I am looking for what percentage of our entire budget is spent on social programs, anyone?

[secondwind]

This would include Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, any so-called "entitlement" programs, the nutjobs are always crying about.

I thought it was a mere 1% but I may have been wrong.

anyone?

[mikelgb]

1. you will need a microscope n/t

[zipplewrath]

2. Um, no

It all depends upon the accounting of course, and what one considers "welfare". The highest number is going to be about 40%, but that'd include some things like the VA and such.

[NoNothing]

3. Um, yes, you are wrong

SS + Medicare + other entitlements (e.g. unemployment compensation) is well over 50% of all federal spending.

See, e.g.:

[NoNothing]

4. May I ask, in all earnestness

Where did you get the idea that social spending is 1% of the budget? Did someone tell you this?

[secondwind]

5. No, I wasn't told this. I'm not a young person, I may have read it wrong. Am just

wondering why the nutjobs are crying over the so-called "entitlement" programs so much. I hope this 40% figure also includes grants to college students, etc.

[tabatha]

6. The 1% is for money donated to other countries.

Yep 1% is correct but not for social causes inside the US.

Here is an article that could answer a lot of your questions - note the comments as well:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/02/foreign-aid-spending-is-crippling-our.html

[secondwind]

7. I appreciate that so much. Thank you!

[tabatha]

8. I added a link to that post - don't know if you saw it.

[secondwind]

12. just saw this now. Thank you very much.

[golfguru]

14. That link is superb illustration of all gov't spending...thanks for posting n/t

[NoNothing]

9. Actually, most student aid

Is made from the discretionary portions of the DOE budget, included in the "discretionary" pie slice.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/rewrite/budget/fy2009/education.html

The reason nutjobs are crying is because, like it or not, it *is* a lot of money. And, there are some serious questions about how much of this we will be able to continue to pay. That's why the misconception you have is so dangerous. If we do not provide solutions to address the very real issues, if we pretend that this isn't a lot of money and don't affirmatively argue FOR it and why it's GOOD, like Johnson did, we will simply default the issue to people like Paul Ryan.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. Maybe you're thinking of just the 'welfare' part of it?

That portion dedicated solely to the poor - AFDC, WIC, food stamps. It's a little more than 1%, but not by a hell of a lot (don't have the numbers myself). The big social programs are not limited to just the poor - Medicare, SS. They are the ones easiest to reform, to put on a self-sustaining basis - Medicare, thru a program of real single-payer medicine; SS, thru removing the cap on paying in so that it is no longer a highly regressive tax with the wealthiest paying the smallest percentage of their income into it. Also, Medicare and SS are sustained through specific taxes, and are not (supposed to be) part of general revenue as the other social programs are, so they are generally not conflated with 'welfare', except in the minds of republicans.

[secondwind]

11. Now, THAT is what I was thinking about....exactly! 1% for Welfare. Why conservatives

"cry" over this expense is beyond me. Thank you so much.

[NoNothing]

13. That's not accurate either

Please, if you want facts, don't just listen to whoever tells you what you want to hear. Look up the numbers yourself, they are all publicly available.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Analytical_Perspectives/

[secondwind]

15. Thanks, I appreciate it very much. I had read 1% but was told this figure was wrong!

Am going to bookmark this ....again,thank you!