CAGW Alarmed by Skyrocketing Welfare Payments

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued a statement in response to the revelation that welfare payments by the federal government now exceed all other expenditures, including Social Security, Medicare, and Defense. The report on this alarming news was released this morning by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which was responding to a request from Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

CRS found that the federal government spent $745.85 billion on welfare programs in fiscal year (FY) 2011, compared to $725 billion on Social Security, $480 billion for Medicare, and $540 billion for non-war defense. CRS selected programs according to whether or not they “base an individual’s eligibility or priority for service on a measure (or proxy) of low or limited income.” On top of the federal share, states spend $282.7 billion, bringing the total to $1.028 trillion.

Included in the $745.85 billion total were $101.3 billion for food assistance, $65.7 billion for education, $46.3 billion for housing and development, $6.5 billion for employment and training, and $4.9 billion for energy assistance. Welfare spending across all categories has increased 32.4 percent since FY 2008, including a 71 percent increase in food assistance and a 67 percent increase in energy assistance.

“Sen. Sessions has overturned a rock that was obscuring some unsettling facts about welfare,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “While it is troubling to see such a clear trend toward increased government dependency among the American public, it is also true that existing welfare programs are littered with wasteful spending.

“As CAGW and the Government Accountability Office have pointed out before, the federal government runs 47 different job training programs, 88 different economic development programs, and 18 nutrition and food assistance programs. Welfare programs would undoubtedly do a better job of eliminating poverty if they were made more efficient rather than handed more money each year,” Schatz concluded.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.