Welfare Spending Up 41% Under Obama, Poverty Rate Remains Unchanged
Not only has the poverty rate not declined despite President Obama’s dramatic increase in welfare spending, but the welfare efforts of every single President/Congress since LBJ have failed as well given that the poverty now is basically the same as it was under the Johnson administration.
(CNSNews.com) – The government is not making much headway reducing poverty despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a study by the libertarian Cato Institute.
Despite an unprecedented increase in federal anti-poverty spending the national poverty rate has not declined, it finds.
“[S]ince President Obama took office, federal welfare spending has increased by 41 percent, more than $193 billion per year.” the study says.
Federal welfare spending this year now totals $668 billion, spread out over 126 programs, while the poverty rate that remains stubbornly high at nearly 15 percent – roughly where it was in 1965, when President Johnson declared a federal War on Poverty.
I’d say that maybe it’s time to admit that these sort of government programs don’t actually work, but that would be assuming that poverty reduction is actually the goal. I’m not so sure that’s the case.
I think government dependency is the goal, and by that measure these government programs have been a roaring success. Under Obama, government dependency is at an all-time high.
Tags: Barack Obama, government dependency, welfare
