Social Programs Expanding At Record Rate

• March 20, 2006

A sweeping expansion of social programs since 2000 has sparked a record increase in the number of Americans receiving federal government benefits such as college aid, food stamps and health care.
A USA TODAY analysis of 25 major government programs found that enrollment increased an average of 17% in the programs from 2000 to 2005. The nation’s population grew 5% during that time. (Related: Federal entitlements have changed)
It was the largest five-year expansion of the federal safety net since the Great Society created programs such as Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s.
Spending on these social programs was $1.3 trillion in 2005, up an inflation-adjusted 22% since 2000 and accounting for more than half of federal spending. Enrollment growth was responsible for three-fourths of the spending increase, according to USA TODAY’s analysis of federal enrollment and spending data. Higher benefits accounted for the rest.

A bureaucracy’s number one job is to never, never, under any circumstance, solve the problem they are tasked with solving. Increase the eligibility, expand the advertising, and demonize those who disagree.
What’s sad is that so many people are asking, “why is our national debt so high?” in an age when close to two-thirds of our federal outlay goes towards entitlement spending and participation in the programs are rapidly expanding. Yet every call for curtailing these programs bring on charges of “hating the poor”, which tends to resonate among those who are guided by emotion. We need to move past such partisan and petty attacks if we ever hope to rein in the national debt.

Tags: Economy

http://Array Puzzlefeet

Yeah, Dave, just love how that medicare prescription drug plan is working with the private sector.
mcair

No they don’t. Not even close. They have to accept people at the emergency room. Then you have Medi"care" and Medicade programs.

So who, in your opinion, pays for those people that use the emergency-room for treatment? Are you going to propose that the emergency room is the most efficient way to provide health-care for people that have nothing else?

In contrast, Medicare overhead is between 2-4%. For most people, it is 100%. We pay in, we don’t recieve.

That’s how insurance works.
http://www.themillerreport.com/ Dave Miller

Thomas Jefferson was in favor of public education, but not neccessarily at the federal level. 

From:  Jefferson on Politics and Government – http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1370.htm

"I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it." –Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1810. ME 12:393

"Of all the views of this law [for public education], none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe as they are the ultimate guardians of their own liberty." –Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:206

"Education not being a branch of municipal government, but, like the other arts and sciences, an accident [i.e., attribute] only, I did not place it with election as a fundamental member in the structure of government." –Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:45
http://www.themillerreport.com/ Dave Miller

Honestly mccair, I don’t have an answer.

The federal insurance program isn’t working, you at least acknowledge that I think.  The private insurance system in itself is a bloated bureaucracy much like the government is.  I don’t have an answer.  I just know that the federal health care model is scary and will cost us as taxpayers even more.  And if Canada can be a test case, we are seeing news lately that their system is crumbling, if it wasn’t already.
http://blog.xtremeramblings.us/ Brandon

Oh c’mon!!!

Why move past such partisan bickering and look for actual bi-partisan solutions to problems when it’s so much easier to demonize the other side?
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

Puzzlefeet said, Yeah, Dave, just love how that medicare prescription drug plan is working with the private sector.
Dave was talking about private sector control. I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
mcair

The richest country on the planet could give the money back to it’s citizens and let them actually purchase health care on their own or God forbid, the private sector take control of these programs the government fails at running anyway.

The private sector already controls access to health care. It’s bloated beyond belief. A minimum of 15c on every health care dollar goes toward paying for the paper-chase the insurance companies put in place. In contrast, Medicare overhead is between 2-4%. And the employer-provided system that covers 75% of the population is failing: costs are spiralign out of control. Clearly, the high-overhead for-profit insurance model is unsustainable in the long term.

How does your simplistic "give the money back" scenario work? Medicare/Medicaid is an insurance program, with a large risk pool. How on earth would returning the pittance that someone working at say, Walmart, ever cover the costs of private medical insurance for a family of four?
Puzzlefeet

That some of our citizens can’t afford to pay for their own medicines, what part of that don’t you understand?
Puzzlefeet

Lik, it matters hugely in the discussion when it comes to cost to the government for the program and we can’t even negotiate with the private sector for a better deal like the VA
Puzzlefeet

The medicare prescription drug program specifically forbids the federal government from negotiating for better drug prices like the VA does.  So the buying power of groups to lower prices doesn’t exist in the Part D program.
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

mcair said, Education, basic sustenance and some measure of health care? I think the richest country on the planet can afford that for it’s citizens.
It is not the job of the federal government to do those things. And as we are seeing, they do a piss poor job of it.

It’s spending $1 Trillion on wars of choice that we can’t afford.

Good thing we are not doing that.

Puzzlefeet said, Must mean our economy isn’t doing all that well after all.

How do you figure? They’re increasing the eligibility and expanding the programs. The programs are expanding 7% annually. Are you trying to say that our economy is that bad even in the face of low unemployment and record home ownership and investment?
mcair

Health care is bloated beyone belief because we are basically subsidizing it.  The vast majority of us pay for our healthc are through a pre-tax withholding through our employer.  That’s basically subsidization.  Its bloated because none of us pay for heatlh care directly, so there is no competition.

No competition? There’s a million insurance companies with their head in the health-insurance trough. They’re all playing the same extortion game – it’s called "price fixing". Plenty enough for everyone. And they all donate substantially to Republicans. Wonder why that is? You think they maybe want to maintain the status-quo?

You make individuals responsible for their health care rather than the collective and the bloating will go away. Unless your a socialist/liberal and don’t understand basic supply and demand economics. 

You know how that works right? If you’re covered by an insurance company that has negotiated prices down to 25% of the "MSRP" all well and good. Individuals pay full price. Got any other bright ideas?
mcair

Education, basic sustenance and some measure of health care? I think the richest country on the planet can afford that for it’s citizens.

