Thank you, ... I'm glad you're finally seeing the light.

Ranking Member Sessions and the minority staff of the Senate Budget Committee requested from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) an overview of cumulative means-tested federal welfare spending in the United States in the most recent year for which data is available (fiscal year 2011). The results are staggering. CRS identified 83 overlapping federal welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011—more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these 80-plus federal welfare programs amounts to roughly $1.03 trillion. Importantly, these figures solely refer to means-tested welfare benefits. They exclude entitlement programs to which people contribute (e.g., Social Security and Medicare).

CRS estimates that exclusively federal spending on these federal programs equaled approximately $746 billion, and further emphasizes that there is a substantial amount of state spending—mostly required as a condition of states’ participation—on these same federal programs (primarily Medicaid and CHIP). Based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance, Budget Committee staff calculated at least an additional $283 billion in state contributions to those same federal programs, 1 for a total annual expenditure of $1.03 trillion.

By comparison, in 2011, the annual budget expenditure for Social Security was $725 billion, Medicare was $480 billion, and non-war defense was $540 billion. The exclusively federal share of spending on these federal programs is up 32 percent since 2008, and now comprises 21 percent of federal outlays (this share too is more than Social Security, Medicare, or defense).

What many from the Right fail to see is that the Left leaning people on this site are capable of clear thinking & have a clean picture of what is really going on.

I would say most here that lean to the left see that while they do not look to government for hand outs, they see that people who have more than they & those that have less get the hand outs.

It is a big pie out there & those with the most would not suffer if some of that pie went to those that have none.

Many of the us on the left are truly able to fend for our self.

We do not need to have special rules to get by.

We see that the answer to most of our problems stem from The widening gap between the haves & have not.

I have found that there are those that wish others not to think but to do what they say you should do.

Thinking is a sin for the followers of the Right.

Those that lead on the Right wish to do the thinking & their followers should not think but follow blindly.

I think that on this Forum it is quite plain that following blindly is the case.

My thinking is that doing what is best for those in the middle would lead to a smoother run world.

For the most part changes in what we say, do or think would
not need much change.

Call it what you want but those of us on this site can if we wanted find the common ground to set the pace for what is needed to have a better running system.

Many of us are past the age of being active in doing what is needed. But we can look for the answers to how we must get along to provide the solutions needed.

I disagree. National defense is a responsibility of the federal government, and could be paid by the individual income tax, if properly handled. In fact, we could have a better military, and take better care of our veterans.

To do that, the federal government would have to get out of the welfare business. The EPA, Dept. of T***sportation, Department of Education, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, HUD, Labor Department, DOT, TSA and Homeland security could be defunded and closed. In addition, there are scores of Boards and Commissions that could be closed.

The Border Patrol, FBI and BATF could be combined with all other law enforcement units into a single federal police force, and no other agency would have arrest powers, or any armed officers. That alone would save millions.

You also must understand that corporate taxes are paid by the consumer in higher prices, not by the corporation or corporate officers. Without corporate taxes, most important product and service prices would decrease.

It is all complicated, and would take a book to completely explain. Unless we use only personal income taxes to run the federal government, the average working man has no true concept of how much money he is paying for his welfare based federal government. That is by design, because if the average worker knew the true and full amount the present bloated federal government costs the average taxpayer, there would be a tax revolt.

I see your point... I don't know just how much welfare costs the tax payer but It has to be less than the tax money to the industrial military complex... their profits are huge and we are getting ripped off, When the pentagon can't balance the books and billions go unaccounted for we have a problem.... If you just add up the billions we give in military hardware support to other country's it doesn't add up right... this whole thing is a s**m , what the heck let's just throw another 1.6 billion to Egypt because? Our spending across the board is out of control, you do remember the 600 dollar toilet seats from the 80's. then in Iraq 1 in 10 people were contractors from Halliburton at 10 fold the cost of a trained GI.... I don't know how you think but I would rather give my hard earned tax money to the guy down my road that lost his job at 50 years old and cant feed his kids than some guy in Egypt that needs a new M1 tank. Sorry for the rant.... the beer's on me :thumbup: