The Obama Administration turned a giant spotlight on the welfare system in July when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proclaimed it had the authority to gut the work requirements from the welfare reform that had helped lift so many people out of poverty after 1996.
This morning, a new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) shows the staggering reality of the growing welfare state—echoing Heritage’s own research that reveals welfare spending is approaching the $1 trillion mark.
Roughly 100 million people—one-third of the U.S. population—receive aid from at least one means-tested welfare program each month. Average benefits come to around $9,000 per recipient. If converted to cash, means-tested welfare spending is more than five times the amount needed to eliminate all poverty in the United States.
But, instead of simply handing out all this cash to eliminate poverty in American (in one year, btw), Obama has tripled welfare spending, grown the food stamps dole two-fold, and eliminated the work requirements for both.
The more than 80 federal means-tested aid programs provide cash, food, housing, medical care, and social services to low-income people. Here’s how the spending breaks down:
- Federal: At $746 billion, federal means-tested spending exceeded spending on Medicare ($480 billion), Social Security ($725 billion), or the defense budget ($540 billion).
- State: In 2011, state contributions into federal welfare programs came to $201 billion, and independent state programs contributed around $9 billion.
- Combined: Overall means-tested welfare spending from federal and state sources reached from all sources reached $956 billion.
Doubling the welfare rolls, handing out benefits without any work requirements, and spending twice as much on welfare as we spend on defense: This is Obama’s new normal.
How can the economy grow with policies that stifle job growth? Simply put, it can't.
Folks, it is time to move forward...without Obama and his welfare state.
