Wherever Republicans may win tonight, they will likely claim a mandate to get rid of "Big Government," which translates as handouts for anyone other than their corporate pals in the military-industrial-agricultural-surveillance complex.
But remember: all that "Big Government" that Republicans want to cut keeps a remarkable number of people out of poverty. The Census Bureau crunches some numbers and finds that the "supplemental poverty measure" (SPM) in 2013 was 15.5%. The Census Bureau then calculated what percentage of Americans would be living in poverty if we got all Republican on the budget and cut out various social assistance programs:
Program | SPM if cut (%) | Additional Americans in poverty |
Social Security | 24.1 | 26,900,000 |
Refundable Tax Credits | 18.4 | 9,080,000 |
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) | 17.1 | 5,010,000 |
Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) | 16.8 | 4,070,000 |
Housing Subsidies | 16.5 | 3,130,000 |
Unemployment Insurance | 16.2 | 2,190,000 |
Child Support Received | 16.0 | 1,570,000 |
School Lunch | 16.0 | 1,570,000 |
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)/General Assistance | 15.8 | 939,000 |
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) | 15.7 | 626,000 |
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) | 15.6 | 313,000 |
Workers' Compensation | 15.6 | 313,000 |
Pick your social program; how many thousands or millions of Americans do you want to throw into poverty, just to satisfy your elitist economic and political whims?
I fully expect wingnuts in the sinate to start taking more stuff from the needy and handing it over on a silver platter to the koch bros greedy-before they are officially sworn at.....er...in.