The Dependency Issue

Supposedly the economy has been improving since Obama took office, according to Obama anyway. The jobs picture is getting rosy, again according to Obama. May I make a suggestion if that is so? Good! I didn't think you'd mind. If the employment market is so good, rather than the BLS removing 1.2 million unemployed or under-employed workers from the rolls to smoke and mirrors the numbers, it may be high time to cut back the time that a citizen can remain on unemployment from 99 weeks. That's two years of government dependency alone. If the economy is doing so well, why are gas prices at an all time high and food prices steadily going up? Of course food prices go up when fuel prices sky rocket too. But remember that the government has removed those two items from the inflation index. More smoke and mirrors to give us a warm fuzzy.

Both political parties share the blame for this mess that they have created. We've allowed them to steal from us and pick our pockets for too long now. But I'd like to thank Obama for the upsurge in dependency of the people on the federal government's largess, with tax payer dollars since there is no "government money," since during his short tenure (seems like decades) that dependency rate has soared by 23%. He's the one whose desk the buck stops on when all is said and done. This subject is circular so follow along. Obama is a "wealth redistribution" type. That is a form of socialism whether you want to admit it or not.

Think of it like this. If our government continues to grow at the rate it has been growing since Obama took office, that figure sits at around 17%, and excessive regulations that intrude upon the ability of the free enterprise system to work at maximum efficiency continue to be created, how much wealth is going to be created by the private sector to feed the government so it can redistribute the wealth that is no longer being created?

We're already at a point where 50% of the work force is paying no, that's zero, income taxes every year to feed the federal money munching monster. So you take from the rich and give to poor excessively and you just created an untenable situation that won't have the ability to sustain itself. Look at the situation in Europe if you have any doubt about that

67 million Americans now rely on some form of federal government program. The Heritage Foundation just released its study about that dependency and that particular study lasted 10 years so don't fixate your thinking that this is just being caused by the temporary things in life like recessions, which come and go in all economic cycles, because for decades now the government has been instilling the mindset that if you can't do it for yourself then it will do it for you. That has to be by design and not by chance.

I liken this to the Carter administration and the data shows the likeness. Obama has increased the dependency rate just in the last two years the likes of which we haven't seen since The Peanut President was in office. Many of you youngsters don't remember Carter. I do because I lived, as an adult, through his continual crisis management, slap a band aid on it form of leadership or a better word is a "lack" of it.

Raising income taxes seems to be Obama's mindset but only on the wealthy. So lets look at percentages again to see what is what. In 1984 the percentage of Americans paying no income tax was 14.8 which amounted to 34.8 million tax returns. Fast forward to 2009 and the percentage has increased to 49.5. That's 151.7 million tax returns. So obviously there has been an upward trend where the wealthy have been asked increasingly to pay for more than their fair share, not less.

Here's what the big picture looks like regarding government dependency in the area areas of housing, college tuition, retirement assistance, food stamps, health care and on and on and on. 70% of the annual budget under this administration is spent on entitlement programs and 1 in every 5 Americans, an all time high, rely on the federal largess. That dependency jumped 8.1% just last year alone. So things are getting better in reverse are they Mr. President?

So lets look at government spending next. Those are our tax dollars at work so pay attention. In 2011 alone the federal government spent more tax dollars subsidizing its people than ever before in history. Here's an astonishing figure to look at. If you rely on Washington DC for its largess you can receive bennies valued @ $32,748. The nation's average disposable income sits @ $32,446. Do the math. If you don't want to work which is better? This is resulting in record high spending for the dependency programs.

I'm a baby boomer and darned proud of it. We've supported the money muncher for decades by our sheer size. But guess what? During the next 25 years or so there will be 77 million of us retiring. Has the federal government exercised the foresight to handle that? No, it hasn't. That means we'll be drawing those social security checks that we have contributed money to for decades and we'll be drawing those Medicare benefits we have faithfully contributed into or maybe some of us will have to lean on Medicaid to supply our health care needs. Where did all that money we have put into the system go? Those little bennies are on the "unfunded liabilities" side of the ledger. So where is that money going to come from as the federal bureaucracy grows larger to manage things they have no business managing in the first place? Stark reality setting into your brain yet?

In closing, here's the National Debt Clock. Take a close look as I've used the version that doesn't make your head spin. Where's that money going to come from to repay what we don't have? The rich? There isn't enough money in those pockets to make a dent in what you see there. Just print more? Obviously you don't have a clue if you believe that. As the government grows so does the dependency rate. There is a direct correlation. Something to think about.

Are there solutions? Definitely there are. Tomorrow I will propose some viable, necessary solutions to the problems the federal government, with our assistance by continuing to elect professional pick pockets to office, has brought upon our heads.

Stay tuned.

As Always,

The Frog Prince