How an Astounding New Right-Wing Lie About the Economy Is Born
http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-astounding-new-right-wing-lie-about-economy-born
There's a new economic myth that's now being amplified by the conservative media. It demonizes vital public services and suggests that the poor are doing just fine thanks to the largesse of the country's “makers.” Conservatives are being told that the United States is now spending vast fortunes combatting poverty – more than we dedicate to national defense, Social Security and Medicare.
This new spin is notable not for its mendacity – although it is completely divorced from reality – but because its origins are easily traced, allowing us to see how these kinds of distortions come to be. This one originated with the work of an analyst at the Heritage Foundation who is well known for his intellectual dishonesty. It was then picked up by Republican staffers on Capitol Hill, who lent the claim credibility by requesting a Congressional Research Service report on the analysis. They then further distorted the narrative before distributing it to friendly writers at conservative media outlets, who dutifully reported the falsehood. It will soon become conventional wisdom on the Right, further distorting conservatives' view of taxes and spending.
The Myth
Several conservative outlets had the story before Daniel Halper at the Weekly Standard , but his piece is the one that's been cited by hundreds of conservative blogs , right-wing radio talkers and Fox News . Halper, citing “the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee,“ framed the story like this: “Welfare spending per day per household in poverty is $168, which is higher than the $137 median income per day. When broken down per hour, welfare spending per hour per household in poverty is $30.60, which is higher than the $25.03 median income per hour.”
For fiscal year 2011, CRS identified roughly 80 overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011—more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these federal programs, when taken together with approximately $280 billion in state contributions, amounted to roughly $1 trillion.
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My math gives me an average "welfare" benefit of just $7,092 per year, or $136 per week.
Or are the Repugs backing off from their 47% figure? 
I tripped over this lie yesterday as I was investigating a "family and justice" organization and I couldn't figure out what the hell they were up to. Oh, and the Orwellian names some of these orgs use: family and justice; if your family looks like Ward, June, the Beaver, and Wally and if by justice you mean everyone "knows their god-given place" in the world and "behaves" themselves.
Anyway, it's nice to have the background at hand.
Thanks. 
He's an avowed atheist* who has spoken publicly on the desperate need for religion in the lives of America's children -- especially via prayer in school, doncha know?
He has a real genius for diving into a large pool of loosely connected numbers, multiplying and dividing them, and coming up with, guess what, "all this spending on wealthy "poor" people" is bankrupting the nation and taxing it's good (mostly white) people into the ground" -- or something along those lines.
*He was avowed when I knew him, but that was before the Heritage Foundation (founded in 1973 to combat Richard Nixon's " embrace of the liberal consensus", and twisting facts and truth into right wing talking points ever since) discovered his genius for complicated mendacity and hired him.
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