Mandates Grow Faster Then National Debt?

With more then 50% of the population now on the federal tit, does it still make sense that common sense will prevail for mandate reform? Guess who reelected Mr Obama and one has to believe at the end of another 4 years the number of individuals on some federal mandate will much higher and guess how all these citizens will vote in 2014?

Who Knew? Why would all these old and new recipients vote to get less money, especially when unemployment will likely be much higher and the cost of just about everything will higher, like food and energy.

Just imagine 60% of the entire population waiting each month for 'free' money, money we are borrowing from the Chinese. Yikes!!

A Bipartisan Nation of Beneficiaries

Source: Rich Morin, Paul Taylor and Eileen Patten, "A Bipartisan Nation of Beneficiaries," Pew Research Center, December 18, 2012.

January 7, 2013

As the nation continues to debate the merits of federal entitlement spending, a new national survey finds surprising facts about the distribution of this spending. Nearly 55 percent of Americans have received government benefits from one of the six best-known entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Unemployment Insurance), say Rich Morin, Paul Taylor and Eileen Patten of the Pew Research Center.

Even more interesting is the breakdown of people that have received benefits. According to a telephone survey that took a nationally representative sample of 2,511 adults:

• Sixty percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans have benefitted from a major entitlement program at some point in their lives.
• Women are more likely than men to have received an entitlement benefit by 12 percent.
• Blacks are more likely than whites to have received federal help from these programs by 8 percent.
• Moreover, 16 percent of people that have not received benefits say that a member in their household has gotten help.

The most utilized programs are unemployment benefits and Social Security. Nearly 27 percent of adults have received unemployment assistance, while about 26 percent have received Social Security.

It should be noted that age is also a large factor in whether someone has received some sort of financial assistance. This is not surprising considering that over the course of a lifetime there are more opportunities to receive benefits and once older people reach retirement age they qualify for Social Security and Medicaid.

• Ninety-seven percent of adults age 65 and older have received an entitlement benefit over the course of their lives.
• Only 33 percent of those under the age of 30 have received some sort of benefit.
• Eighty-eight percent of older adults have received Social Security and 78 percent have received Medicare benefits.