Heritage Foundation: Dependence on Government at an All-Time High Under Obama

It’s the takers vs the makers. Or fundamental transformation. In just three short years, dependence on government has skyrocketed.

• One in five Americans—the highest in the nation’s history—relies on the federal government for everything from housing, health care, and food stamps to college tuition and retirement assistance. That’s more than 67.3 million Americans who receive subsidies from Washington.
• Government dependency jumped 8.1 percent in the past year, with the most assistance going toward housing, health and welfare, and retirement.
• The federal government spent more taxpayer dollars than ever before in 2011 to subsidize Americans. The average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, more than the nation’s average disposable personal income ($32,446).

That last one is shocking. It amounts to government sanctioned theft (or “spreading the wealth around”) and it’s unsustainable. If you’re looking for evidence that we’re being Cloward-Pivened on a national scale, there it is.

Time for a follow-up with Peggy Joseph?

• At the same time, nearly half of the U.S. population (49.5 percent) does not pay any federal income taxes.
• In the next 25 years, more than 77 million baby boomers will retire. They will begin collecting checks from Social Security, drawing benefits from Medicare, and relying on Medicaid for long-term care.
• As of now, 70 percent of the federal government’s budget goes to individual assistance programs, up dramatically in just the past few years. However, research shows that private, community, and charitable aid helps individuals rise from their difficulties with better success than federal government handouts. Plus, local and private aid is often more effectively distributed.

For how long will that last one be true? Many of those charities will start running afoul of the left’s ridiculous edicts and mandates, and either shutter or conform to those mandates and thereby become more like the federal system — meaning, among other things, less efficient and effective.

It’s all unsustainable. Under this president, whose latest empty slogan promises an America “built to last,” America has become a house of cards.