RUSH: Now, there’s a story that’s been digested, written in a number of places, first from the Heritage Foundation: “Dependence on Government at an All-Time High.” It’s from the Heritage Foundation. Actually, this is a companion piece to a CNN story from earlier in the week about how one-third of Americans are on means-tested government programs. “The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government, released today, should be a wake-up call for America. Published by The Heritage Foundation for the past 10 years, the Index tracks the growth in government dependence dating back to the early 1960s. This yearÂ’s edition shows an alarming trend,” with some incredible facts about dependence on government at an all-time high.

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RUSH: That’s right, my friends, according to the Heritage Foundation, dependency is up 7.5% past two years under Obama. And you have to ask, “How can that be? We have millions of jobs being created out there!” The administration is going to project, for 2012, a net addition of two million jobs (2.2 million jobs in the last 12 months); 3.7 million added in 20 months. Net jobs. That’s what they’re putting out there! The regime is telling us they’ve created 3.7 million jobs since they took office, with their stimulus bill. And yet government dependence is up higher than ever, according to the Heritage Foundation:

“One in five Americans — the highest in the nation’s history [20%] — relies on the federal government for everything from housing, health care, and food stamps to college tuition and retirement assistance.” To put that 20% in perspective, “That’s more than 67.3 million Americans who receive subsidies from Washington,” and how do you think they vote and for whom do you think they vote? Twenty percent totally supported by the federal government. “Government dependency jumped 8.1% in the past year, with the most assistance going toward housing, health and welfare, and retirement.” Retirement!

“The federal government spent more taxpayer dollars than ever before in 2011 to subsidize Americans. The average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, more than the nation’s average disposable personal income ($32,446).” No wonder so many people are leaving the workforce. Why work when you can get this? “At the same time, nearly half of the US population (49.5%) does not pay any federal income taxes,”
and none of this is accidental. None of this is coincidence. This has all been part of a grand design. It actually started back days of Woodrow Wilson, but was really given a kick-start by FDR.

“As of now,” according to the Heritage Foundation which tracks this, documents it, keeps the data, it is inarguable: “70 percent of the federal government’s budget goes to individual assistance programs,” and you hear from the regime about all the money we’re “wasting on wars. ” And you hear it from Ron Paul. (impression) “We got too many waaaaars! We’ve gotta stop all the waaaars!” And yet, “70% of the federal government’s budget goes to individual assistance programs, up dramatically in just the past few years.” That’s… Not only is that astonishing, it is unsustainable! Now, here’s the CNN report that I referenced. It’s from earlier this week.

It’s posted at CNN under a section called “The New American Dream.” That’s what the title is! It’s a story on means-based assistance from the government, and the number is 33%. “One-third of Americans get means-based assistance,” and that is reported by CNN under the title, “The New American Dream.” Did you ever think you would see the day when more than a third of Americans were dependent on the so-called social safety net and 20% live entirely on government subsidy? Twenty percent! One out of five, two out of ten (however you can best visualize this), live entirely off the government. “The federal government sent out a record,” get this, “$2 trillion to individuals in fiscal 2010, up nearly 75% from 10 years earlier.”

Not only is that shocking, it’s “unsustainable,” to use the favorite word of the left.

“The federal government sent a record $2 trillion to individuals in fiscal 2010…” More than a third of Americans are dependent on the so-called social safety net, and that $2 trillion is up 75% from what it was when Bush took office in 2001. This article is unusual, the CNN story, because it distinguishes between those on “means-based” government assistance and those on Social Security and Medicare — which, after all, are supposed to be programs that we paid into. So this is entirely above and beyond Social Security and Medicare. Usually the media does its best to blur the line between the two kinds of government payouts, but this CNN story’s remarkable because they separate them.

And you know the number is still going up. even though “the Great Recession officially ended back in June of 2009,” they’ve been they’re telling us (more than 2-1/2 years ago, folks, the recession ended), the elections are still nine months away. The regime wants to get as many people as possible dependent on government before then. And they are doing a bang-up job. Grab audio sound bite 25. I’m gonna take you back. This was in Fort Myers; it wasn’t in Tampa. It was February 10th, not even a month after Obama had been immaculated. He goes out and does a town hall in Fort Myers, Florida; a member of the audience Henrietta Hughes stood up and said this to the Bamster…

HUGHES: I respect you and I’m so grateful for you.

OBAMA: Thank you.

HUGHES: Been praying for you. But —

OBAMA: I believe in prayer, so I appreciate that.

HUGHES: I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and place to live in, we it need urgent, and housing authority have two years waiting lists and we need something more than a vehicle and parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help.

OBAMA: Well, I — listen, I — what’s your name? What’s your name?

HUGHES: It’s Henrietta Hughes.

OBAMA: Okay, Ms. Hughes. Well, we — we — we’re going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you. We’re going to do everything we can, all right? But the, uh, I’ll have my staff talk to you after this, uh, after the — the town hall, all right?

RUSH: “I have an urgent need. I’m unemployed and I don’t have a home.” It turns out she did have a home at the time she mentioned this, and later on a couple of Republicans gave her the use of a vacation home that they had. This woman was not homeless. She just said she was. But she needed a new home. She needed a new vehicle. She wanted her own new kitchen and her own bathroom. The president of the United States shows up for a town hall meeting and a citizen shows up, and that’s what she thinks the purpose of it is. And even if she didn’t think it’s the purpose, she thought she could run the scam. Anyway, that’s the kind of person, and they run throughout our culture and society.

And the number of people who have become dependent is not accidental. This is why… Folks, this is why I maintain and have forever that the entire welfare system in this country — the social safety net, whatever you want to call it — is destroying people. It’s robbing them of their dignity. It’s robbing them of their humanity. It’s robbing them of their potential. There’s nothing compassionate about this. There is nothing compassionate about 20% of this country’s population being entirely subsidized by the federal government, because the lives that they’re living? Yeah, it’s $32,000 and it’s tax-free, and that’s not bad. But that’s as good as they’re ever going to do.

They’re not being trained, educated, motivated, or inspired to do any better than that. And what’s worse, they ended up, in their dependent state, voting. The only thing they care about is who the hell’s gonna keep this gravy train going. They don’t care about anything else. Foreign policy, domestic policy, the circumstances happening to the country because of their dependence, they don’t care about any of that. When you’ve got one source basically to stay alive, that’s all you’re gonna care about. And if that source isn’t you, your life’s destroyed. You’re over. You are in prison. You are forever shackled, in this case to a state that doesn’t care about you individually. It couldn’t care less about you — except one day every four years, and that’s it.

They go out of their way to make you think that they have you in their minds each and every day, but this is just… The idea that this is compassion and that liberals love people and care for people better than anybody else, and we conservatives who look at this and find it abhorrent are the mean-spirited extremists, the cold-hearted bigots? This is absurd! An entire segment of our population is being rendered irrelevant. Their lives are being destroyed. Their humanity is being taken away. Their dignity done away with — all for the sake of the continuation and expansion of power of the Democrat Party and the state. It just makes me sick. And it infuriates me at the same time.