(RT.com) “The number of Americans going to the government for assistance has once again hit a new high. More than 46 million Americans are now enrolled in the federal welfare food stamps system, more than double the amount from only a decade earlier.
The latest statistics made available by the United States Department of Agriculture reveal that more Americans than ever before are enrolled in the social welfare program, with numbers from the month of July 2012 indicating that the current roster of recipients amounts to 46,681,833 persons.
The newest figures indicate that enrollment continues to surge, with around one million more people receiving benefits now than just a year earlier. Last year, RT reported that the number of persons enrolled in the food stamps system consisted of roughly 45 million, or 15 percent of the country’s population.
By comparison, only 31.98 million people were receiving assistance in January 2009 when US President Barack Obama took office, indicating an increase of roughly 15 million in less than four years.
Republican lawmakers have pounced on the latest news and say that the Agriculture Department is openly advertising the program to non-citizens, making federally funded assistance appealing to those who do little to contribute to the country’s resources.”
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I know I’ve heard the radio commercials where Father and Daughter excitedly cook dinner in preparation for when Mom gets home; and would you believe it! They got all that yummy food from food stamps. I’m not going to debate you on the idea that we need resources for those on hard times who need help getting food for their families, but we’re now advertising it as healthy, fun, and normal?
Total spending on food stamps is projected to reach nearly $800 billion over the next ten years, with no fewer than 1 in 9 people on the program at any given time. Spending on the program and food stamp participation is never expected to return to pre-recession levels at any point in the next ten years, says the Weekly Standard.
Mitt Romney is quoted in Tuesday’s debate: “How about food stamps? When [Obama] took office, 32 million people were on food stamps. Today, 47 million people are on food stamps.”
What does all of this mean for us? It tells us that the government likes us on these programs and has every intention of allowing us to remain on them for the next ten years. Obama has removed the work requirements from welfare and participation has now doubled. Those in the working class are now paying for the food of those not in the working class, and they’re not required to ever go back to work, either.
If you want to ignore all of this and make the assumption that those “footing the bill” are just the rich, be my guest. But Obama’s healthcare bill has raised costs by almost $2,000 for middle class families and his spending plan will bring about at least a $1,500 increase in taxes for those making as little as $30,000 annually. Not only that, but their tax plan calls for a 40% increase in taxes on small businesses. Who is that going to hurt? Big corporations? I don’t think so.
- The Vocal Libertarian
Woah, hey, who said all of us in the middle class had a problem with this? A lot of our families have been on and off the system to start with - I know that if things had gone another way, my family would be on the system and I wouldn’t be in college. Many of us pay because we know that if we ever need any of the programs that the government works on, they’ll be there for us. Which is probably why 1mil more people were put on there to start with.
And, let’s face it, a lot of people who go into the welfare program might not even be fit to work anymore due to mental or physical or legal or family or whatever issues. That’s what Social Security was SUPPOSED to be for, but it became a giant retirement money-milking program. So don’t assume that everyone’s a lazy asshole trying to cheat the system. (Not to say those people don’t exist, but it’s not as rampant as many conservatives and libertarians make it out to be.)
Our issue is that no matter how you cut it, no matter what issue you’re talking about, big businesses are still likely to be skipping millions, if not billions, on taxes through loopholes that could help pay for these programs. There’s no way around that fact.
