And by “government,” we of course mean “other Americans, and then laundered through the government.” CNS:
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.
We’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled. We didn’t land on Cloward-Piven. Cloward-Piven landed on us!
Chumps.
And they laugh and laugh.
And by “government,” we of course mean “other Americans, and then laundered through the government.”
And by “other Americans,” we of course mean “our grandchildren, who were never offered a choice or a vote.”
My last remaining hope is that we can wrest control of the Republic back in time to screw over all the Boomers who’ve so gleefully been stealing from posterity these many years: “I ain’t paying off this $130,000 debt you ran up when I was a toddler, while you play bingo and pop pills all day, Grandma. You’re on your own.”
“Americans?” I don’t think that word means what they seem to think it means.
$2 trillion in benefits vs. $2.8 trillion in revenue, but given you still have to run the government on something (and pay the debt service) the deficit is still $680 billion.
If interest rates go up, watch out. Because this will all come apart at the seems.
Interest rates will go up. They have to go up. The U.S. will eventually have to default on the debt.
“In America, you don’t vind Clovard-Piven, Clovard-Piven vind you…”
I know it’s not fair to introduce math, but that’s $6,500 per year for every man woman and child in the US.
With all that free money floating around, why does my sister always try to hit me up for cash ?
Because the total deficit is about 18 trillion.
Who do we think we are as a nation, the typical Fanny Mae customer that Barney Frank reached out to?
A currency only survives when the users have confidence in its worth. When interest rates go up – inevitable – the gov will print what it needs to cover the debt service. At some point confidence will be lost.