Welfare As Most People Don't Know It

Lois M. Scheel

1996

Published in:

Social Trends Newsletter, Aug. 1996, No. 150

What's wrong with this food stamp picture?

In a letter to the local paper, a male shopper writes: ``Earlier today I was going through the line in a local supermarket when I noticed a young man behind me sipping on a drink. He was about 25 years old, a strapping young man who could have been a model for a body-building magazine. I heard the check-out lady tell him the drink was 82 cents. He gave her a $1 food stamp and pocketed the 18 cents change. As I left the store, I saw him get in a rather late model sports car and drive on down the road. Why is it I have difficulty with this scene?''

Because, Mr. Shopper, you look down on this young food-stamp recipient as one of those welfare cheats you are supporting with your hard-earned tax dollars, but what about the big welfare gougers! You made no mention of them. We have corporate welfare and military welfare and, of course, political welfare, all embracing those who have it made in the financial world and who usually cry the loudest against social programs for the needy.

Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney says that Corporations have seen their share of the nation's tax burden reduced from 32 percent in 1952 to 9 percent in 1992.

Norman Soloman, columnist for Creators Syndicate, Inc. writes: ``Only 10 percent of the U.S. Treasury's revenue is from `corporate income taxes.' In contrast, 68 percent, a whopping $1 trillion, pours in from `personal income taxes' or `Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment and other retirement taxes.'''

``...The key welfare program known as AFDC—Aid to Families With Dependent Children—accounts for just 1 percent of the federal budget. In fact, the IRS reports, if you add up all that the U.S. government spends on AFDC, Medicaid and food stamps plus 'supplemental security income and related programs', you'll get a grand total of 12 percent of the federal budget. Another 6 percent is devoted to health research and public health programs, unemployment compensation, assisted housing and social services.

``Meanwhile, military spending soaks up 19 percent of federal outlays, not counting veterans' benefits. Nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars is going to the Pentagon each day. For firms with military contracts, the Defense Department is a gigantic cash cow.''

Peter DeFazio of Oregon noted that ``wasteful Pentagon spending'' amounts to the largest discretionary spending category in the entire federal budget.

Another perk for the military is promoting officers just about to retire to increase their pensions, which are based on the highest rank they have held, and awarding disability allowances even if the disability resulted from a nonservice-related activity, such as shooting yourself in the foot in a hunting accident.

And military personnel can retire early with healthy pensions, go on to other jobs and collect additional pensions after retirement plus collecting their Social Security entitlements. One military high-ranking officer was hired as head of the Red Cross in the 1950s at $55,000 a year, which made a substantial addition to his ample military retirement pension. (How much does the Red Cross pay its top honcho today? Elizabeth Dole, who is presently on leave as president of the Red Cross, gets $200,000 a year.) And how can a non-profit organization afford to pay such lucrative salaries? From donations? No wonder the Red Cross charges so much for donated blood. By the way, even though Dole retired from the Senate, he still gets a $100,000 congressional pension—under the munificent pension plan that Dole and his colleagues established for themselves at taxpayers' expense.

Taxpayers say little about welfare for huge corporations, including big farmers, timber companies, and oil conglomerates, the latter being allowed to set our oil and gas prices as well; they say even less about welfare for the military or hefty perks for politicians, both active and retired; and where is citizen rage when strip miners can buy government land for peanuts, extract the metals and minerals and then go on to putting that land to some other money-making venture while jumping through their tax loopholes.

With corporations, welfare is called a subsidy—which means, according to Webster, a gift of public money to private industry. There is no such euphemism for people in need of financial help; welfare, to most people not on it, means an underserved handout.

Yes, taxpayers are overly tolerant regarding welfare for the rich, but just let someone spend 82 cents on a cold drink with a dollar food stamp and pocket the change and afterwards drive away in a fairly late-model sports car, and they jump up and down and write letters to the editor. It seems that social priorities in this country are a bit askew.