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Title: Obamanomics in Action: Dependency Index Surges 23% Under Barry
Source:
Investors Business Daily
URL Source: http://news.investors.com/Article/6 ... umps-under-president-obama.htm
Published: Feb 8, 2012
Author: JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Post Date: 2012-02-08 10:32:55 by Happy Quanzaa
Keywords: Obama-doma-ding-dong, Obamanomics in action
Views: 1374
Comments: 4
The American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation. The conservative think tank's annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and other federal programs that were "traditionally provided to needy people by local organizations and families." The increase under Obama is the biggest two-year jump since Jimmy Carter was president, the data show. The rise was driven mainly by increases in housing subsidies, an expansion in Medicaid and changes to the welfare system, along with a sharp rise in food stamps, the study found. "You can't get around the fact that policy decisions made over the past two years, on top of those made over the past several decades, are having a large effect on the pace of growth of the index," said William Beach, who authored the Heritage study. Dependence on the government has climbed steadily since 1962, when the index stood at 19. By 1980, the index had risen to 100. It stood at 294 in 2010, the last year for which the data are available. The D.C.-based Heritage Foundation has produced the index for nine years. The report also found that spending on "dependence programs" accounts for more than 70% of the federal budget. That, too, is up dramatically. In 1990, for example, the figure stood at 48.5%, and in 1962 just over a quarter of federal spending went to dependence programs. At the same time, fewer Americans pay income taxes, the report notes. Almost half (49.5%) didn't pay income taxes in 2009, the latest year for which the researchers have data. Back in the late 1960s, only 12% of Americans escaped the income tax burden. Other findings: The number of people dependent on the federal government shot up 7.5% over the past two years. In 2010, for the first time ever, average spending on dependence programs per recipient exceeded the country's per-capita disposable income. The dependency index has dipped only seven times in the past 49 years, three of which were under President Reagan and two under President Clinton. Some observers say the rise in dependence under Obama is merely a reflection of the deep and long recession. But Beach says his team's research shows that economic effects account for only one-fifth of the change in the index.
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#1. To: Happy Quanzaa (#0)
Since a self-employed person pays 15.3% Social Security tax on 92.35% of his/her income up to about $106,000, (and 15% income tax on the first $34,500, 25% on everything up to about $83,600, and so on up to 35% on everything over $379,150), then it seems Mitt Romney is in effect paying .1% Federal income tax in 2011, since the self-employed person has to pay 15.3% right off the bat, even before income taxes are levied. According to our hypotheses, the tax code is equally open to all. Does the average citizen have the time and expertise to plow through 70,000 pages of tax codes? Clearly, the answer is no, so it's simply not true that the tax code is equally available to all.
Recessions/depressions tend to do that. Maybe you should have talked Bush out of creating the last one. Or maybe you enjoy seeing people in breadlines and eating at soup kitchens.
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
He likes to shout "loser" out the car window as he drives past the breadline.
Post-Conflict Regime Type: Probability of Being a Democracy Five Years After the Conflict Has Ended; Violent Campaigns - 4%, Nonviolent Campaigns - 46%. Erica Chenoweth, Ph.D., Stanford University,
I heard he drives a Beemer.
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
#2. To: Happy Quanzaa (#0)
Dependency Index Surges 23% Under Barry
#3. To: mininggold (#2)
Or maybe you enjoy seeing people in breadlines and eating at soup kitchens.
#4. To: lucysmom (#3)
He likes to shout "loser" out the car window as he drives past the breadline.
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