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To: PROLIFE who wrote (646734) 3/3/2012 2:19:58 PM From: tejek 1 Recommendation   of 1025384   They hate the 'safety net' but they use it. LINDSTROM, minn. — Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government. He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region's long-serving Democratic congressman. Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called SOMETIMES A SOURCE OF ANGER: Brian Qualley says some of his tattoo customers in Harris, Minn., pay with money from disability checks. Americans are divided on how to address the rising costs of a wide variety of safety net programs. the earned income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice. There is little poverty here in Chisago County, northeast of Minneapolis, where cheap housing for commuters is gradually replacing farmland. But Gulbranson and many other residents who describe themselves as self-sufficient members of the U.S. middle class and as opponents of government largess are drawing more deeply on that government with each passing year. Dozens of benefits programs provided an average of $6,583 for each man, woman and child in the county in 2009, a 69 percent increase from 2000 after adjusting for inflation. In Chisago, and across the nation, the government now provides almost $1 in benefits for every $4 in other income. Shifting distribution Older people get most of the benefits, primarily through Social Security and Medicare, but aid for the rest of the population has increased about as quickly through programs for the disabled, the unemployed, veterans and children. The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest SOMETIMES A LIFESAVER: Barbara Sullivan lives on Social Security and relied on Medicare to pay for an operation. More middle-class families are landing in the government safety net that was created to keep Americans from abject poverty. (Photos by Jenn Ackerman, The New York Times) households no longer receive a majority of government benefits. A secondary mission has gradually become primary: maintaining the middle class from childhood through retirement. The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year. The problem by now is familiar to most. Politicians have expanded the safety net without a commensurate increase in revenues, a primary reason for the government's annual deficits and mushrooming debt. In 2000, federal and state governments spent about 37 cents on the safety net from every dollar they collected in revenue, according to a New York Times analysis. A decade later, after one Medicare expansion, two recessions and three rounds of tax cuts, spending on the safety net consumed nearly 66 cents of every dollar of revenue. The recent recession increased dependence on government, and stronger economic growth would reduce demand for programs like unemployment benefits. But the long-term trend is clear. Over the next 25 years, as the population ages and medical costs climb, the budget office projects that benefits programs will grow faster than any other part of government, driving the federal debt to dangerous heights. A nation divided Americans are divided about the way forward. Seventy percent of respondents to a recent New York Times poll said the government should raise taxes. Fifty-six percent supported cuts in Medicare and Social Security. Forty-four percent favored both. Bob Kopka and his wife often drive to the American Legion hall in North Branch on Thursday nights, joining the crowd gathered in the basement bar for the weekly meat raffle. Almost everyone present relies on the government to pay for their medical care. Kopka, 74, has had three heart procedures in recent years. His wife recently had surgery to remove cataracts from both eyes. Without Medicare, Kopka said, the couple could not have paid for the treatments. "No. Never," he said. "She would have to go blind." And him? "I'd die." Spending on medical benefits will account for a larger share of the projected increase in the federal budget over the next decade than any other kind of spending except interest payments on the federal debt. Some of the fiercest advocates for spending cuts have drawn public benefits. Many have family members who rely on the government. They often cite that personal experience as the reason they want to cut government spending. Barbara Nelson, 61, has little patience for people who say they will not need government help. She considers herself lucky she has not, and obligated to provide for those who do. "Catastrophes happen in life," she said, sitting in a coffee shop in Taylors Falls. "To be so arrogant that you think it won't happen to you, that somehow you're going to be one of the special ones, I disagree with that." $6,583: Average provided to each man, woman and child in Chisago County Minnesota in 2009 through dozens of benefits programs 66 cents: Share of each dollar in federal revenue that went to safety net programs in 2010 Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved. Read more: Growing assistance for middle class strains the safety net - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_19946366#ixzz1o5DB5nBx Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices | Political Discussion ForumsShare RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read