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Read the rest of the Bible where it tells us, as believers to care for the needy ourselves. Never does God put that responsibility on government, and no government every took it upon itself until the 20th century when government all began building toward that time when there would be only one worldwide. The way to build consensus among the populous worldwide that this is acceptable is both by force (there are enough weapons in the world to accomplish the level required0 and dependence (through social welfare). None of these are God's ideas. He will allow them however in order to bring His order back to the world, in judgment.
I can do that without routing my tax money through the government, where it is wasted, lost and comes out the other end of the system at only 30% of the amount that went in. The government is eating that other 70% to feed itself. We could use that money in the church to take care of the poor without the bureaucratic avarice involved.
I agree we have far too many pork barrel projects. And I agree the govt wastes more money that it utilizes well. But the food stamp program is almost 95% efficient. The medicaid program saves thousands of lives/yr. HUD, while often abused, actually has about an 80-85% effeciency rate. Not bad for a govt program when only 15% of the users are using it without proper eligibility.
It's never been that efficient and never will be. The government has claimed that of the total costs of the program were only 13.4% of benefits distributed, but that number failed to factor in the cost of field investigations of fraud, which totaled nearly $50 billion in 2011. Here's how Food Stamps (now known as SNAP) have expanded:
No offense, but that's not even close. For one thing, it only covers 45% of the people who are technically eligible, which more than double the on-paper administrative costs, which are figured based on eligible clients, not actually enrollees. Also, Medicaid is rejected by more than 50% of the doctors and hospitals that technically should be accepting it because the approved payment levels on all but the most basic procedures fall woefully short of the actual cost of providing those procedures.
You misunderstood my initial point. Overall, the entitlement programs consume 70% of their budget in administrative costs, with only 30% actually reaching the "consumer." Medicaid and food stamps may be better overall than the other programs, but their administrative costs are completely unreliable, fabricated as they are to reflect a "best-case scenario" rather than actually reflecting total costs.
Two-point-2 million may sound huge, but compared to the waste, fraud and utter disregard for fiscal responsibility in the federal government, it was nothing. Literally. We spend $2.2 million every 19 seconds of every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
oh well, the republican house didn't pass last years farm bill so not only food stamps are effected but also farmers facing drought and wildfires.
2010 list:
Republicans will let the rich have tax cuts and the poor go hungry. Anti-Christ policies is my opinion about the GOP House.
Show me where Mr. Gilbert or, more importantly, Jesus, said to do that through the government?
Show me where Jesus states that it is against God's will to give to the poor, whether it be via an individual, a congregation, or a government??? God never has anything against the giving to the poor, no matter who or what the source is.
