How Much Do We Spend on the Nonworking Poor?

[FarLeftFist]

The Republican primary field has recently decided to revive the Welfare Queen trope, perhaps in hopes that a bit of that old Reagan magic will rub off on them. The argument, as usual, is that there's a vast stream of federal money going to people who are sitting on their asses eating Cheetos instead of going out and earning a living instead. These people are being bred into dependence on Uncle Sam's tit and having their work ethics destroyed.

So the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities decided to add up the numbers and figure out how much money the federal government spends on the nonworking poor. The answer: about 10 percent of all federal welfare spending. How did they come up with that? CBPP's methodology uses census data to figure out exactly where program dollars are going, but you can get pretty much the same answer using a simpler, easier-to-understand technique.

-snip-

Once you account for the fact that some of these program dollars go to the working poor, you end up with CBPP's estimate of 10 percent, or about 5 percent of the whole federal budget.

Full article and chart: http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/how-much-do-we-spend-nonworking-poor

[SmileyRose]

1. A small fraction of what we spend on the 1%

I have no faith in government figures or how they are used to make a point. But it's a no brained that government spending is thru the roof and the 1% are the ones raking it in.