The Heritage Foundation details the continuation of two disturbing trends: More and more people are dependent on the government for some kind of assistance, and dependence programs are a big contributor to the soaring federal debt:
The challenges that Congress faces in reforming these entitlement programs are heightened by the rapid growth of other dependence-creating programs, such as subsidies for food and housing and college financial aid, and by the growing number of Americans who incur no obligations for receiving them. How likely is Congress to reform entitlements in any meaningful way under such circumstances? Can Congress rein in the massive middle-class entitlements in an environment of fast-expanding dependence programs?
In 1962, the first year measured in the Index of Dependence on Government, the percentage of people who did not pay federal income taxes themselves and who were not claimed as dependents by someone who did pay federal income taxes stood at 23.7 percent; it fell to 12 percent by 1969 before beginning a ragged and ultimately steady increase. By 2000, the percentage was 34.1 percent; by 2009, it was 49.5 percent.[9] In short, the country is now at a point where roughly one-half of “taxpayers” do not pay federal income taxes, and where most of that same population receives generous federal benefits. (See Chart 1.)
This trend should concern everyone who supports America’s republican form of government. If the citizens’ representatives are elected by an increasing percentage of voters who pay no income tax, how long will it be before these representatives respond more to demands for yet more entitlements and subsidies from non-payers than to the pleas of taxpayers to exercise greater spending prudence?
While an ever-increasing number of Americans don’t pay any income taxes, the percentage of federal spending that goes to dependence programs has reached an all-time high:
I don’t know if there are enough legislators in either party with the will to do anything about these twin terrors. Obama’s 2013 budget obviously makes no attempt to address either of these situations. On the contrary, it seems that the CEO of the ACME Economic Destruction Co. seems intent on making both situations worse.
