Government Aid Keeps Millions Of Americans Out Of Poverty [GRAPHIC]

Prevalent as poverty is in the United States, it'd be a lot worse without government aid.

As seen in the below infographic by the Center For American Progress, several government programs have had an enormous effect on millions of Americans, keeping them above the poverty line. Last year, 46.2 million, or 15.1 percent of the entire country, lived below the poverty line, according to a Census report released this week.

If it wasn't for Social Security, though, an additional 20.3 million people would be added to that total, the majority of them elderly, as noted by the Center For American Progress. A further 8.6 million Americans would have lived in poverty if it wasn't for the earned income tax credit and unemployment insurance, Think Progress notes.

The below infographic was created by the Center For American Progress:

Comments

[Will M Gillespie]

12:42 PM on 11/14/2011

have you ever noticed how people who complain about government assistance "hand outs" are the ones who can't spend 4 minutes to educate themselves about those programs?

[heroine addict]

11:30 AM on 09/16/2011

Unfortunately, if you belong to the wrong demographic it's applesauce and evaporated milk for you sucka.

[TaxpayingVoter]

02:56 PM on 09/16/2011

Heck, we can't even get evaporated. It's powdered milk in our demographic....lol

[akrazyrunner]

09:43 AM on 09/16/2011

I think that you'll find the majority of the TEA Party/Republicans will be unaffected by those graphics. After-all all of the people represented in the graphic are black

[eehd]

12:14 PM on 09/16/2011

nice play on words.

[Jack Daniels Esq]

03:35 AM on 09/16/2011

Restart America - its all broken and the Feds are the root cause - clear out WH & DC & Reboot

[Left Hook]

11:39 AM on 09/16/2011

And this is the bumper sticker I saw on your dually pick up Jackie baby...

REPEAL THE 20TH CENTURY IN 'MERICA
VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2012

[Jack Daniels Esq]

02:24 PM on 09/16/2011

Bentley dont make no dually nnuts

[jshook99]

11:44 PM on 09/15/2011

THE WRITER FORGOT TO ADD GOVERNMENT IS BROKE, AND THEN WHERE WILL THEY GO?

[jshook99]

11:42 PM on 09/15/2011

Government hand outs does not but CAUSE POVERTY, and is Killing Our Nation.

[PTerrys]

02:04 AM on 09/16/2011

You don't know what you're talking about. All (fiat) money is a convention. It's not necessary. Wealth is in real assets. So whether or not our government has money is irrelevant. As long as we (the USofA) have natural resources and capital in the country, we can trade or sell (and our government can tax). Government providing money or food is not an issue, since food is perishable. If the government didn't have it, who would get it? And, then it would go bad unless someone consumed it. The quality of food that the government "hands out", and allows people on welfare to afford, is not the quality of food that many Americans would normally eat. So, there is no sense that welfare recipients/government are taking from anyone else. They are basically giving to people who need it from a stockpile that those who have the means would throw away.

[Left Hook]

11:45 AM on 09/16/2011

Your right, it doesn't cause poverty...But those so-called "gubmint handouts" you're mocking and decrying as evil just helps everyday Americans make it thru to the point they don't need it.

By the way, what do you call it when non-governmental organizations extend a helping had to the desperately needy...Being christian, right? Well, according to you and your kind this is a christian nation and government so isn't it being christian when the government does it? Just askin'...

[grope and change]

09:32 PM on 09/15/2011

Gov overspending keeps people in poverty now and dooms future generations to poverty as well.

[scottarino]

11:31 PM on 09/15/2011

So lets toss Bush's tax cuts for the rich away, end the wars, and stop corporate welfare. How's that?

[PTerrys]

02:20 AM on 09/16/2011

Explain what you mean. Some (basically everyone) would argue that government spending is responsible for the growth of our economy to begin with.

[grope and change]

03:48 AM on 09/16/2011

Yeah well the first round of stimulus is over and now what? Almost a Trillion dollars and nothing to show for it. Government over spending is why our dollar is worth next to nothing and our kids are in debt before they take their first breath. The only answer you dems ever have is tax more. Add up all the taxes and fees you pay in your life and you would be shocked at how much it actually is.

[builderman55]

09:27 PM on 09/15/2011

There was speculation, based on some of the tactics of far right Republicans that their long-term strategy to get rid of social spending was to being the country to a serious financial crisis that would force the government to cut back dramatically on social spending. There has been a strain of thinking in the GOP that the New Deal was a disaster and that government spending would ruin the American character of self-reliance and individualism, and they have never stopped fighting that fight. Now, look at where we are: At the end of Clinton's term, during which millions of jobs were created and the government had an enormous budget surplus, Shrub and Dick come into office, start two wars which are unfunded, give two tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, and pass anu funded $1 trillion Medicare drug benefit. Now, we are deeply in debt, and an energized GOP is demanding massive cuts to social spending and giving MORE tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy, and people are falling, by the millions from the middle class into poverty. The plan, it would appear, has succeeded...

[janereally]

08:42 AM on 09/16/2011

read naomi klein. It's all in Shock Doctrine. It's been used in other countries, is being used now in Europe, and they're trying to do it here too. The rich remain untouched. The rest of us pay.

[builderman55]

10:28 AM on 09/16/2011

Thanks for the recommendation. I will add it to my list.

[makeck]

08:46 AM on 09/16/2011

I certainly understand the arugment, but still find it somewhat laughable to purely blame the Republicans. Having had a budget deficit EVERYyear since 1959, and already being quite a bit in debt when Bush took over, both parties have had their hand on the rudder. And lets keep in mind that CONGRESS passess spending bills, not the President. If the Democrats wanted all the social programs, why did they not alo have the guts to incresae taxes to FUND those social programs?

Like I said, I understand the perseption of the Republican plan to starve the treasury, and it might even be reality. But that lets Democrats off the hook for initiating programs, with expenditures, for which the only answer was more borrowing. And to say that doing that was NOT irresponsible is merely playing identity politics with your favorite party.

In short, if your right and the Republican plan is to deny revenues to fund the social programs till we are so in debt that we MUST cut the programs, then the Democratic plan is to pass as a many social programs as possible so that we go so deep in debt that the ONLY answer is to raise taxes.

To me that sounds like two High School kids playing chicken, only its our children's future that is at stake, and not the two High School kids.

[builderman55]

10:24 AM on 09/16/2011

Actually, I agree with much of what you say. I have little affection for either political party, but having said that, remember too that Clinton was a centrist Democrat that put a 5 year lifetime cap on receiving welfare AND balanced the budget. The ideological purists on both sides wreck policy by being so rigidly attached to doctrine. The ideological left was unwilling to have a conversation about how constantly adding new social programs was overtaxing the middle class and the ideological right seems to want to give ALL the money to the rich and let the rest of us starve. The truth is in the Great Middle, and no one right now seems to be appealing to us. And, I DO believe that lap dog Democrats essentially allowed the GOP to drive policy and essentially cooperated in creating the crisis that we are currently in. Itnis important to remember that Clinton signed the bill that repealed Glass-Steagall which arguably was the single greatest element in the economic collapse we suffered.

[PTerrys]

02:36 PM on 09/16/2011

Why are you so worried about the future? We haven't had a budget deficit since 1959. In 1998-2001 we had a surplus.

This is nothing like kids playing chicken. This is more like a group of parent fighting the the school board. It doesn't even make sense. They both want the students to do better, but the school board is telling the parents to do a better job, and the parents are telling the school board to spend less on the football team and more on fine arts and math. Eventually, the football team has to do its own fundraising and the mathletes and orchestra students have a fee for extracurricular activities.

The thing is both sides are right and wrong at the same time. The poor communities would do better to get educated and get jobs (even though there are not enough good jobs to go around). The poor communities definitely need a leg up, because their schools are not good, and the parents are uneducated and can't expose their children to new things, give them hope, or even help them with homework/hire tutors. The poor communities today are resultant of bad parenting that has persisted since the 1950s. But, this was because of the deteriorating conditions of segregation between race and class. This is why both poor Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks have remained poor. We shouldn't really have either trailer parks or ghettos, but we have both because of social-reproduction.

[vippy]

07:24 PM on 09/15/2011

That is exactly what our politicians want, handouts for us!  Otherwise they would have made sure that there are decent wages in this country, jobs being kept here, etc.  but they couldn't careless about you and me and I bet in those G8 Meetings they have a plan for all of us.

[frank day]

06:40 PM on 09/15/2011

And imagine how many billionaires it keeps propped up !!!!

More bonuses for the TBTF banks !!! Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[msbeal]

06:31 PM on 09/15/2011

It's not Social Security keeping people out of poverty. It's the citizens who paid into it all their lives keeping themselves out of poverty.

[frank day]

06:41 PM on 09/15/2011

If you ain't a producer, you're a moocher.

mooch mooch mooch mooch

( corporate welfare is ok though)

[makeck]

08:49 AM on 09/16/2011

I would go so far as to say the SS does not belong on this list for that very reason. By trying to make Social Security loook like a Social Welfare program, you open it to attacks by those who want to cut government spending. In other words, this chart makes it look like "Hey, see what the government is doing for you", and reality is that SS is people doing it for themselves. SS was paid into be people, and the money coming out is mererly payback.

[AmySeow]

05:15 PM on 09/15/2011

Welfare is the CAUSE of poverty. It is a form of en(slave)ment.
http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Wealth-Mr-Andrew-Costello/dp/1463523017/ref

[silverstreet]

05:16 PM on 09/15/2011

The cause of poverty is no living wage jobs

[msbeal]

06:37 PM on 09/15/2011

If it weren't for welfare we'd have to find an entirely new system that insures full employment for all, a thought that scares the bejeezus out of rich capitalist.

[randompost]

04:57 PM on 09/15/2011

Government aid was mostly created after the Great Depression, at a time when the elite realized that if things continued as usual the masses would revolt at one point . Another reason was the fear of communism, which at the time was considered as an alternative amongst the poor. After the fall of USSR and its miserable failure that fear dissipated, and the need to keep people happy became irrelevant. With the population effectively divided with no real alternative the road now has been paved for a new world. A world without security.

As Jim Morrison would put it : Like a dog without a Bone and Actor on the Road. Rider on the storm.

[lvogt]

04:57 PM on 09/15/2011

The value of these programs is not just that it a good thing to help each other in tough times but it helps prevent the economy from collapsing by keeping the money flowing thru-out the system. It's good for everyone.

[Peter Combs]

04:53 PM on 09/15/2011

Whats interesting is these reports never mention the Billions we spend each year on Food Stamps, Welfare, Housing Allowances, Clothing Allowances etc...The actual number would be a lot lower if they we're included as well..

Interestngly it was GWB who made the Earned Income Credit avaibale to so many..as well as
•created the 10% income tax bracket;
•raised the standard deduction for couples to double the single amount;
•increased the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000 per child and made it refundable;
•raised the ceiling of the 15-percent bracket to double what it is for singles;

.