Welfare Spending $1 Trillion a Year

CRS Report: Welfare Spending The Largest Item In The Federal Budget

Ranking Member Sessions and the minority staff of the Senate Budget Committee requested from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) an overview of cumulative means-tested federal welfare spending in the United States in the most recent year for which data is available (fiscal year 2011). The results are staggering. CRS identified 83 overlapping federal welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011—more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these 80-plus federal welfare programs amounts to roughly $1.03 trillion. Importantly, these figures solely refer to means-tested welfare benefits. They exclude entitlement programs to which people contribute (e.g., Social Security and Medicare).

CRS estimates that exclusively federal spending on these federal programs equaled approximately $746 billion, and further emphasizes that there is a substantial amount of state spending—mostly required as a condition of states’ participation—on these same federal programs (primarily Medicaid and CHIP). Based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance, Budget Committee staff calculated at least an additional $283 billion in state contributions to those same federal programs,^[1] for a total annual expenditure of $1.03 trillion. By comparison, in 2011, the annual budget expenditure for Social Security was $725 billion, Medicare was $480 billion, and non-war defense was $540 billion.

The exclusively federal share of spending on these federal programs is up 32 percent since 2008, and now comprises 21 percent of federal outlays (this share too is more than Social Security, Medicare, or defense).

As a historical comparison, spending on the 10 largest of the 83 programs (which account for the bulk of federal welfare spending) has doubled as a share of the federal budget over just the last 30 years. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the amount expended on these 10 programs has increased by 378 percent over that time.

Many factors have contributed to the growth in federal welfare spending, causing it to rise during times of both high and low unemployment. Persistently weak GDP growth over the last several years is unquestionably a factor in the record amount of money now being spent. But understanding the growth in federal welfare expenditures must also be understood in the context of a federal policy that has explicitly encouraged growth in welfare enrollment—combined with a weakening of welfare standards and rules. For instance, spending on food stamps—the second-largest federal welfare program—has quadrupled since 2001, yet the USDA has a variety of programs and advertisements whose explicit and unmistakable goal is to expand enrollment to new record highs. This even includes an official partnership with the Mexican government to expand food stamp enrollment among foreign nationals. (USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a letter to Ranking Member Sessions, acknowledged and defended this partnership. Sessions’ response may be read here.) But the agency has also produced materials to train recruitment workers on how to “overcome the word ‘No,’” and in one representative case awarded a local office for “counteracting” a community’s “mountain pride.” As Ranking Member Sessions has stated, “The sound policy, and the compassionate course, is not a drive to place the largest possible number of people on welfare support; instead, we should seek, whenever possible, to help our fellow Americans realize personal and financial independence.”

Meanwhile, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security have effectively waived the legal requirement that those seeking admittance into the U.S. not be welfare reliant. More information on this controversial policy may be found here.

 

A list of all 83 federal welfare programs examined by CRS follows:

• Family Planning

• Consolidated Health Centers

• Transitional Cash and Medical Services for Refugees

• State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

• Voluntary Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit—Low-Income Subsidy

• Medicaid

• Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program

• Breast/Cervical Cancer Early Detection

• Maternal and Child Health Block Grant

• Indian Health Service

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (cash aid)

• Supplemental Security Income

• Additional Child Tax Credit

• Earned Income Tax Credit (refundable component)

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

• School Breakfast Program (free/reduced price components)

• National School Lunch Program (free/reduced price components)

• Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)

• Child and Adult Care Food Program (lower income components)

• Summer Food Service Program

• Commodity Supplemental

• Food Program Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico

• The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)

• Nutrition Program for the Elderly

• Indian Education

• Adult Basic Education Grants to States

• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant

• Education for the Disadvantaged—Grants to Local Educational Agencies (Title I-A)

• Title I Migrant Education Program

• Higher Education—Institutional Aid and Developing Institutions

• Federal Work-Study

• Federal TRIO Programs

• Federal Pell Grants

• Education for Homeless Children and Youth

• 21st Century Community Learning Centers

• Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR-UP)

• Reading First and Early Reading First

• Rural Education Achievement Program

• Mathematics and Science Partnerships

• Improving Teacher Quality State Grants

• Academic Competitiveness and Smart Grant Program

• Single-Family Rural Housing Loans

• Rural Rental Assistance Program

• Water and Waste Disposal for Rural Communities

• Public Works and Economic Development

• Supportive Housing for the Elderly

• Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities

• Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance

• Community Development Block Grants

• Homeless Assistance Grants

• Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)

• Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)

• Public Housing

• Indian Housing Block Grants

• Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers

• Neighborhood Stabilization Program-1

• Grants to States for Low-Income Housing in Lieu of Low-Income Housing Credit Allocation

• Tax Credit Assistance Program

• Indian Human Services

• Older Americans Act Grants for Supportive Services and Senior Centers

• Older Americans Act Family Caregiver Program

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (social services)

• Child Support Enforcement

• Community Services Block Grant

• Child Care and Development Fund

• Head Start HHS

• Developmental Disabilities Support and Advocacy Grants

• Foster Care

• Adoption Assistance

• Social Services Block Grant

• Chafee Foster Care Independence Program

• Emergency Food and Shelter Program

• Legal Services Corporation

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (employment and training component)

• Community Service Employment for Older Americans

• Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult Activities

• Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Youth Activities

• Social Services and Targeted Assistance for Refugees

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (employment and training)

• Foster Grandparents

• Job Corps

• Weatherization Assistance Program

• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

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[1] In FY 2008, the only year for which complete data is available, state Medicaid and CHIP spending in was $154.1 billion, which accounted for 65 percent of total state spending in that year. By FY 2011 such spending had grown to $160.3 billion. However, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill, also known as ARRA) included a provision to boost the federal government’s share of Medicaid spending. Specifically, the federal government paid for about 63 percent of the total Medicaid bill in FY11, whereas in FY08 it paid for only 57 percent. Assuming Medicaid and CHIP made up the same portion of states’ total low-income assistance in FY11 that it did in FY08—and knowing the change in state Medicaid spending due to the stimulus—total FY11 state spending on federal welfare can be estimated at $282.7 billion.

Source: Jeff Sessions, Oct 18 2012

Permalink: http://budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm/2012/10/crs-report-welfare-spending-the-largest-item-in-the-federal-budget

Comments:

Not so long ago, none of these programs existed.  Individuals managed to thrive on their own.  It’s time to return to those days. We certainly can’t afford to have federal government programs that cost $1 trillion a year for these things.  Whatever can’t be handled by individuals and families should be handled locally by churches and non-profit groups with no government involvement.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader