Moving Leftward—Will the Welfare State Overpower Private Enterprise?

In 2011, welfare spending in the United States (Federal+State spending) topped $1 trillion. That was more than the previous year, which was $800 million. That spending is a very significant piece of money considering that the GDP of the United States is $15 trillion.

And the welfare state seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. During the past four years, the Obama administration’s aggressive promotion of the food-stamp program has increased the number of recipients by 18.5 million. By executive order President Obama has eliminated the work application requirement for the TANF program. (Temporary Aid to Need Families) The present administration also increased the possible duration of unemployment payments from 72 weeks to 99 weeks. Interestingly, claims for disability payments also rose apace. In 1992, only 3% of the American labor force drew disability benefits from the government. Today, 6% of the labor force is on disability compensation. The number of workers qualifying for disability since the recession ended in 2009 has grown twice as fast as private employment. The federal government’s 120 means-tested programs for disability payments have grown 2½ times faster during the Obama presidency than in any other comparable period in American history. Now, almost 10.7 million receive Social Security Disability. (Huffington Post 5/3/12)

That latter fact strongly suggests that American workers are using disability payments to follow-up on unemployment payments, even after 99 weeks of receiving unemployment money. I just have to wonder where all that previously undiscovered disability came from!

To be fair to the question, it must be admitted that the change may not be a reflection of people looking for another government handout as much as it is an indication of the psychological toll the recession has had upon this country. Although some people may not have been disabled at the onset of their unemployment, the long-term effects of continual job rejections and financial stressors have caused many to become anxious or depressed.

Nevertheless, dependence on the government is unquestionably increasing. And...we can’t help noticing that the number of Americans collecting disability is rising at an unprecedented and alarming rate. This cannot be because of increasing danger of injury in the workplace. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that workplace safety is constantly improving. The problem must be caused by better discovery of disabling physical and/or psychological damage or falsified malingering by people looking for a government hand-out. I can tell you from personal experience with Social Security disability claims that many people are claiming disability payments because of psychiatric complaints or muscle pains for which no cause can be found. Not all of these are awarded payments; but they are certainly looking for disability money.

I believe that all this increased dependence on government handouts is bound to affect the outcome of this election. Could any reasonable person believe that a person dependent on government largess would ever vote against the hand that feeds him.