President Obama will likely toss out several numbers in his State of the Union Address intended to make the case that the economy is improving on his watch, but there is more to do.
But there are several numbers the president isn’t likely to mention, numbers that indicate just how far the country has shifted toward a welfare state. For example:
Food Stamps — As CNSNews points out, “Since taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under President Barack Obama have risen to more than 47 million people in America, exceeding the population of Spain.”
There were 39.9 million Americans on food stamps when Obama took office; now there’s 47.7 million, a 17 percent increase.
Of course, one would expect the number of food stamp recipients to go up in a recession, but the recession formerly ended 3.5 years ago.
The Disabled — Those receiving federal disability payments set a new record high in January: 8.8 million Americans. In fairness, that isn’t just an Obama phenomena; the number has been going up every month since 1997, in part because of relaxed qualification standards. That said, the rate of growth got a bump up during the “Obama recovery.”
Unemployment Benefits — Federal unemployment benefits were extended to 99 weeks in November 2009, the longest in history. And since then they have been extended several more times, including in the January fiscal cliff deal. The Congressional Budget Office says that federal and state unemployment benefits have cost about $520 billion over the past five years, when the recession began. And we aren’t done yet.
Medicaid — Prior to Obama, most elected officials would have shied away from taking credit for a huge new expansion in the welfare state. But Obama boasts of the fact that thanks to ObamaCare 16 million to 20 million Americans will be added to the Medicaid rolls, which is a means-tested welfare program.
President Obama is responsible for the largest expansion of the welfare rolls in history—and proud of it. But also humble. Don’t expect to hear him take much credit for his overachievement in the State of the Union.
February 12, 2013