Americans
Got $2 Trillion in Benefits from Federal Government in 2013, by Ali
Meyer
(CNSNews.com) -- The federal government paid $2,007,358,200,000 in benefits and entitlements in fiscal year 2013 from government programs, according to data from the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s Monthly Treasury Statement.
The treasury statement summarizes the financial activities of the federal government, including data on government receipts, outlays, and surplus and deficit totals. The September 2013 monthly treasury statement calculates these metrics for the entire fiscal year of 2013, which began on October 1, 2012 and ended on September 30, 2013.
According to the statement, the federal government’s total outlays, otherwise known as spending, for means-tested and non-means tested government programs -- not including administrative expenses -- totaled $2,007,611,200,000 in fiscal year 2013.
Most of the
benefits doled out from the total of $2 trillion, or 69.7 percent, came from
non-means tested government programs that, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau, provide benefits to recipients who qualify regardless of income.
These non-means
tested government programs include Medicare, Social Security, railroad
retirement, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, Veterans’
compensation and Veterans’ educational assistance. In fiscal year 2013,
Americans received $1,399,253,000,000 in benefits from these programs. The two
programs which contributed most to this total were Social Security, totaling
$663,216,000,000 and Medicare, totaling $589,655,000,000 for a combined total
of $1,252,871,000,000.
Means-tested
government programs, which require income to be below a certain level to be
eligible for receipt, contributed to 30.3 percent of the total amount in benefits.
Such government
programs include public or subsidized rental housing, Federal Supplemental
Security Income (SSI), food stamps, otherwise known as the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF), Women, Infants and Children (WIC), free and reduced lunch programs,
Pell Grants, refundable tax credits and Medicaid.
These programs
totaled $608,358,200,000 in fiscal year 2013.
According to
the treasury statement, the federal government totaled $3,454,253,000,000 in
outlays for fiscal year 2013. This number encompasses all government spending,
including things like defense, highway and transportation costs, public
education, immigration services and government worker salaries, to name a few.
This means that
benefits, totaling $2,007,611,200,000, amounted to 58.1 percent of the total
spending.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/americans-got-2-trillion-benefits-federal-government-2013
August 4, 2014 - 4:53 PM
Comments
Social Security Retirement is the most depended upon system in the
federal money laundering process. This will need to continue until we can
convert this system into a private system.
It is set up as a defined benefit plan and these are all miserably
flawed. If we can reduce federal
spending, reduce the national debt and get the debt service expense down enough
to allow interest rates to rise, we have a chance. Otherwise, this unsustainable mess will
collapse. If Social Security had been
set up originally as a private defined contribution plan, we would have tripled
our contributions and would be sitting on a fortune that belongs to us and our
kids.
The first thing we need to do is to restrict these programs to “citizens
only” and end all job-killing laws and regulations to allow private sector jobs
to begin to replace “safety net” programs. We need to return manufacturing to
the U.S. We would declare global warming
a hoax and end all UN Agenda 21 implementation in the U.S. With that, we should unleash all oil and gas
drilling, mining, and tree harvesting. We need to begin to close all
unconstitutional federal activities and transfer these to the States and the
People. That would clear $1 trillion
from the federal death spiral.
Health care industries need to get ready for a four-fold cost
reduction. The fact that Medicare
expenses are almost as high as Social Security Retirement is telling. These bills are padded with “over-the-top”
treatment plans, tests and boiler plate.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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