BIG GOVERNMENT AND BIG BUSINESS: CRONYISM RESTRAINS FREEDOM

Crony Capitalism and the American Welfare state:  joined at the hip

http://www.garynorth.com/public/11601.cfm

Specific Answers - Gary North – 9/28/2013

This is a very long article that opens your eyes.  Behind closed doors big government and big business work hand in hand to ensure that small business remains small and is unable to compete with big business.

Crony capitalism favors the super rich. The super rich are willing to pay income taxes to fund a small portion of the welfare state, because the bulk of the welfare state is funded by taxes on the middle class. The super rich don't pay much into Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. The working class pays: "regressive" taxation. These are the largest welfare programs there are. The super rich avoid having to pay much of anything into the two largest welfare state programs there are. It is a sweet deal for the super rich. The federal government's regulatory apparatus keeps growing, and the super rich's balance sheets keep growing.

This is the greatest single irony of the liberal Establishment's version of the welfare state. It was never funded by the rich. It was funded by the working class on a flat-tax basis. The super rich have watched in amusement as the Left invoked wealth-redistribution by the state. The system left the rich untouched.

Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are guarantees that the welfare state, as proposed by the Democratic Left, will never come into existence. If there is any welfare money left to spend, granny is going to get it, and the working class is going to put up the funds. These were the greatest political bait-and-switch scams in American history. In the name of soaking the rich, the middle class and the poor created a welfare state funded by them. The rich walked away from the trap laid for them by their political enemies. The welfare state is the ally of the super rich. It costs them little. It justifies the federal government. The federal government is the source of the protection that the super rich enjoy. Crony capitalism's ally is the welfare state. 

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

SINGAPORE SOLVES WELFARE – WHY CAN’T U.S.?

What we can learn from Singapore

http://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2013/09/21/what-we-can-learn-from-singapore-n1705789/page/full

Townhall – John C. Goodman – 9/21/2013

Click the link to read this entire article – ONE NATION ACTUALLY SOLVED PROBLEMS!!

In 1984, Singapore instituted a revolutionary idea: a system of compulsory saving for medical expenses. That was the same year my colleagues and I at the National Center for Policy Analysis introduced the idea of Health Savings Accounts in this country.

After almost three decades, Singapore has now come to the attention of a lot others, including a book by Brookings, and a whole slew of posts by bloggers.

At the risk of disappointing you, Singapore does not have a free market for health care. What it does have is an alternative to the European/American welfare state, in which private saving and private insurance do what employers and governments do in other countries. The Singapore philosophy is:

• Each generation should pay its own way.

• Each family should pay its own way.

• Each individual should pay his own way.

• Only after passing through these three filters, should anyone turn to the government for help.

If the United States adopted a similar approach to public policy, there would be no deficit problem in this country.

A shift from the public to the private sector. The most important thing Singapore has accomplished in health care (in contrast to all the other developed countries) is an enormous shift of money and power from the government to the private sector. Since 1984, the Singaporean government's share of the nation's total health care expenditure dropped from about 50% to 20%. When you stop to think about it, that's incredible.

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country

TAXPAYERS PAY FOR LOW-INCOME BIRTHS

Almost half of U.S. Births covered by Medicaid

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/08/Almost-Half-of-U-S-Births-Covered-by-Medicaid

Breitbart – William Bigelow – 9/8/2013

According to researchers from the George Washington University (GWU) School of Public Health, in 2010, almost half of all births in the United States were paid for by Medicaid, and that rate is only going to go up. Medicaid was responsible for 48% of the 3.8 million births in 2010, an increase of 90,000 births from 2008, which was an 8% increase during that period.

Lead investigator Anne Markus, an associate professor of health policy at GWU, said, "As states expand coverage, low-income women of childbearing age will be able to obtain more continuous coverage before and between pregnancies. Now, for the first time, researchers will have a comprehensive baseline that will help them determine how increased access to services might change pregnancies and ultimately birth outcomes.”

In New York City in 2009, 76% of Hispanic births were covered by Medicaid, 70% of births in the black community were covered, and 31% of whites.

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OBAMA LEGACY: MAINTAIN POVERTY THROUGH WELFARE

The Food Stamp President?  Will record welfare growth be the Obama Legacy

http://watchdog.org/77528/the-food-stamp-president-will-record-welfare-growth-be-the-obama-legacy/

Wisconsin Reporter – M. D. Kittle – 4/3/2013

In 2001 and 2002, six states adopted rules that eased income and asset requirements for SNAP, the Wall Street Journal story noted. “Previously, applicants could be disqualified if they had $5,000 in the bank, or earned slightly more than the poverty threshold.”  The idea was to use government aid to keep Americans from wiping out their savings.

“Policy makers wanted to allow newly poor families, such as those where the breadwinner was temporarily unemployed, to have enough money to put gas in the cars and pay phone bills — two necessities for finding and retaining jobs,” the article notes.

Well-intentioned? Perhaps. Costly? Absolutely.

Last year, the federal government spent $74.6 billion on food stamp benefits, or as the Wall Street Journal story points out, roughly equivalent to the combined budgets of the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior. Expenditures have grown from $30.4 billion in 2007.

