This is the last in a three part series.
I ended last week’s discussion by stating that by 2019 welfare spending would cost $1.34 trillion. This figure was based on an estimate done in 2009. However, the estimate appears to have been quite low, because between 2008 and 2013 welfare spending amounted to some $3.5 trillion. In fact, in 20 states welfare recipients received more money per year than starting teachers.
My discussion on welfare spending continues.
After the Republican controlled Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, the welfare rolls in the United States were reduced by two-thirds. Now, fast forward to February 2009 when President Barrack Osama was pressuring the Democrat controlled Congress to pass an economic-stimulus bill.
Under pressure from Obama the Democrats passed a $787 billion economic-stimulus bill. This bill was 1,071 pages in length and was never read by most members of Congress. Obama kept preaching that the economy would suffer great harm if Congress didn’t act immediately. In fact, it was so urgent that after passage of the bill, it sat on the President’s desk for three days while he was on holiday with his family.
One of the most significant provisions in the stimulus bill was the REPEAL of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. This bill was commonly known as the Work-fare Act. This provision resulted in some thirty-two percent of stimulus spending being funneled into welfare spending.
This represented, on average, $6,700 in new welfare spending for every poor person in the United States. In addition, open welfare spending is only a small portion of the hidden welfare spending that was in the stimulus bill.
For example: Included in the bill was Obama’s “Make Work Pay” a refundable tax credit. This credit provides up to $400 in cash to low income adults who pay no taxes. This is a government give away to adults with no dependant children, and the lack of connection between this credit and stimulus is evident, because the first payments were not made until April of 2010.
Under the guise of “Making Work Pay,” Obama is effectively putting a majority of Americans on welfare. He has now taken the refundable tax credit even further, giving those who earn less that $190,000 a tax credit of $400, or $800 for couples. If you don’t pay enough in taxes to use up the $400 credit, you will receive a check for the balance. If you pay no taxes you will receive a $400 check in the mail.
In the first ten months following the passage of the stimulus bill an additional four million Americans became unemployed. In addition, the Federal Reserve’s solution to the economic crisis was to print more money which they are still doing today. This effort by the Reserve to keep up with our rising national debt has historically proven to lead to a devaluation of our currency, and will cause hyper-inflation, which we are already seeing.
I believe that Obama and the Democrats intend to create a constituency that is addicted to public hand outs, which will concentrate the tax burden on a smaller and smaller number of Americans. It will only be a matter of time before tax eaters will out number tax payers. Tax payers will have little or no voice in what government does. It will be the tax eaters who will keep the Democrats in power.
Quote for the Week: “You can’t sell the cow and have milk too.”----Unknown.
Jim's Corner is posted here with permission from the writer. Jim's Corner is a print article and therefore no website link
