Today’s welfare state is not your father’s welfare state. A far larger percentage of Americans are on the government dole. A graph prepared by the Senate Budget Committee and drawn on numerical data from the U.S. Census Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that some 10 million names were added to the welfare rolls in just the two years from 2009 to 2011. The total number, 108,000,000, excludes those receiving Social Security or Medicare.
From GOPUSA:
Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large — and growing — chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. “Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011,” says the Senate Budget Committee. “Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade.”
Yet for all the gloom and doom, we all might take some solace from the yellowing snapshot below, courtesy of Rob Hoey. It is a page from New York’s Daily News dated Nov. 4, 1949. According to the intro, the poem, titled “Ode to the Welfare State,” was entered into the Congressional Record by Rep. Clarence J. Brown, a Republican from Ohio. Publication of the ode was inspired by a “pie-for-everybody” speech by Pres. Harry Truman. At least Truman wasn’t a proponent of wealth redistribution.
