The Government Sure Does Spend Your Tax Dollars On Welfare Wisely. Just Kidding, They Waste It Just As Badly As You Think

by John Hawkins | October 29, 2012 1:40 am

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The government takes your tax dollars, wastes a ridiculous portion of them, and: then doles them out inefficiently[2].

New data compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee shows that, last year, the United States spent over $60,000 to support welfare programs per each household that is in poverty. The calculations are based on data from the Census, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Congressional Research Services.

“According to the Census’s American Community Survey, the number of households with incomes below the poverty line in 2011 was 16,807,795,” the Senate Budget Committee notes. “If you divide total federal and state spending by the number of households with incomes below the poverty line, the average spending per household in poverty was $61,194 in 2011.”

This dollar figure is almost three times the amount the average household on poverty lives on per year. “If the spending on these programs were converted into cash, and distributed exclusively to the nation’s households below the poverty line, this cash amount would be over 2.5 times the federal poverty threshold for a family of four, which in 2011 was $22,350 (see table in this link),” the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee note.

In other words, we could simply send a $29,000 check to every family below the poverty line while setting aside $1000 each for registered mail, a check, and processing and we could cut the cost we’re spending on welfare in half.

You might think that makes a lot of sense – and you’d be right. So, why wouldn’t something like that happen? First off, it would mean firing a lot of government workers and the public sector unions wouldn’t like that. Of course, more importantly, it’s not the government’s money so IT DOESN’T CARE HOW MUCH OF IT IS WASTED.

Never have and probably never will.

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: http://dustinstockton.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Welfare.jpg
  2. then doles them out inefficiently: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/over-60000-welfare-spentper-household-poverty_657889.html

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