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Social Assistance Programs Keep Millions out of Poverty

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?

One Comment

  1. mike from iowa 2014.11.05

    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.

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