How much does the United States really spend to help people?

From PoliticsUSA

by Ray Medeiros

This report from the OECD and The Business Insider, could not have come at a more crucial time in our national debate regarding the federal budget and the course the Republicans have chosen to take.

The conservative pundits are trying to frame this debate along the lines that the deficit and debt of the United States was created by the liberal, nanny state programs. This is an outright lie they have drummed into the heads of the American people. Unfortunately, some of the pundits are trusted sources of information for millions of people.

The United States currently ranks thirty-fourth(34th) out of the thirty-four(34) members of the OECD in regards to spending on social programs, DEAD LAST.

The amount the United States spends is currently only 7.2% of our gross domestic product on programs that make up our social contract with the American people.

Remember a year ago when the conservative deficit hawks were warning that if the United States doesn’t start looking at our social programs we would end up like Greece?

They told us the reason Greece was in financial trouble was due to their social programs and if we, the United States didn’t want to become like Greece, we needed to cut back on our social expenditures. Well Greece spends 21.3% on social programs, 14.1% more than the United States does. That is a big difference!

Canada currently spends 26% of their GDP on social programs, yet their national debt is very small compared to the United States, it is about 50% of GDP. So is spending on social programs the real problem in America? According to these figures and data, the answer is no. It is a fabricated lie by those who seek to abolish the social contract and the new deal created almost 100 years ago.

Here is other comparisons between the USA and Germany. Currently Germany spends 21% of their GDP on social programs.

Population below 50% of median income

USA: 17%
GER: 8.4%

Child poverty

USA: 22.4%
GER: 10.7%

Infant mortality rate

USA: 7.8
GER: 5.4

Homicide rate

USA: 5%
GER: 0.86%

Life expectancy

USA: 78.3
GER: 79.4

White people:

USA: 65.4%
GER: 81% (not as much difference as I thought)

Unemployment rate

USA: 8.8%
GER: 6.3%

Exports per capita

USA: $3,375
GER: $14,169

Industrial sector as part of GDP

USA: 21.9%
GER: 26.8%

Industrial growth

USA: 3%
GER: 9%

There needs to be a real, non political discussion regarding our national debt. If spending on social programs isn’t the problem, it is either a spending problem in other government areas or it is primarily a revenue problem. Unfortunately our politicians do not look at this issue as non-political. At least we know now that the current budget put forward by the Republicans is really an ideological budget rather than a problem solving budget.

The bottom line is our social safety net is not part of the overall spending problem and that needs to be part of the debate and told to the American public

http://www.politicususa.com/en/u-s-ranks-dead-last-in-overall-social-spending