now then you going to be giving a whole lot more shortly. The point of the post was to point out this outrageous number. The more people getting benefits the more people who are actually working are going to have to pay.

[edit on 6/6/2009 by Iamonlyhuman]