Copyright © John Jones, 6/4/2014
Thanks to Washington politicians of both parties we have a new voting class that get pandered to every election cycle. These hopelessly idiotic politicians hope that by creating this new entitlement class of Americans that they would have a block of voters with which they could use to win more elections. To get these massive entitlements passed over the years they used words like safety net, protect the poor, and social justice. The liberals however manipulated the system so that anyone trying to rein in the costs of these programs would forever be hailed as racist child starving bigots who want to push granny off a cliff then feed off her body while the liberals were (WARNING: cliche ahead) as white and as pure as the driven snow.
According to the 2013 social security board of trustees annual report social security and medicare accounted for 38% of all fiscal spending in 2012 and that from 2013 to 2018 there will be a 75 billion (75,000,000,000) cash flow shortage.
In 2013 there was 47.6 million (47,636,090) people on food stamps at a cost of 74.6 billion (74,619,344,626) dollars. This statistic shows a 140% increase of food stamp usage since the 1990’s.
Furthermore, as of 2005 there were over 1,600 ‘government funded programs’ aka pork barrel spending’ that had been passed by various politicians over the years. The cost of these programs rose to 1.9 trillion (1,974,042,215,000)
As a result of these power hungry and corrupt politicians, between 2009 and 2011 the US debt grew by 2.5 to 4.7 billion per day (2,500,000,000 to 4,700,000,000). As of today, the US national debt exceeds 17.5 trillion (17,522,636,000,000).
The problem with most government programs is once you get on them it’s terribly difficult to get off them. To maintain eligibility for food stamps you can’t have a bank account with more than $2,000, and you can’t have or get a good job that pays you enough to live on. Currently there are unions who are pushing for a $15 minimum wage in food service. I wonder if these protesters realize that this ‘living wage’ the unions want for them speak of would make them ineligible for food stamps and most government subsidies?
The reality is that people are dependent on these programs and have virtually zero incentive to move up and out of the rolls of food stamps, unemployment or housing assistance. Here is a real world example of what I mean. Imagine a family that consists of a husband, wife and two children. The husband already works a part time jobs of 30 hours, and one day the wife gets a job at $15.00 per hour for 30 hours. If this happens they would immediately lose any food assistance because it would put them above the income threshold. The government reasons that the wife has a job and no longer need assistance, but the government does not take into account that they have more expenses like gasoline, and childcare which can immediately consume ANY increase in income by the couple. In addition their new higher income would make them ineligible for housing assistance as well, but they can’t pay the extra rent because it went to repairing the car or to the aforementioned childcare provider. That being the case there is no benefit to strive upward and outward away from this situation, because at the slightest hint of upward mobility this couple would be dropped from their support network like a red hot potato.
Over two hundred years ago a wise man saw the light and said: ‘I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” This man was named Benjamin Franklin.
Taking away benefits at the first hint of an increase in income is counter-productive. It is the equivalent of cutting open a person’s an aorta just when their heart starts beating faster. The result is they never recover.
That being said there must be a limit on what we as a society should do. These limits MUST include the idea that government should NOT acquire debt to pay for such programs. I agree that money should be set aside for programs like food stamps, housing programs & others, but NOT to an extent that we have to borrow the money to pay for them. For instance, in 2013 the US borrowed 46 cents for every dollar spent. Translated it means the government borrowed 37 of 74 billion (37,000,000,000 of 74,000,000,000) to pay for food stamps in 2013.
In the case of the Social security it was designed to be self-sustaining, but congress stole (they say borrowed) the money for various pork projects over the years but NEVER paid it back. They still won’t tell us how much of the 2.6 billion (2,600,000,000) trust fund is actually there, but the fact is that the fund has to borrow money to make its mandated monthly payments.
Today, any person who states the fact that the government is borrowing money for social programs or the fact that US government is over 17 trillion in debt is said to be in a war on women, on the poor, on minority groups, and on other groups claiming special treatment. It is clear that the US government cannot and will not control their spending, and anyone who makes an argument for financial responsibility by the government ‘must be and will be’ silenced.
Is the president, and congress and government agencies saying that they can’t run the government on 2.44 trillion (2,449,093,000,000) dollars. That amount is the tax revenue received by the US government from fiscal year 2013. This is a tremendous amount of money.
Trying to reform these programs only results in liberals and other so called civil rights leaders crying from the mountain tops that: republicans want to kill seniors, put minorities back in slavery, run over the family dog, and starve little children.
The reality is that doing nothing will eventually cause these programs to fail and when it happens the liberals will blame the republicans and say we wanted to reform it all along, but they didn’t let us. So it’s their fault that seniors died, you are a slave, your dog died, and your children starved not ours. Vote for us we’ll fix it! Those people who become trapped in the system have no choice maintain the statue quo for those who make empty & false threats of republican apocalypse and empty & dishonest promises that the government will take care of them forever.
Alexis de Tocqueville, writer of the 1840’s book ‘Democracy in America’, foresaw this situation when he said this: The American Republic will endure until the day congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. This man, over 170 years ago, is clearly describing the bribery and the exploitation by the president, congress, states, municipalities, and political parties occurring at the very moment!
How much longer will we as free Americans allow this to continue? Why are the same corrupt politicians who are members of the same corrupt political parties reelected time and time again? We must as a nation rise up and defeat those who would put themselves ahead of the nation, who would put their power ahead of doing the right thing. As a nation we need to discover for ourselves the truth and put people in office that work for the freedom & benefit of the people not for their own wallet.
Writers Note: I welcome responses to my article. For those who may disagree with me I encourage nay challenge you to try and refute my assertions with clear, concise, and verifiable arguments to counter the ones I have presented (see above and source material below as an example). If you cannot or will not present your case in an intelligent, cohesive and organized manner then don’t waste your time getting into this debate. For those who want to receive more essays or articles please let me know and I will make sure you get a digital copies hot off the press.
(1) http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/
(2) http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/34SNAPmonthly.pdf
(3) http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/06/08/number-of-the-week-140-increase-in-food-stamp-use-since-1990/
(4) http://funding-programs.idilogic.aidpage.com/
(5) http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2011/may/04/national-republican-congressional-committee/gop-congressional-committee-says-us-borrows-4-bill/
(6) http://www.usdebtclock.org/
(7) http://www.snap-step1.usda.gov/fns/tool/tutorial/toolfaq.html
(8) http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/05/fast-food-strike-wages/3877023/
(8a) http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/search?q=Benjamin+Franklin+poverty.
(9) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/7/government-borrows-46-cents-every-dollar-it-spends/
(10) http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2011/07/13/what-happened-to-the-2-6-trillion-social-security-trust-fund/
(11) http://cnsnews.com/news/article/4067b-monthly-federal-tax-revenues-hit-all-time-record-april-individual-income-taxes-36
(12) http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/mts0413.pdf
(13) http://www.tocqueville.org/chap1.htm
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