PeacePlan
04-21-2011, 07:37 PM
Government Cash Handouts Now Top Tax Revenues
By Elizabeth MacDonald
Published April 20, 2011
| FOXBusiness
U.S. households are now getting more in cash handouts from the government than they are paying in taxes for the first time since the Great Depression.
Households received $2.3 trillion in some kind of government support in 2010. That includes expanded unemployment benefits, as well as payments for Social Security (http://www.foxbusiness.com/topics/business/finance/retirement/social-security.htm), Medicaid (http://www.foxbusiness.com/topics/politics/healthcare/health-insurance.htm), and stimulus spending, among other things.
But that’s more than the $2.2 trillion households paid in taxes, an amount that has slumped largely due to the recession, according to an analysis by the Fiscal Times.
Also, an estimated 59% of the 308.7 million Americans in this country get at least one federal benefit, according to the Census Bureau, based on 2009 data. An estimated 46.5 million get Social Security; 42.6 million get Medicare; 42.4 million get Medicaid; 36.1 million get food stamps; 12.4 million get housing subsidies; and 3.2 million get Veterans' benefits.
And the handouts from the government have been growing. Government cash handouts account for a whopping 79% of household growth since 2007, even as household tax payments--for things like the income and payroll tax, among other taxes--have fallen by $312 billion.
That is a tough feeding trough to take away from voters.
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/james_joyce_table.cfm?pid=9189
By Elizabeth MacDonald
Published April 20, 2011
| FOXBusiness
U.S. households are now getting more in cash handouts from the government than they are paying in taxes for the first time since the Great Depression.
Households received $2.3 trillion in some kind of government support in 2010. That includes expanded unemployment benefits, as well as payments for Social Security (http://www.foxbusiness.com/topics/business/finance/retirement/social-security.htm), Medicaid (http://www.foxbusiness.com/topics/politics/healthcare/health-insurance.htm), and stimulus spending, among other things.
But that’s more than the $2.2 trillion households paid in taxes, an amount that has slumped largely due to the recession, according to an analysis by the Fiscal Times.
Also, an estimated 59% of the 308.7 million Americans in this country get at least one federal benefit, according to the Census Bureau, based on 2009 data. An estimated 46.5 million get Social Security; 42.6 million get Medicare; 42.4 million get Medicaid; 36.1 million get food stamps; 12.4 million get housing subsidies; and 3.2 million get Veterans' benefits.
And the handouts from the government have been growing. Government cash handouts account for a whopping 79% of household growth since 2007, even as household tax payments--for things like the income and payroll tax, among other taxes--have fallen by $312 billion.
That is a tough feeding trough to take away from voters.
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/james_joyce_table.cfm?pid=9189