Government Dependency Surges; Addiction To Get Worse By David Hogberg Mon., June 28, 2010 2:30 PM ET Tags: Economy - Economic Freedom - Health Care - ObamaCare Today the conservative Heritage Foundation released its 2010 version of the Index of Dependence on Government. In a word, YIKES! Americans’ dependence on government grew by 13.6% in 2009. That’s the biggest increase since 1976 and the fifth largest going back to 1962, when Heritage began tracking dependence.
The index measures federal government programs that can crowd out or constrain private sector or local government alternatives. It comprises programs in five broad categories: housing; health care and welfare; retirement; higher education; and rural and agricultural services. For a more extended discussion of how the index is constructed and the reasoning behind it, go here.
According to William Beach, director of Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis, it is tempting to attribute the increased dependency on the sharp recession, which increased jobless and Medicaid rolls.
But he adds that policy changes also can have a big impact. Thus, new programs under the Obama administration aimed at helping people facing foreclosure boost the index. So did the Medicare drug benefit created during the Bush administration.
The latest index does not include the massive ObamaCare program, which doesn’t really kick in until 2014. That, along with massive baby boomer retirements over the next few decades, means government dependency is going to keep surging in the coming years.
“We are on the eve of a tsunami of growth in these programs like we’ve never seen,” Beach said. “The 13% to 14% increase we’re recording for this past year will look small as we look back 10 years from now.”
