Self-Defeating

Expanding the welfare rolls by adding people who shouldn't be there increases headcount but I think it also decreases support for those programs.

I don’t know a single person, Republican, Democrat, conservative, libertarian or progressive who doesn’t believe that we should help those who truly need help.

I do get demonized for making the distinction between those who truly need help and those who don’t, but I know there is a difference. There are people who, for no fault of their own, are in circumstances of severe challenge but there are also those, the decisions of whom, have brought about those circumstances, there are also those who feel they are owed just because a system of assistance exists and there are those who simply cannot be helped due to some addiction or mental state – not only cannot these people be helped, many don’t want your help.

I can’t find statistics on this division, but based on the number of homeless and the number of people on government assistance I would wager the assistance rolls are about forty percent truly needing help, fifty percent in the group who believes they are due something from everybody else (and this group includes the generational welfare folks), and ten percent of those who can’t be helped or simply don’t want help.

In the second group, I include illegal aliens, for whom many states and past presidential administrations have opened the coffers to provide financial and food support, as well as free housing and health care.

Estimating the exact number of people on public assistance in the U.S. is complex because "public assistance" can encompass various programs, and data availability depends on the specific programs considered (e.g., Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), etc.). The most recent comprehensive data from reliable sources typically lag by a year or two, and participation fluctuates based on economic conditions, policy changes, and other factors.

• SNAP (Food Stamps): In 2023, approximately 42.1 million people participated in SNAP, based on USDA reports for fiscal year 2023.

• Medicaid: As of 2023, about 80.6 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This includes both citizens and eligible non-citizens, though undocumented immigrants are generally limited to emergency Medicaid.

• TANF: In fiscal year 2022, around 1.9 million individuals received TANF benefits, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

• SSI: In 2023, approximately 7.5 million people received SSI, per Social Security Administration data.

• Other Programs: Programs like the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program served about 6.7 million people in 2023, and the National School Lunch Program reached roughly 30 million children daily during the 2022-2023 school year.

There is no single, unified figure for "public assistance" because these programs serve different populations with some overlap (e.g., a person may receive both SNAP and Medicaid). A rough estimate, accounting for overlap, suggests 80-100 million people in the U.S. (including illegal aliens) participate in at least one major federal public assistance program annually, with Medicaid being the largest driver due to its broad coverage.

To Democrats, this process means that we don’t want to help anybody at all, and we want people to starve, get sick, and die.

And therein lies my issue. Opposing any reduction or refinement of any spending directed as these classes is considered as evil by our friends on the left. This Medicaid funding issue brought about by the Triple B legislation is being sold by the Democrats as a massive cut, when Republicans are targeting 1) poor administration of the appropriated funds and 2) moving illegal aliens and able-bodied people off these programs because they never should have been allowed into the programs in the first place.

Most people I know, and I know that it is a very small sample, have soured on welfare programs due to the inclusion of anyone outside the group that truly needs help through no fault of their own.

In my mind, championing expansion of public assistance programs beyond those truly in need severely damage the effort to help them, simply because people, and I include myself in that group, have a very difficult time understanding why we are responsible for 1) funding bad decisions of people whose circumstances result from those decisions, 2) why we must support people who have no right to be present in this country (and yet have access programs designed for citizens), or 3) funding the entitled and generational welfare.

In my opinion, Democrats seek to inflate the number of people needing assistance because they believe larger numbers means greater funding – but for many, especially those writing checks on April 15^th, including people who never should have been included serves to reduce the support for these programs.