Help! What percent of the federal budget is spent on welfare. By this I mean the budget represented by part of the budget that the congress still has a choice on how it is spent.
What is your definition of “welfare?” Does it include Medicare and/or Medicaid? What about the EITC and childcare deductions? Student loans?
You’re going to have to be a lot more specific.
Medicaid but not Medicare. Medicare recepients are now paying as much as $150 a month for their medicare.
Not studentl loans. They must be paid back.
There could be a case made for childcare deductions.
AS to the Earned income tax credit I would have no objection to this being included. I would peronally prefer a nore progressive income tax insteas of an EITC.
If you have data availabkle in regard to any of these I would like toreceive it.
There are also grants, not loans, for education and job/career training. Welfare?
Budget of the United States Government- Fiscal Year 2007.
Bear in mind significant portions of the budget were not passed by the last Congress so major areas of the government are operating under a continuing resolution (set to expire in mid-February).
Congress has a choice on how ALL of it is spent. It might not be a popular choice, but it’s a choice.
I assume he’s differentiating between discretionary spending, which Congress has to enact annually through appropriations bills, and *entitlement spending * (Social Security, Medicare) which is paid automatically to eligible recipients out of payroll taxes without any Congressional action. Congress initially set up how the entitlement will pay out, but from then on it’s on autopilot.
Well, to directly answer the question, TANF – the “new and improved” welfare program - is expected to cost $16.5 billion this year. This the cost of block grants given to states to administer their own welfare programs, which operate under guidelines that limit the time a person can be on welfare and various requirements about finding work.
Total discretionary spending – for which Congress has to pass appropriations bills – is roughly $870 billion this year. By way of comparison, we spend just about the same amount of Federal funds on TANF (“welfare”) as we do on NASA.
The U.S. Defense Budget, Explained with OREO Cookies budget the fun way.