11 Signs That The U.S. Government Has Become An Overgrown Monstrosity
Today, the number of Americans who are able to financially survive without any reliance on the U.S. government whatsoever is declining at a staggering rate. Whether it is through direct handouts, entitlement programs, student loans, government bailouts, government contracts or direct employment, the truth is that now a solid majority of the American people are at least partially dependent on the federal government for their economic survival. The sad thing is that the majority of the American people say that there is too much government in their lives when opinion polls are taken, but if you try to take the government check that they are getting away from them those same people will scream bloody murder. But the truth is that it is getting to be really, really hard to be completely independent of the U.S. government economically. That is because the U.S. government has their hands in almost everything. The ideal of a "limited federal government" has long since faded away. Very few people seem to believe in it anymore. Instead, Americans today look to the federal government as the answer to all of our problems, as the provider of all of our needs, and as the regulator of every single detail of our lives.
The U.S. government has become the "Big Mother" that we all scramble to for a handout when we get into trouble.
When you sit down and really analyze it, you quickly realize that there is no way that the U.S. government can be extricated from the U.S. economy now. Instead of the free enterprise system that we once had in this country, today we have a situation where the U.S. government has become the very core of the economy. It is the hub around which everything else in the economy revolves.
You don't believe this?
The following are 11 signs that the U.S. government has become an overgrown monstrosity that almost every American is dependent upon for economic survival....
#1) The Explosion Of Government Handouts
39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps. Millions of others are completely dependent on the extended unemployment benefits that they are receiving. Millions of other Americans are able to survive financially because of the dozens of other welfare programs that the U.S. government subsidizes. More Americans are receiving some form of welfare than ever before in history, and each month the numbers continue to go up. Could there come a day when we all receive government handouts every month?
#2) The Entitlements Programs That Threaten To Destroy U.S. Government Finances
Entitlements are the single biggest U.S. government expense. These programs include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social Ponzi schemes. Tens of millions of Americans receive government assistance through these programs. In fact, nearly 51 million Americans received $672 billion in Social Security benefits in 2009. We all have friends or family members who receive these kinds of payments. But cutting so many people a check year after year is slowly but surely destroying U.S. government finances. According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019. That is before a penny is spent on anything else. This is clearly not a sustainable financial situation by any definition, but who wants to tell tens of millions of Americans that their checks are going to be reduced?
#3) The U.S. Government Is Now Even Paying Mortgages
Yes, you read that right. As part of the "stimulus" package, the U.S. government is going to send money to some of the states that were hit the hardest by the real estate crisis. So what is that money going to be used for? Well, Florida, Michigan, California and Arizona have all announced that they plan to use $1.4 billion the Obama administration is sending their way to help the unemployed and the "underwater" pay their mortgages.
#4) Without The Student Loan Program A Huge Percentage Of College Students Would Not Get An Education
The federal student loan program (which was recently entirely nationalized) helps millions of college students pay for their education. Without this assistance by the government, a lot less students would be going to college. In fact, many of you that are reading this article directly benefited from the federal student loan program.
#5) The Bailout Of AIG
One of the biggest insurance companies in the world, AIG, would not be in existence today if not for direct federal government intervention. It kind of makes you wonder what George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would think about a federal government that hands big bags of cash to a giant insurance company so that it can survive. Whether it was so they could pay off their debts to Goldman Sachs or whether it was so that they could keep paying out record-setting bonuses, the truth is that AIG would not have made it without the federal government stepping in.
#6) The "Too Big To Fail" Banks
