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发帖数: 29846 | 1 奥巴马带来的改变：美国大众对廉政政府的依赖程度2年上升23%，6,700万人某种程度
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he American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in
just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some
federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage
Foundation.
The conservative think tank's annual Index of Dependence on Government
tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and
other federal programs that were "traditionally provided to needy people by
local organizations and families."
The two-year increase under Obama is the biggest two-year jump since Jimmy
Carter was president, the data show.
The rise was driven mainly by increases in housing subsidies, an expansion
in Medicaid and changes to the welfare system, along with a sharp rise in
food stamps, the study found.
"You can't get around the fact that policy decisions made over the past two
years, on top of those made over the past several decades, are having a
large effect on the pace of growth of the index," said William Beach, who
authored the Heritage study.
Government dependence has climbed steadily since 1962, when the index stood
at 19. By 1980, the index had risen to 100. It stood at 294 in 2010, the
last year for which the data are available. D.C.-based Heritage has produced
the index for nine years.
The report also found that spending on "dependence programs" accounts for
more than 70% of the federal budget. That, too, is up dramatically. In 1990,
for example, the figure stood at 48.5%, and in 1962 just over a quarter of
federal spending went to dependence programs.
At the same time, fewer Americans pay income taxes, the report notes. Almost
half (49.5%) didn't pay income taxes in 2009, the latest year for which the
researchers have data. Back in the late 1960s, only 12% of Americans
escaped the income tax burden.
Other findings:
The number of people dependent on the federal government shot up 7.5% in the
past two years.
In 2010, for the first time ever, average spending on dependence programs
per recipient exceeded the country's per-capita disposable income.
The dependency index has dipped only seven times in the past 49 years, three
of which were under President Reagan and two under President Clinton.
Some observers say the rise in dependence under Obama is merely a reflection
of the deep and long recession.
But Beach says his team's research shows that economic effects account for
only one-fifth of the change in the index. |
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