I need some quick help...My FB Freeper (I know, right?) is telling me that AIG is no biggie

[LaydeeBug]

because we shell out 9 billion in welfare. I asked him where he got his number, and he said he "came across it yesterday". Does anyone have handy the percentage of our national budget that goes to welfare?

Please, any info would help. :hi:

[Walk away]

1. I don't understand what feeding the poor and supporting women and children...

living below the poverty level has to do with AIG. Can you go back and ask him that?

[LaydeeBug]

9. He said that AIG's bonuses are nothing compared to the 9 billion we shell out each year for welfare.

I should have brought up corporate welfare, but did not have the numbers handy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. So corporate millionaires are worthy of our tax dollars but poor people are not?

Some logic there.

[Yurovsky]

15. It's the American way, don't you know?

Rich get richer... so much for the "trickledown"...

[Walk away]

14. One has nothing to do with the other for anyone with a brain in his head.

It;s like trying to decide weather to give food to some one who is starving or to give it to MacDonald's Corporate Headquarters. There is nothing to compare.

[SharonAnn]

2. And compare the numbers of people who recived benefit from each.

AIG is upper scale professionals. Educated adults.

AFDC (not welfare) is for dependent children.

Disability is for handicapped and disabled people.

[alstephenson]

3. I'm pretty sure your definition of "welfare" is probably much different than his.

Ask HIM to provide a source. Good luck.

[Political Heretic]

4. First of all, we don't have "welfare" anymore. Aid to Families with Dependent Children was killed

in 1996.

What replaced it, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, cannot be called "welfare" by any definition. Benefits are fixed, regardless of number of dependents, and maximum benefit monthly is just a few hundred dollars but varies from state to state. That meager assistance is time limited with a lifetime cap so that once it is exhausted it can never be accessed again under any circumstances. And strict work requirements regardless of your situation, or how many in your household or other conditions.

We spend less on what he is calling "welfare" per capita than the top twenty other industrialized nations in the world.


Now, you can show him this from 2007:



I realize its a bit hard to read, but see that teeny weeny tiny dark purple sliver? That's unemployment benefits and "welfare" combined

I realize this is not quite what you need, but just in case something in it is helpful:

Policy Basics: Introduction to TANF
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=936

[Arkana]

5. We shell out a lot more than that, if you count Medicaid, food stamps, Social Security,

and all the other government entitlement programs we put in place to keep seniors and poor people from starving to death.

But why is AIG not a big deal just because we happen to spend money on entitlement programs?

[Walk away]

7. Entitlement programs? I've never heard anyone outside of foxnews call them that.

maybe I'm wrong.

[Arkana]

10. I thought that was the designated term for them.

If not I apologize--it's not like I think they're bad things...I believe that clause about "promoting the general welfare" should be applied as liberally as possible.

[Walk away]

12. I think it's a conservative term that infers that the poor or unemployed ...

feel entitled to support. But hey, I could be wrong.

[baldguy]

6. Outrageous claims require extraordinary evidence.

US federal entitlement spending for FY2010 is closer to 500 billion.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_spending

The fact that he's not quoting this figure proves he has no clue what he's talking about.

[Speck Tater]

8. The difference between Democrats and Republicans

Democrats take your money and give it to the poor. Republicans take your money and give it to the rich.

Personally, It makes a lot more sense to give to the poor. The rich already have enough, and the power to get more. They DON'T need help from the taxpayer.

[Taitertots]

11. The double think is strong with that one

On one hand he is upset that the government gives needy people money.
On the other he thinks it is alright for the government to give money to rich people.

He is against "welfare", but uses it as his reason to justify corporate welfare.