If you could stay home and watch television, play video games and hang out with your friends all day at government expense, would you do it? Of course most Americans that collect money from the government each month are not abusing the system. Many truly are incapable of taking care of themselves, and others are just receiving government benefits (such as Social Security) that they feel that they have earned by a lifetime of hard work. But with each passing year the number of Americans jumping on board “the safety net” continues to grow rapidly, and a lot of these people should be able to take care of themselves. Today, the American people collectively receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes. And remember, the federal government uses our money to build roads, inspect our food and fund the military as well. So what does this say about our economy? Could it survive without all of these debt-fueled transfer payments? And what does this say about our society? At one time, our nation was known for our Protestant work ethic. What would our forefathers say about us today? The following are 21 facts that prove that dependence on the government is out of control in America… (Read More...)
Medicare
We Are Heading For The Greatest Doctor Shortage In American History
The United States already has an emerging shortage of doctors, and thanks to Obamacare that shortage is about to become much, much worse. Right now, the U.S. has close to a million doctors, and about half of them are over the age of 50. Many of them are beginning to wonder if practicing medicine is worth it anymore. In some specialties, treating Medicaid and Medicare patients pays so little that many doctors are now turning them away. Other doctors are charging their regular patients enormous amounts in order to make up for the money that they are losing on Medicaid and Medicare patients. And of course the paperwork and the red tape imposed on doctors by the health insurance companies and the federal government gets worse with each passing year. Some doctors actually spend more time filling out paperwork and dealing with red tape than they do seeing patients. On top of everything else, there is the constant and never-ending threat of being sued by predatory lawyers and losing everything. The giant malpractice insurance premiums that many doctors have to pay are an extreme financial burden on many practices. When you add it all together, it really is not surprising to learn that large numbers of doctors all over the nation are being driven into bankruptcy. Unfortunately, Obamacare is going to make all of the problems that I have just discussed even worse. This is going to result in much longer waits to see a doctor, and the level of health care in this country is going to go down substantially. (Read More...)
Government Website For Immigrants: Come To America And Take Advantage Of Our Free Stuff
A website run by the federal government (“WelcomeToUSA.gov“) encourages new immigrants to the United States to apply for welfare benefits. This website is run by the Department of Homeland Security and it says that it “is the U.S. Government’s official web portal for new immigrants.” So your tax dollars were used to build and maintain a website that teaches immigrants how to come into this country and sponge a living off of federal welfare programs paid for by your tax dollars. What in the world is happening to us? Yes, we will always need some legal immigration. We are a nation of immigrants and immigration has been very good to this country. But at a time when there are millions upon millions of American citizens out of work and at a time when we are absolutely drowning in debt, do we really need to encourage millions more immigrants to come over and take advantage of our overloaded social welfare programs? WelcomeToUSA.gov actually encourages new immigrants to apply for food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Of course not all immigrants are eligible for all of those programs, but if an immigrant can get over to the U.S. and just get signed up for a couple of programs they can enjoy a higher standard of living doing nothing here than they can working at a low paying job back home. We have created a perverse system of incentives that makes it very attractive to people all over the world to do whatever they can to hitch a ride on “the gravy train” and take advantage of all of the benefits that they possibly can. And once immigrants get on welfare, many of them never leave. For example, one study discovered that 43 percent of all immigrants who have been in the United States for at least 20 years were still on welfare. We can’t even take care of our own citizens, and yet more immigrants hop on to the safety net every single day. At some point the safety net is going to break and then we won’t even be able to take care of the struggling Americans that really need it. (Read More...)
More Than 100 Million Americans Are On Welfare
There are more Americans dependent on the federal government than ever before in U.S. history. According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. Many are enrolled in more than one. That is about a third of the entire population of the country. Sadly, that figure does not even include Social Security or Medicare. Today the federal government runs almost 80 different “means-tested welfare programs”, and almost all of those programs have experienced substantial growth in recent years. Yes, we will always need a “safety net” for those that cannot take care of themselves, but it is absolutely ridiculous that the federal government is financially supporting one-third of all Americans. How much farther do things really need to go before we finally admit that we have become a socialist nation? At the rate we are going, it will not be too long before half the nation is on welfare. Unfortunately, we will likely never get to that point because the gigantic debt that we are currently running up will probably destroy our financial system before that ever happens. (Read More...)
The Real Obama Budget Deficit For 2011: 5 Trillion Dollars
If the U.S. government used the same accounting methods that most U.S. businesses use, the real federal budget deficit for last year would have been 5 trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars. So where does the huge difference come from? I think a simple illustration would be helpful here. When you go shopping, do you only count the transactions where you use cash, or do you also count the transactions where you signed on the dotted line and promised to pay later? Of course you count both of them. Well, the U.S. government does not count promises to pay later when calculating budget deficits. The “official” Obama budget deficit for 2011 was 1.3 trillion dollars, but according to USA Today when you add in the rise in liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs that adds another 3.7 trillion dollars to the total. Those are future financial promises that we have made that future taxes are not expected to cover. This analysis by USA Today squares very well with what analysts such as John Williams of shadowstats.com have been saying for years. The truth is that our federal budget deficits have actually been far worse than we have been told. (Read More...)
43 Percent Of Americans Have Less Than 10,000 Dollars Saved For Retirement
The United States financial system is facing a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude in the coming years. Social Security and Medicare are both on the verge of collapse, and both private and public pension funds all over America are massively underfunded. Now new data is revealing that the number of Americans who have virtually nothing saved up for retirement continues to grow at a rapid pace. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey, the percentage of American workers who have less than $10,000 saved for retirement has grown to 43%. The number of American workers who say that they have less than $1,000 saved for retirement has grown to 27%. But perhaps this should be no surprise considering the fact that tens of millions of Americans are just trying to figure out how to get through each month financially. After all, it is really hard to plan for retirement when you can barely pay your mortgage. (Read More...)
Will The Coming 21% Cut In Medicare Payments Force Doctors To Boycott Medicare Patients?
Will the 21 percent cut in Medicare payments coming this month force many doctors to boycott Medicare patients in order to survive? That is a question that thousands of American doctors are pondering as the U.S. Congress deliberates whether or not to allow a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to go into effect. In fact, the cuts were already supposed to go into effect, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has put a hold for 10 business days on physician Medicare claims, thus giving the U.S. Congress a little bit more time to act. It is thought the the U.S. Congress simply cannot allow these cuts to go into effect, but so far they have not acted. (Read More...)