America’s Failed Welfare System
The U.S. welfare system has failed America’s poor and led to the bankruptcy the federal government. Politicians have been unable to reconcile inequality through legislation and actually have made the progress of many citizens consequently worse with welfare. America’s welfare structure requires recipients to persist in their impoverished status in order to maintain their benefits. If any of the 95 million citizens (28.5%) obtaining support from current welfare programs attempts to improve their quality of life, they are quickly removed from their safety net. America’s current structure results in generations of families and ever-increasing numbers of single parents completely dependent on welfare, stuck in a substandard government-subsidized way of life.
In 1965, federal spending on welfare was $7.2 billion increasing 800% to $1.62 trillion in 2022. Since 2012, mandatory spending on welfare and entitlement programs has exceeded 70% of the total tax dollars collected by the federal government every year except two. Mandatory spending dipped below 70% in 2018 and 2019 but then the pandemic became the next crisis in 2020. Our government has no money to fix any of America’s problems but continues to add trillions to its 83 failed welfare programs. Because the federal government is not capable of paying its bills it just keeps printing more money adding $4.6 billion to the federal debt each day, freeloading on your pensions and against your children’s future. Welfare and the mandatory spending on other entitlement programs, Medicare and Social Security, are the unsustainable burden to the never ending federal debt (Cloward – Piven Strategy).
State and local spending on welfare programs has also increased significantly. Spending only $2.3 billion in 1965 to over $1.33 trillion in 2022. That makes the total payouts for all state and federal welfare programs $2.95 trillion in 2022. States massive bureaucracies of 500+ combined welfare programs have become the leading expense in nearly every state. In these states, payments to welfare exceeds all other programs including primary and secondary education. When states spend more on welfare, they are forced to reduce funding for other programs such as education, law enforcement, fire, and rescue. This means lower salaries and higher student loads for teachers. Lack of proper training and quality control for law enforcement. Outdated safety equipment for our fire departments and other first responders.
President Lyndon Johnson grew up poor. Campaigning in 1964, he declared war on poverty with his Great Society programs which he signed into law in 1965. His programs were highly ambitious having moderate success reducing poverty in the 1960’s; however, by the end of the decade the poverty level stagnated around 13% as the bureaucracy of welfare became more burdensome making even higher payouts less effective. President Johnson made it known during his war on poverty speeches that providing support for the poor would not solve the issue of poverty if its underlying problems were not resolved. From 1935 through 2022, America spent $40 trillion on welfare and entitlements programs with an average poverty rate of 13% over that time period. Since 1965, the states and federal government spent a combined $25 trillion on poverty and the percentage of poor has only dropped below 11% a single year In 2019, the poverty level decreased to 10.5% as a result of policies enacted by President Trump in 2017 and 2018 which helped 7 million Americans escape poverty and join the middle class. Helping the poor elevate their status is a boon for everyone as it improves their quality of life and promotes economic productivity. Despite spending $8.15 trillion fighting the pandemic and poverty since its 10.5% low in 2019 the poverty level still increased to 12.8% by the end of 2021. As the U.S. population increases, so does the total number of poor in America which is 42.6 million according to U.S. Census data.
When the first president in recent history who has enacted policies that actually benefit its citizens is voted out of office in favor of a President that thinks dumping trillions of taxpayer dollars into failed government programs is the only answer, you must begin to wonder who is really voting to keep the poor in poverty! In 2021, President Biden proposed his $3.5 trillion Build Back Better (BBB) plan and that amount was on top of his $6.1 trillion FY 2022 budget. Biden’s BBB would have added another $1.44 trillion to the debt just for new welfare spending on top of the $2.95 trillion paid out by the states and federal government in 2022. That equates to an average of $69,154 for each of the 42,624,000-welfare recipient. Democrats love to throw your hard-earned tax dollars at problems as if money fixes everything but never offer any real solutions, and liberals have demonstrated throughout history that they have a natural inclination of turning every issue into a wicked problem when there are simple solutions for every dispute.
The United States Citizen Fund (USCF) Welfare Reform eliminates the 83 federal and 500+ state welfare programs incorporating them into a single program. USCF is designed to significantly reduce overall government spending utilizing sound reform that increases government efficiency, streamlines bureaucracy, and improves quality. USCF and the Currency Usage Tax have become the only solution to reign in uncontrolled federal spending and pay off the national debt so that we can start working to solve all of America’s other problems.
Read about the U.S. Healthcare Crisis.
Return to America’s Debt and Taxes.
