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http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/upload/SR_67.pdf

http://textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Book:Lists/Subjects/Economics

http://textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Book:Lists/Subjects/Business

Anonymous said...
The bulk of federal outlays financed by income taxes are spent on right-wing sacred cows, including Defense, Agriculture, VA, civilian defense, rural development, and debt.

We spend more on welfare than on national defense, yet somehow we never here you gripe about that.

... means-tested welfare or aid to poor and low-income persons is now the third most expensive government function. Its cost ranks below support for the elderly through Social Security and Medicare and below government expenditures on education, but above spending on national defense. Prior to the current recession, one dollar in seven in total federal, state, and local government spending went to means-tested welfare.

Total means-tested welfare spending in FY 2008 amounted to around $16,800 for each poor person in the U.S.;
however, some welfare spending goes to individuals who have low incomes but are not below the official poverty
line (about $22,200 per year for a family of four). Typically, welfare benefits are received not just by the poor, but
also by persons who have incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($44,400 per year for a family of
four). Around one-third of the U.S. population falls within this lower income range. On average, welfare spending
amounts to around $7,000 per year for each individual who is poor or who has an income below 200 percent of the
poverty level. This comes to $28,000 per year for each lower-income family of four.

Welfare spending has grown enormously since President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty. Welfare
spending was 13 times greater in FY 2008, after adjusting for inflation, than it was when the War on Poverty
started in 1964. Means-tested welfare spending was 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) when President
Johnson began the War on Poverty. In 2008, it reached 5 percent of GDP.

Annual means-tested welfare spending is more than sufficient to eliminate poverty in the United States. The U.S.
Census Bureau, which is in charge of measuring poverty and inequality in the nation, defines a family as poor if its
annual income falls below official poverty income thresholds. If total means-tested welfare spending were simply
converted into cash benefits, the sum would be nearly four times the amount needed to raise the income of all poor
families above the official poverty line.

One may reasonably ask how government can spend so much on welfare and still have great inequality and so
many people living in apparent poverty.