Aging population, spending on health costs boost debt, By Maureen Groppe, September 14, 2010, Newark Advocate: ” It’s not difficult to find someone getting a boost from the federal government. They might be sitting across from you at breakfast. Almost half the country lived in households in which at least one person benefited from a federal social welfare or social insurance program in 2008. Some were helped by programs such as food stamps, for which demand increases when the economy sinks. But the Census Bureau said the programs benefiting the most households were Social Security and Medicare, the retirement and health programs for the elderly. Those programs, along with Medicaid, have grown in 40 years from 19 percent of the budget to 39 percent in 2009, more than doubling their share. Costs are going to keep increasing as more baby boomers retire and health care costs continue to increase…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty