September 23, 2009

Just wonderful - Bush's war and Obama's welfare state

Thanks to Cassie Fiano for this story:
Sweet: Obama to spend more on welfare in one year than Bush did on the entire Iraq war
One of the things liberals criticized Bush most for was, obviously, the war in Iraq. Among their many illegitimate complaints was that it “cost too much”. So of course, when they find out that Obama plans to spend more on welfare in one year than Bush did on the entire Iraq war, then surely these guardians of fiscal conservatism will be even more outraged.

Right?
As a candidate for president, Barack Obama decried the financial toll that the Iraq war was taking on the economy, but Obama’s proposed spending on welfare through 2010 will eclipse Bush’s war spending by more than $260 billion.

… During the entire administration of George W. Bush, the Iraq war cost a total of $622 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service.

President Obama’s welfare spending will reach $888 billion in a single fiscal year–2010–more than the Bush administration spent on war in Iraq from the first “shock and awe” attack in 2003 until Bush left office in January.

Obama’s spending proposals call for the largest increases in welfare benefits in U.S. history, according to a report by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. This will lead to a spending total of $10.3 trillion over the next decade on various welfare programs. These include cash payments, food, housing, Medicaid and various social services for low-income Americans and those at 200 percent of the poverty level, or $44,000 for a family of four. Among that total, $7.5 trillion will be federal money and $2.8 trillion will be federally mandated state expenditures.
The article puts the cost into perspective:
In that same West Virginia speech last year, Obama said, “When Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month, you’re paying a price for this war.”

The Heritage study says, “Applying that same standard to means-tested welfare spending reveals that welfare will cost each household $560 per month in 2009 and $638 per month in 2010.”

… By 2014, annual spending on welfare programs will reach $1 trillion for the fiscal year.
Only if the big government liberals stay in office. Don't count your chickens just yet... Posted by DaveH at September 23, 2009 9:31 PM | TrackBack
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