Couch Potatoes and Welfare Queens- A Look At Welfare Recepient Facts

I recently had a heated discussion about welfare and decided to google some information. First I found an article that suggests the "Welfare State' Doesn't Adequately Describe How Much America's Poor Control Your Wallet" by Forbes contributor Peter Ferrara (source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/06/23/welfare-state-doesnt-adequately-describe-how-much-americas-poor-control-your-wallet/ ) Ferrara suggest welfare recipients are mostly democrats and that the "Federal and state governments spend a trillion dollars a year just on these means tested welfare programs, which does not include Social and Medicare. That is more than we spend on national defense."  Ferrara quotes statistics in his article about the means tested welfare programs that seemed legitimate and I can see how these types of articles perpetuate the urban myth about the problems with the economy being those selfish people on welfare stealing all the money...right?

According to the FY11 Federal Budget Spending Estimates for Fiscal Years 2011, the federal government spent 13% of its budget on welfare and 25% on military and 5% on interest (???) (source:  http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_budget_detail_fy12bs12011n ) The Cybercast News Service (CNSnews.com) reported that according to the census bureau, "Americans who were recipients of means-tested government benefits in 2011 outnumbered year-round full-time workers..." (source: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census-bureau-means-tested-govt-benefit-recipients-outnumber-full#sthash.6Fb38kX1.dpuf )

Gary Stein a Health Reform Advocate and contributor to the HuffPost Miami Blog.. (source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stein/where-are-all-the-couch-p_b_4085773.html ) "Where Are all the Couch Potatoes and Welfare Queens?"  reiterated that "government benefits normally go to "able-bodied" people who would rather game the system and kick back at home, playing Grand Theft Auto, as Rep. Matt Gaetz contends."  Stein showed that governmental defrauders can be categorized as either deceitful and or desperate. Stein further shows that according to  the USDA " "76% of SNAP households included a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. These vulnerable households receive 83% of all SNAP benefits."" 

A majority of Americans believe welfare recipients would rather collect benefits than work but Stein suggests recipients do both. According to the US Department of Agriculture in 2012 "more than 47.8 percent of families receiving food stamp were working (the highest ever), and only 13.2 percent were welfare recipients with no working adults."  And this dose not even begin the conversation about the loss of jobs...

Chrissy McMahon
http://www.shazizzradio.com/chrissy-mcmahon.html