More than $102.67 million in food assistance benefits was paid out to 854,692 recipients of the program in January, according to the state Department of Health Services.

Today, thanks in large part to the encouragement of the Obama administration, 43 states and U.S. territories have eased food stamp eligibility requirements.

“We believe that increasing the number of states that implement (eased) eligibility will benefit families hurt by the economic crisis, promote savings among low income households, and simplify state policies,” Jessica Shahin, a top USDA official, wrote to other federal program overseers in 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Please encourage your States to adopt (the looser rules) to improve SNAP operations in your States.”

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WELFARE SPENDING UP -- GDP GROWS 2%

Government spends more taxpayer dollars, and the GDP increases 2%

http://godfatherpolitics.com/7752/government-spends-more-taxpayer-dollars-and-the-gdp-increases-2-2/

Godfather Politics – Philip Hodges – 10/27/2012

The Republicans in the Senate Budget Committee compiled some data that showed that on average, over $60,000 was spent per household below the poverty line on welfare programs last year. Federal and State governments spent over $1 trillion on welfare programs, and over 16 million households were below the poverty line, which was $22,350 last year. The middle class is paying taxes to fund welfare programs that end up being able to pay out more money to poor households than what most households make in a year. The median household income last year was around $50,000. The Senate Budget Committee noted:

“A congressional report from CRS [Congressional Research Services] recently revealed that the United States now spends more on means-tested welfare than any other item in the federal budget—including Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. Including state contributions to the roughly 80 federal poverty programs, the total amount spent in 2011 was approximately $1 trillion. Federal spending alone on these programs was up 32 percent since 2008.”

They want a nation full of government dependents who, once they’re hooked on the government’s dole, will vote for more socialism every 4 years. 47 million Americans are on food stamps, and 8.8 million are on social security disability benefits, 1.3 million of these recipients applied during Obama’s term. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that nearly 110 million Americans received some kind of welfare last year. Despite the USDA’s claim that welfare users will stimulate the economy, the economy is still in the doldrums, and 23 million Americans are either underemployed or unemployed.

READER COMMENT: Do I understand this right? It costs tax payers $60,000 to give 1 household $3624.00 in food stamps. The government calls this progress?

Over $60,000 in welfare spent per household in poverty

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/over-60000-welfare-spentper-household-poverty_657889.html

Weekly Standard – Daniel Halper – 10/26/2012

New data compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee shows that, last year, the United States spent over $60,000 to support welfare programs per each household that is in poverty. The calculations are based on data from the Census, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Congressional Research Services.

 

"According to the Census’s American Community Survey, the number of households with incomes below the poverty line in 2011 was 16,807,795," the Senate Budget Committee notes. "If you divide total federal and state spending by the number of households with incomes below the poverty line, the average spending per household in poverty was $61,194 in 2011." 

 

the total amount spent in 2011 was approximately $1 trillion. Federal spending alone on these programs was up 32 percent since 2008.

 

Check out the chart at the link above: AMERICA SPENT ENOUGH ON FEDERAL WELFARE LAST YEAR TO SEND $60,000 TO EACH HOUSEHOLD IN POVERTY (17 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS)

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WELFARE - AMERICA’S ONLY GROWTH INDUSTRY

Welfare cost $746 Billion last year – more than social security or basic defense

http://godfatherpolitics.com/7619/welfare-cost-746-billion-last-year-more-than-social-security-or-basic-defense/

Godfather Politics - Giacomo – 10/20/2012

 

In time, the poverty level dropped significantly in the U.S., but not necessarily because of Johnson’s War on Poverty, but largely due to an overall change in the nation’s economy. The poverty level in 2006 was only 12.3%. However, that level has been steadily climbing ever since and President Barack Obama’s War on Middle Class has been a large contributor the increase.

 

When Obama took office, 12.5% of the American people lived at or below the poverty line. In 2009, that jumped to 13.2%. In 2010 it jumped up to 14.3% and in 2011 it reached 15.1%. That equates to over 46 million Americans living at or below the poverty line and there is no indication that the steady climb will end anytime soon.

 

The vast majority of these people turn to welfare to feed and clothe their families. What originally started out to be a band-aid to fix a temporary economic wound has now become a permanent life-support system for millions of Americans. And like the medical field, life-support costs a great deal more than band-aids.

It’s been a long proven fact that just giving money to the poor only creates more poor people. We need to stop just giving them money without anything in return. Think how much more productive it would be to pay the poor to work at various jobs rather than to just give them the money lay around home. They would learn skills and how to be self-sufficient and become contributing members of society instead of people who just sit back and feed off the rest of us like leaches.

 

Benjamin Franklin recognized that over 230 years ago and states so eloquently:

“In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries that the more the public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. There is no country in the world where so many provision are established for them (as in England); so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many almshouses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful? And do they use their best endeavors to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burden? On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that, you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, but giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness.”

 

“In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase in poverty. Repeal that law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, thought one on the oldest commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.” [The Real Benjamin Franklin: Part II: Timeless Treasures from Benjamin Franklin, Prepared by W. Cleon Skousen and M. Richard Maxfield. National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2008, Pp 453-4.]

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OBAMA GUTS WELFARE REFORM

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/obama-guts-welfare-reform/

The Foundtry – Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley – 7/12/2012

Bill Clinton promised welfare reform when he ran in 1992. He delivered in 1996. Now Obama has gutted it.

But wasn’t the law a law? How can he overturn it? Be redefining it. The Heritage Foundation reports.

Today, the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements that were the foundation of the reform law. The Obama directive bludgeons the letter and intent of the actual reform legislation.

Today the Obama Administration issued a new directive stating that the traditional TANF work requirements can be waived or overridden by a legal device called the section 1115 waiver authority under the Social Security law (42 U.S.C. 1315).

Through a technical trick, Obama has killed Clinton’s reform.

The process is arcane. It deliberately overcomes Congress’s desire in 1996.

The results will be clear, and very soon: the welfare rolls will grow. States will have to pay more to welfare mothers. The mothers will not have to seek jobs.

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GARBAGE IN -- GARBAGE OUT

Subsidize Irresponsible Behavior and you will get Irresponsible behavior

http://patriotupdate.com/articles/subsudize-irresponsible-behavior-and-you-will-get-irresponsible-behavior

Patriot Update – David L. Loetsch – 7/20/2012

Read the entire article-it takes two minutes to read this entire article, but it pinpoints our social welfare problems today.

Here is an unchanging truth: When dealing with people, you get more of what you reward and less of what you do not reward. This maxim is the Achilles Heel of the government’s various entitlement programs and explains in simple but accurate terms why welfare does not work. Perhaps there are instances in which welfare is a social “safety net” as liberals like to claim. However, too often it is an enabler of irresponsible behavior on the part of able-bodied men who father children and then abandon them and women who exercise poor judgment in their choice of partners.

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SOCIAL ISSUES CAUSE FISCAL EXPENSES

Phony Divide Between Fiscal and Social Issues

http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/2012/mar12/psrmar12.html#2

Phyllis Schlafly – March 2012

We used to have a social structure in the United States where husbands and fathers provided the financial support of wife and children. Last year, 41% of all babies born in the U.S. (including 53% of babies born to women under 30) were illegitimate, growing up without their own fathers.

It is obvious that when the mother of these children has no husband to support her and her babies, she calls on Big Brother Government. You and I then pay the bills for what is labeled welfare. It's not poverty that causes broken families; it's the absence of marriage that causes poverty and puts kids below the designated poverty line. Social issues cause fiscal expenses.

The massive national problem of having babies without marriage started with Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s. LBJ Welfare channeled all the money and benefits to the woman, making the husband and father unnecessary. Charles Murray laid this all out more than 20 years ago. He said "Illegitimacy is the single most important social problem of our time . . . because it drives everything else," imposing gigantic costs on the taxpayers

Most Americans are unaware that nearly $900 Billion a year of federal taxpayers' money is handed out to non-taxpayers allegedly below a designated poverty line.

Half of Americans (47%) pay no income tax and depend for their living expenses in whole or in part on government handouts paid by the other half who do pay income taxes.

Welfare spending is a failure; it doesn't advance us toward any constructive goal, such as helping recipients to get on their feet economically. It merely increases dependence on government handouts and increases votes for big-spending politicians.

This weblink includes 12 graphs listed below.

(You may have to use your Control key to enlarge the graph, opening a new web browser.)

Population on food stamps

Welfare and low-income health care surges

Gap between married and unmarried birth rates has narrowed

Four in 10 children are born to unwed mothers

Medicaid costs rapidly increasing

Hidden welfare state

91 million Americans dependent on government

Housing assistance breaks record

More than 70 percent of federal spending goes to dependence programs

Nearly half of all Americans don’t pay income taxes

Programs used to calculate index values

Births to unmarried mothers as a percentage of all births

We Can't Separate Social Policy from Tax Law

Social issues are not only an integral feature of our fiscal policies but also specifically of our tax laws.  The majority of Americans say they support traditional marriage, the union of a husband and a wife, and support children being raised by their parents who are married to each other.

Don't let anyone tell you that federal tax policy should be neutral about marriage, children and the family. Every part of your income tax return that you will file by April 15 is a manifestation of social policy.

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TOO MANY TAKERS -- NOT ENOUGH GIVERS

GOP USA -- Larry Elders -- 9/1/2011
Larry Elders on the Welfare State

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/2011/09/01/elder-the-welfare-state-too-many-takers-not-enough-givers/?subscriber=1

Little by little, inch by inch, drop by drop, governments both in America and in Europe began taking more and more from people, diminishing the incentive of those on both sides of the transaction -- the taker and the giver. In America, nearly half of wage earners pay not one single dime in federal income taxes. Many of them trudge down to the local polling place or vote via absentee ballot -- and vote themselves a raise.

As my eighth-grade dropout, WWII ex-Marine dad used to say, "When you try and get something for nothing, you usually end up with nothing for something." Dad would have enjoyed chatting with the cabbie: "Too many takers -- not enough givers."

Northwoods Patriots - Standing up for Faith, Family, Country - northwoodspatriotscomm@gmail.com