Entitlements Rise as Americans Paying Taxes Decrease

by Ashley Muchow Two trends have taken off in recent years—a rising number of entitlement recipients and a drop in the number of Americans paying taxes.  Both highlight the unfortunate drift towards mounting wealth redistribution and big government. Sara Murray fleshed out these two trends in today’s WSJ. Government data [doesn’t] show how many of the households...

by Ashley Muchow

Two trends have taken off in recent years—a rising number of entitlement recipients and a drop in the number of Americans paying taxes.  Both highlight the unfortunate drift towards mounting wealth redistribution and big government.

Sara Murray fleshed out these two trends in today’s WSJ.

Government data [doesn’t] show how many of the households receiving government benefits also escape federal taxes.  But there is certainly some overlap between the two groups, since many benefits are aimed at those earning too little to pay income taxes and at people who don’t have jobs, and who thus don’t pay payroll taxes.

45% of American households do not pay federal income taxes.
44% of households receive government benefits.

These numbers simply don’t add up; even considering their fuzziness and raw unsustainability, we have seen upward trends in both.

Just five years ago, 39% of American households were not being taxed or taking enough tax credits and deductions to offset their total liabilities.  The percentage now stands at nearly half of all American households.

In the 1980s, approximately 30% of Americans lived in households in which an individual was receiving some form of government-provided benefit.

A solution must come soon, but the inescapable repercussions apparently don’t serve as enough motivation as reform keeps getting pushed aside.

Cutting spending on these “entitlements” is widely seen as an inevitable ingredient in any credible deficit-reduction program. Yet despite occasional bouts of belt-tightening in Washington and bursts of discussion about restraining big government, the trend toward more Americans receiving government benefits of one sort or another has continued for more than 70 years—and shows no sign of abating.