A Reason To Not Expand Any Government Program - 'The Mystery of Why We Still Have Poverty' - Granite Grok

A Reason To Not Expand Any Government Program – ‘The Mystery of Why We Still Have Poverty’

This is not a tale about Medicaid Expansion but then it is.   We are spending so much taxpayer money nationally to eliminate poverty (with Welfare) that if we were to skip the middle men (national agencies, bureaucrats, pencil pushers and so on), poverty would not longer exist.

According to a Cato Institute study published last year, the combined expenditures for Federal and state governments directed to means-tested public assistance — “welfare” — is approximately $1 trillion (yes, with a “T”) a year.

There are approximately 48 million people in the US with incomes at the poverty level or below.

The application of advanced mathematics — long division, and I did it in my head thank you very much — tells us that’s about $21,000 per person per year. Obviously, that’s $84,000 for a family of four.

That’s got a problem, though. According to the 2013 Federal Poverty Guidelines, the poverty level for a family of four is $23,950. The total of $84,000 is roughly 380 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.

Obviously, there’s no poverty left in America.

Unless, of course, that money isn’t actually being spent on the poor people at all. I wonder where it goes?

If the states stopped sending it to DC we’d know where it goes, we’d spend significantly less, more of what we spent would go to people who actually needed it, and we’d have a lot left over for other priorities.  Lesson’ stop the madness.  No more money to DC.  No more money from DC.  Keep it local where we can keep it under control.

H/T Instapundit

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