Who Actually Benefits From Federal Benefits?

[ProSense]

Who Actually Benefits From Federal Benefits?

—By Kevin Drum

Republican candidates have lately been parroting Charles Murray's argument that our "entitlement society" has created a nation of deadbeats who would rather live off government benefits than find a job. In response, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a study earlier this week showing the fraction of government benefits that go to able-bodied workers.

Their estimate is about 9 percent. I linked to the CBPP study on Monday, and since their methodology was fairly complex, I added a back-of-the-envelope version that simply added up the benefits of programs that don't serve the elderly, disabled, or working poor...The next day I got an email from Arloc Sherman, one of the authors of the study. You can't just add up these programs, he told me, because even a lot of programs that people think of as "welfare" actually serve the elderly, disabled, and working poor too. Medicaid is the biggest example: Most of us think of Medicaid as a program for the poor, but more than half of all Medicaid spending actually goes to the elderly and the disabled.

So what percent of each program goes to the elderly, disabled, or working poor? The bulk of both Medicare and Social Security goes to the elderly and most of the balance goes to the disabled. The Earned Income Tax Credit goes almost entirely to the working poor. But what about the others? I was surprised when I saw the complete breakdown, and you might be too. Here it is:




Eighty-three percent of Medicaid goes to the elderly, disabled, or working poor. Seventy-nine percent of school lunches. Sixty-nine percent of unemployment compensation. Sixty-four percent of SNAP (food stamps). Even TANF, the classic "welfare" program, clocks in at 46 percent—and it's a very small program. The other 54 percent only amounts to about $6 billion, a minuscule fraction of federal benefits, and ever since the 1996 welfare reform bill those benefits have been temporary anyway. It's not really possible to become dependent on TANF any longer.

- more -

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/federal-benefits-able-bodied-workers

[bobbycoxs]

1. You have to work to get unemployment

Good share, it's ridiculous that these Republicans attack unemployment. You have to work to receive unemployment and it's based on your current salary, to get the maximum of only $333 a week, you needed to work a job paying $35,000 a year or more. Thanks for sharing.

-bobby

i'll share something back
http://www.andmagazine.com/content/phoenix/11501.html

[JDPriestly]

5. Puttting Social Security in the same "entitlement" basket as other forms of financial assistance

is a Republican meme.

You have to work to get regular Social Security.

And your benefit is determined by how much you pay in. The exact formula for calculating benefits is not readily available as far as I can tell. Social Security is an entitlement because it is earned not because the money for it is taken from the general fund.

At least that was always the case until Obama took over responsibility for the Social Security Trust Fund.

People do not pay in dollar for dollar what they get out. But then that is true of money invested in things other than the Social Security trust fund as many Americans who invested in 401(K)s discovered in recent years.

Putting Social Security in the same entitlement basket as other forms of aid to the poor is playing into the hands of those who want to destroy it. They are normally called Republicans, although a few Democrats have joined the crowd.

In fact, I would say that the stance of a person on Social Security is a safe indication of whether they are in their hearts Democrats or Republicans. It is Obama's wavering stance on Social Security that causes me to question whether he is a Republican.

The benefits for the poor that are like Social Security are not quite the same. They are not paid for by the beneficiaries in the same way and are treated differently in the statutes that govern Social Security.

[wiggs]

2. The ENTIRE COUNTY benefits from the social stability, sense of humanity, shared

sacrifice for the needy, reduction in emergency services, and collective SSI safety net.

There is no one in America who themselves, friends, business partners, or relatives have never used one of these programs. Plus, and more importantly, our country exists in relative peace and in livable conditions because there aren't large numbers of people in dire, desperate need causing rampant crime for survival, CEOs stepping over people sleeping under cardboard to get to the office, gun turrets in residential areas for protection, kidnappings of the wealthy, etc. These places exist in the world, where the fed government is weak, corrupt, and the is no safety net. Iraq, Haiti, Somalia...and probably more.

The OP question is helpful but narrower than should be. "Social security" is termed that way not in reference to individuals but because it relates to security and stability of society in the bigger sense.

[DCKit]

3. Hey Teabaggers, they're talking about YOU!

I want to see a separate category for Rascal Scooters.

[Yupster]

4. Seems like lotsd of benefits go to the working poor

Do they count as able bodied workers or not?