The Importance Of Social Programs In Washington

Today as we watch our federal debt grow by the second, we realize there is no real plan by Washington politicians to begin addressing the problem. One main driving factor in our nation's debt is the federal government's social programs that have done nothing but grow since being introduced in the 1930s. The per-capita spending on social programs has risen significantly since 1962. According to the Heritage foundation the per-capita spending on social programs have increased 1,031% from 1962 to 2011. During the same years the growth rate of the United States population increased 1.1% compared to the annual increase in social programs was 5.1% (Muhlhausen). This contrast in population growth compared to social program growth is leading to a bloated
The political arena is in a full blown frenzy to see which politician can out promise the other. On one side of the arena you have a party that will promise to grow every social program on the books and add an extra two or three for good measure because there isn't enough badly run government agencies in Washington today. Then on the other side of the arena you have a party that promises to manipulate the programs we have in place where they will still work but more cost effective. Unfortunately that leaves out any chance for any real change to get rid of the programs that either do not work at all or actually reform the programs that do work and try and make them more practical in size. This roller coaster ride we go on every election cycle is carrying us further into debt because politicians are too scared to address the spending problem we have on social programs. Today's politician are different than the founder's had envisioned for the United States. The founders entrusted this nation with the citizens to serve their country as politicians and then return to their lives as before. The reasoning behind this was to keep politicians from