Middle Class Welfare

David Armor and Sonja Sousa, two professors at George Mason University, have amassed some fascinating and frightening data, which they've reported in the journal National Affairs.  Here is their finding, in their words:

In three years, from 2008 through 2010, total annual spending on welfare programs (in 2010 dollars) increased from $475 billion to $666 billion — a 40% increase after accounting for inflation. (snip) Some of these spending increases were justified by the deep recession that began in December 2007. (Snip) The poverty rate climbed during the 2008 recession — to 15% from an average of about 12.5% during the mid-2000s. But this rise in poverty does not explain most of the recent increases in spending on anti-poverty programs.

Rather, it is the dramatic expansion of eligibility for these programs — spreading their benefits well into the middle class — that has driven the explosion of spending. Today, more than half of the benefits allocated through programs we think of as "anti-poverty" efforts actually go to people above the poverty line as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. As a result, our poverty programs — once justified and defended as a safety net for Americans truly in need — exist, increasingly, to make life more comfortable for the middle class. 

"Our poverty programs ... exist, increasingly, to make life more comfortable for the middle class." Why the heck is this happening? Do you want to pay for this? Maybe Romney wasn't so far off when he said 47% of the people are on the dole, one way or another.