Rush Limbaugh is currently receiving much flack for his comments comparing Barack Obama to Santa Claus, and basically saying that the election was won by the Democrats because they are the “party of free stuff.” The same thing happened to Mitt Romney when he said, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what…who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing.” I personally never understood what all of the hubbub was about; this seems like common knowledge to me.
Remember Alexandra Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, who filmed a mini-documentary on Mississippi voters and another small sample documentary which focused on welfare recipients in New York City? The video commenced with an interview with “Joe the doorman” at the welfare office. He told Miss Pelosi, “For 16 years, I’ve been working here at this address. For 16 years, people have been walking by this building with a white piece of paper in their hand looking perplexed, and they come up freely and say, ‘I’m looking for the welfare office, I’m looking for social services, or I’m looking for food stamps.’ I see that most of them are able-bodied, they don’t look like they are handicapped in any way. They just look like they don’t want to work, and it is really really hard to look at this and say, ‘I come to work every day, why can’t you?’”
Pelosi also taped people while in the welfare line: “I’m here tryin’ to get some Obama bucks, that’s what I’m doin’, trying to get some Obama money,” said one man in a Yankees baseball cap. “I am here to get some benefits, you know I mean, I’m here to get a check,” said another man as he blew smoke in the air. “Bitch, I wanna check.”
Everyone featured in the video promised to vote for President Barack Obama. When asked why she likes Obama, one woman replied, “Cause, he gives me stuff.” One man admitted to not working in a decade. Another explained he deserves benefits because of slavery. The subjects of Pelosi’s film admitted that they don’t want to work, they just want a free check (http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/18/a-pelosi-maher-go-to-nyc-welfare-office-to-show-plight-of-the-poor/?print=1)
With our nation $16 trillion in debt, and rising fast, many are pointing to entitlements as one of the main culprits, and among those, Medicaid is by far the most expensive. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reported that spending on Medicaid from 2002 to 2011 rose 87% (for food stamps it increased 256% during that time!). The United States government spent approximately $1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone — a price tag that makes welfare the government’s largest expenditure.
This $1.03 trillion dollar number is solely welfare! The data excludes spending on Social Security, Medicare, means-tested health care for veterans without service-connected disabilities, and the means-tested veterans pension program. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, spending on federal welfare programs increased $563.413 billion in fiscal year 2008 to $745.84 billion in fiscal year 2011 — a 32 percent increase. According to the Cato Institute, our “government spends $20,610 for every poor person in America to fight poverty.” It is $60,000 per average household. Oddly, not a dent has been made in fighting poverty since these welfare programs were originally implemented.
Recently, at work, I was discussing politics with one of my pharmacy technicians. She told me that she voted for Obama because of Obamacare. “I’m tired of working since I was 15 years old. I have diabetes now, but I don’t qualify for Medicaid. Thank God for Obamacare.” When I asked her what the national debt was she had no idea, but she knew enough to blame it on the Iraq war. I said that if a person lived to be one hundred years old, and you counted their life span in seconds, it wouldn’t break 3 trillion, yet our debt is well over $16 trillion and most of that is due to the various entitlement programs. This did not phase her. I then told her that $716 was raided from Medicare to fund Obamacare. Her response was, “Those old farts have lived their lives.”
So here you have your typical brainwashed liberals who’s completely ignorant of the facts, and only cares about herself. She’s “tired of working” and now wants the American taxpayers to pay for the complications from her morbid obesity. No sense of personal responsibility, no knowledge of the state of affairs, and no comprehension of the bigger picture. She is clearly another victim of left wing propaganda, and, worse yet, is blissful in her own ignorance. In other words, she is the ideal Obama voter…just like that “Obamaphone!” woman.
Since President Obama has been in office, federal welfare spending is up about 41%, food stamps are up about 135% since 2007, and disability payments are up 116% from a decade ago. Those who advocate cutting entitlements or making it more difficult to receive them will be immediately branded as ‘bad people.’ Just for telling you this I’ll be labeled a horrible guy. But what’s worse? A bad economy for all Americans and a $16-trillion debt ($20 trillion by 2016), or a responsible entitlement agenda that gets spending under control?
I have seen these people that Limbaugh and Romney have mentioned with my own eyes. They are out there in massive numbers, and those who deny their existence are denying reality. All sane people know that safety nets are needed, but when standards are so lax that the system becomes easy to game you know you have a problem, and we do.