It’s spending $1 Trillion on wars of choice that we can’t afford.
robert108

mcair: Insurance companies are able to operate that way because they are permitted to do so by govt policy.  This policy has been in place since the Truman admin, so don’t try your party politics with it.  The govt permits insurance companies to sell insurance at below the actuarial price, which is why whenever there is a natural disaster, the insurance companies can’t pay off, and the taxpayer gets it in the neck.  In any other business, this would be fraud, but not here.  It is just another layer of subsidy.  I wouldn’t exist in a free market.  If people had to pay the real cost of their health risk in insurance premiums, the field would be a lot more competitive.  BTW, you can negotiate with most doctors and hospitals to reduce your bills-I have done it.  I have gotten between one third to one half off, which isn’t as good as getting a free market price, but it is something.  You just have to shed the victim consciousness.
http://www.freerepublicans.com/ FreeRepublicans.com

The richest country on the planet could give the money back to it’s citizens and let them actually purchase health care on their own or God forbid, the private sector take control of these programs the government fails at running anyway.

While in general that is a good philosophy, I would hate to see education become any more of a For-Profit enterprise than it already is.

Just look at Higher Education and how sports and sponsorships dictate the academics of a school.  Education should not be run as a business or as just another revenue stream.
http://www.themillerreport.com/ Dave Miller

There’s that blur I was talking about.
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

Puzzlefeet said, Lik, the medicare drug program is being run through the private sector.
It is still a government program run by the government that is costing the taxpayer a bundle. The private sector doesn’t control it, the government does.

The medicare prescription drug program specifically forbids the federal government from negotiating for better drug prices like the VA does.

Regardless. That matters not in this conversation.
http://www.themillerreport.com/ Dave Miller

The line between private and public sector is so blurred.  There are private companies that only except projects from the government.  Are they really a private company?
http://www.themillerreport.com/ Dave Miller

The richest country on the planet could give the money back to it’s citizens and let them actually purchase health care on their own or God forbid, the private sector take control of these programs the government fails at running anyway.
Puzzlefeet

Lik, the medicare drug program is being run through the private sector.
http://www.freerepublicans.com/ FreeRepublicans.com

Education, basic sustenance and some measure of health care?

Basic sustenance?  When obesity is such a problem at the lower incomes you gonna say people are starving?

Healthcare?  Again, very much a function of the obesity issue.

It’s spending $1 Trillion on wars of choice that we can’t afford.

Cause those wars in the 90′s were manditory right?

 
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

That some of our citizens can’t afford to pay for their own medicines, what part of that don’t you understand?
And with your social programs, more of them can’t afford it. Just think of how big of a percentage of a paycheck goes towards these redistribution pyramid schemes.
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

Are you going to propose that the emergency room is the most efficient way to provide health-care for people that have nothing else?
No. Those people have other free alternatives.

That’s how insurance works.

Funny. I can pick and chose my insurance and haggle over rates. I can even get points for living safely and healthy with certain providers. None of that freedom exists with the government. They don’t compare.
http://www.themillerreport.com/ Dave Miller

@Puzzlefeet – The federal government is almost totally responsible for the price of prescription drugs.  The regulatory process is so long and expensive, drug companies can only do one thing, pass the cost onto it’s customers.

Don’t get me wrong, I think our drugs should be regulated, but reform is seriously needed.
Puzzlefeet

Must mean our economy isn’t doing all that well after all.
robert108

P: The only reason the lefties don’t like the Presiden’s prescription drug plan is that he did it instead of them. 

Instead of giving us our money back, why not just cease taking it in the first place?  Every dollar that passes through the govt’s hands gets shrunk by about 50%, due to the cost of govt infrastructure.  That money is removed from the private sector, so it can’t be used by private business for reinvestment.  It’s bad econ. 
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

mcair said, The private sector already controls access to health care.
No they don’t. Not even close. They have to accept people at the emergency room. Then you have Medi"care" and Medicade programs.

In contrast, Medicare overhead is between 2-4%.

For most people, it is 100%. We pay in, we don’t recieve.

And the employer-provided system that covers 75% of the population is failing: costs are spiralign out of control. Clearly, the high-overhead for-profit insurance model is unsustainable in the long term.

You’re right. There needs to be more competition and more shopping around so that there is a downward pressure on the price.

How does your simplistic "give the money back" scenario work?

Even better than "give the money back": just let me keep it. It’s my money to begin with. You seem to forget that. Let me figure out what to do with my own health care. I don’t want, nor need, your "help".
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Lik, it matters hugely in the discussion when it comes to cost to the government for the program and we can’t even negotiate with the private sector for a better deal like the VA

Puzzle, what part of "It would be better if people paid for their own medicine" don’t you understand? 
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Yeah, Dave, just love how that medicare prescription drug plan is working with the private sector.

Cripes.  Only a died-in-the-wool liberal would think that the Medicare prescription drugs program is an example of free enterprise. 
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

The private sector already controls access to health care. It’s bloated beyond belief.

Health care is bloated beyone belief because we are basically subsidizing it.  The vast majority of us pay for our healthc are through a pre-tax withholding through our employer.  That’s basically subsidization.  Its bloated because none of us pay for heatlh care directly, so there is no competition.

You make individuals responsible for their health care rather than the collective and the bloating will go away.

Unless your a socialist/liberal and don’t understand basic supply and demand economics. 
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

  Lik, the medicare drug program is being run through the private sector.

And who is paying for it?

Tax-subsidized prescription drugs is not free enterprise.

The best way is to stop taxing Americans so much and let them buy their own medicine.

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Social Programs Expanding At Record Rate

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