Coming Soon...The Welfare Explosion

Original Story appears at Red Statements by Steven H Ahle

Currently, we spend 588 Billion in welfare programs, a full 1/6th of our entire budget.  And that’s the good news.  Very soon, we could see an expansion that will bankrupt the country within just a couple of years.  Between cash payments, food stamps, Hud, HEAP, and free phones, our tax dollars are flying out the door.

Should amnesty pass, we would have 12 million potential welfare recipients.  Think that number is staggering?  Think it’s unrealistic?  A 2011 report from the Center For Immigrant Studies, is very revealing.  In Arizona 62% of illegal immigrants receive some form of welfare, mostly food stamps and Medicaid.  In New York and California, that number is 61%.  Legal immigrants are not far behind at 56% and they use the entire gamut of benefits.

We can blame that on Sen. Teddy Kennedy.  Before 1964, the rules were such that we would take in people that had skills people needed.  Kennedy felt that was discriminatory.  Besides raising the number of immigrants allowed in every year, he shifted the focus from filling our needs to reuniting families.  Once a legal immigrant gets here and begins to collect government benefits, they are able to bring in the rest of their family.  Many immigrants saw this as the gravy train.

So imagine adding 12 million to the mix.  And once they gain citizenship, they can then begin bringing their families here too.

And that could be merely the tip of the iceberg since Puerto Rico voted for statehood.  Democrats would love that.  They would get at least two more senators and two additional house seats.  But if we examine the poverty rates in Puerto Rico, it’s easy to gauge the results on our bloated welfare system.

The poverty rate for children is 80% and the general population has a rate of 45%.  That’s a whole lot of welfare, food stamps, HUD, HEAP, Medicare and phones, when you consider the population is 3.7 million.  That’s 1.665 million people who will need help.

And the elderly?  As American citizens they would now be eligible for SSI.  And with that comes the full range of benefits of food stamps, HUD, HEAP, Medicaid, etc.  No wonder they voted for statehood.  They see Obama as the Santa who comes all year round.  And remember those numbers of poverty is just the basic poverty level and many benefits your are eligible for if you make as much as twice the poverty level.

Then , how much will it cost to annex Puerto Rico into the union.  Every flag in America will have to be replaces as well as postage stamps and anything else showing the flag.  We would need to start giving them money for schools , roads, crops, and everything else under the sun.  And most of their businesses are there through a program that gives them huge tax credits.  When that’s gone, will the companies stay?  Will they be willing to pay 35% corporate taxes?

Of course liberals realize that power doesn’t come cheaply and as long as it’s not their money, they could care less.  Reagan once said that liberals spend money like drunken sailors.  He went on to state that the comparison wasn’t fair since sailors spent their own money.  If every person in poverty needed just 2000 a year (That’s ridiculously low) that would be in excess of 3.33 billion dollars.  Now consider Medicaid for a family costs the government 8,000 dollars.  Then add Pell grants and all other sundry goodies and we could be talking some real money.

Just the fact that liberals are so anxious to add Puerto Rico, should give conservatives pause and after doing the math, they should forget it altogether.