Millions Aided by Government Programs

Despite Record Poverty Level, Welfare Programs Keep Millions More Out of the Poorhouse

by Erin Scobie on September 15, 2011

The 2010 Census has provided, in many ways, the clearest view of the recession’s effect on the modern American. With the release of record-breaking poverty statistics just as President Obama attempts to gather support for his jobs plan, some good news: Government programs do, in fact, help many Americans. Without welfare systems programs like food stamps and Medicaid, millions more Americans would have been added to the 46.2 million already below the poverty line.

Information from the Census Bureau shows without unemployment insurance, for example, 3.2 million more Americans would have been impoverished, which the bureau defines as a family of four with an annual income of $22, 312. In fact, the total number of those in poverty may actually be inflated slightly. The official number does not factor in food stamps as a type of income, though it does measure the results if it did. If food stamps are considered a form of income, then 3.9 million people would be considered above the poverty line.

The same income measurements would also decrease the number of impoverished if the Earned Income Tax Credit had been included in calculations. The federal tax credit is provided for low to moderate income families, allowing for a smaller tax bill or, more often, a larger refund. Considering this, a further 5.4 million people, 3 million of which would be children, would no longer be labeled impoverished.

This is not to say that creating new criteria for how to gauge the poverty line will help government programs seem more important. Rather, other programs help a large number of Americans. The recession left many parents without health insurance as their jobs made budget cuts. This would consequently leave their children uninsured if not for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which insured 570,000 more children in 2010 than it did in 2007.

Including other government programs like Medicare, nearly 50 million Americans are using some form of government assistance program, often more than one at a time. In general these programs are being used more now than ever before.

This fact is particularly important when the new debt super committee convenes to discuss how to reduce the national debt and budget government spending. It will have to come up with $1.5 billion in cuts. With most of the programs being scrutinized, a reduction in funding would hurt the poor most of all.

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