Morality

[Ironside]

More people are on food stamps then ever before, and President Obama has spent more money in his terms in office then the rest of the Presidents combined, or darned near close to it.

That is because of the economic crisis. Obama ran with the lowest taxes in 60 years 2008 and 2009 (yes seriously), as a part of the stimulus package, that was voted in during Bush (IIRC Obama approved though).

I'll leave this link here. For those interested, St. Louis Fed (FRED) got a really good graph system for stuff like this.

Short version. The big expenses are pensions (I'm sure you've heard the Republicans calling for cutting that one) and the spiraling medical costs, with Medicare (old people) being larger than Medicaid (poor people). The goverment costs for medicin is about 45% of your total medical costs, and is comparable to the average western NHS system in percentage of GDP. I'm sure that touching this one and talking about medical cost reforms will be met with a calm, understanding debate.

Mostly, it's the people above 65 (medicare covers disabled people as well, so it's not only retirees), that cost about 40% of your total budget (2013 numbers). Lazy people indeed. Add military at about 18%. Food stamps are about 2% (indeed record high) and lingers at its crisis level, even if unemplyment has gone down.

Just a point, our "poverty level" is not poverty.

Being poor in the US is being objectivly poorer than being poor in several countries that has less GDP/capita.