Half of U.S. households get government payouts

by NW Spotlight

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that half of the U.S. lives in a household where at least one member receives some type of government benefit (food stamps, Medicaid, unemployment, Social Security, Medicare).

The WSJ article goes on to note “The more people who receive benefits, the harder it’s going to be to make cuts, and it’s never popular to raise taxes. In some respects that argues for letting a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that is set to automatically hit in 2013 take effect. There’s just one problem: the Congressional Budget Office says it would sink the economy into recession.”

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