

Where your money goes - mathattack
http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2012/02/where-your-money-goes.html

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rauljara
"The main function of our government is to write checks to middle-class and
wealthy voters."

Unless I'm reading those graphs wrong (pretty sure I'm not), even though a
smaller share of entitlement checks are going to the very poor, a majority of
entitlement spending is going to the bottom two fifths, and a plurality to the
bottom fifth. Which doesn't sound like "middle-class and wealthy voters" to
me.*

That quote seems to be the basis of the entire rest of the post. Starting off
with a false premise is not a good way to build a case.

*yes, some of the people in the second fifth are middle-ish income. But someone who is in the second fifth, but closer to the first is still pretty poor.

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anamax
> Unless I'm reading those graphs wrong (pretty sure I'm not),

Unless the graphs show "overhead and expenses", you are.

Govt spending on the poor supports a large number of middle-class
administrators and the like who get a huge fraction of the money.

Never confuse inputs with outputs.

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rauljara
Hate to be that guy, but citation needed.

I don't know about all of the entitlement programs, but according to the AMA+,
the official cost of medicare overhead was 3.1% in 2005. Which does not sound
like a "huge fraction" to me.

I don't know about other entitlement programs. I am always open to evidence.

\+
[http://healthcarereform.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourc...](http://healthcarereform.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004083)

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Tichy
Somehow that chart strikes me as dishonest. They should show more details
about the entitlements. It's always easy to create a chart that compares
something specific with "everything else" so that "everything else" looks
extremely large.

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yummyfajitas
This site gives more details:

<http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/piechart_2010_US_total>

"Entitlements" probably just means SS and medicare.

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afsina
I wonder if the graphic is normalized for inflation

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patio11
Yes, that is what "in today's dollars" means.

