Check out this email from my FNC colleague Jim Angle:
Senate Budget Committee Republican Analysis of State Spending on Federal Welfare
| Total Federal Spending | Total State Spending | Total Federal and State Spending | |
| FY2008 | $563.413 billion (a) | $235.4 billion (b) | $798.813 billion |
| FY2011 | $745.840 billion (a) | $282.7 billion (c) | $1,028.54 billion |
(a) These figures are from a CRS memo showing total federal spending on federal benefits for low-income assistance programs.
(b) This figure is from Table 21.1 in the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance.
(c) My calculation of FY2011 state spending below.
Calculation of FY2011 State Spending
We know that state Medicaid/CHIP spending in FY2008 was $154.1 billion, which accounted for 65% of total state spending in that year (.654 = 154.1/235.4).
We also know that state Medicaid/CHIP spending in FY2011 was $160.263 billion (Table 6 and 8 of MACPAC table attached).
However, the enhanced Medicaid match (initially included in ARRA) meant that in Q1-Q3 of FY2011 the federal government was picking up a larger portion of total Medicaid spending in FY2011 than they were in FY2008. To be precise, the federal government was picking up about 63% of the total Medicaid bill in FY2011, whereas in FY2008 the feds were only paying 57%.
Adjusting for the enhanced Medicaid match, we can estimate that state spending in absence of the enhanced match would have been about $183.8 billion in FY2011 (using total Medicaid spending from the MACPAC table).
If states spent the same amount on Medicaid/CHIP as a percent of total state spending on low-income assistance programs, FY2011 state spending could be derived by dividing $183.8 billion by .65.
In other words, state spending in FY2011 = $282.7 billion.
CRS Report: Welfare Spending The Largest Item In The Federal Budget
Ranking Member Sessions and the minority staff of the Senate Budget Committee requested from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) an overview of cumulative means-tested federal welfare spending in the United States in the most recent year for which data is available (fiscal year 2011). The results are staggering. CRS identified 83 overlapping federal welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011—more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these 80-plus federal welfare programs amounts to roughly $1.03 trillion. Importantly, these figures solely refer to means-tested welfare benefits. They exclude entitlement programs to which people contribute (e.g., Social Security and Medicare).
CRS estimates that exclusively federal spending on these federal programs equaled approximately $746 billion, and further emphasizes that there is a substantial amount of state spending (mostly obligated) on these same federal programs (primarily Medicaid and CHIP). Based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance, Budget Committee staff calculated at least an additional $283 billion in state contributions to those same federal programs,[1] for a total annual expenditure of $1.03 trillion. By comparison, in 2011, the annual budget expenditure for Social Security was $725 billion, Medicare was $480 billion, and defense was $540 billion.
The exclusively federal share of spending on these federal programs is up 32 percent since 2008, and now comprises 21 percent of federal outlays (this share too is more than Social Security, Medicare, or defense).
Many factors have contributed to the growth in federal welfare spending, causing it to rise during times of both high and low unemployment. Persistently weak GDP growth over the last several years is unquestionably a factor in the record amount of money now being spent. But understanding the growth in federal welfare expenditures must also be understood in the context of a federal policy that has explicitly encouraged growth in welfare enrollment—combined with a weakening of welfare standards and rules. For instance, spending on food stamps—the second-largest federal welfare program—has quadrupled since 2001, yet the USDA has a variety of programs and advertisements whose explicit and unmistakable goal is to expand enrollment to new record highs. This even includes an official partnership with the Mexican government to expand food stamp enrollment among foreign nationals. (USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a letter to Ranking Member Sessions, acknowledged and defended this partnership. Sessions’ response may be read here.) But the agency has also produced materials to train recruitment workers on how to “overcome the word ‘No,’” and in one representative case awarded a local office for “counteracting” a community’s “mountain pride.”
Meanwhile, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security have effectively waived the legal requirement that those seeking admittance into the U.S. not be welfare reliant. More information on this controversial policy may be found here.
A list of all 83 federal welfare programs can be found below:
- Family Planning
- Consolidated Health Centers
- Transitional Cash and Medical Services for Refugees
- State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- Voluntary Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit—Low-Income Subsidy
- Medicaid
- Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
- Breast/Cervical Cancer Early Detection
- Maternal and Child Health Block Grant
- Indian Health Service
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (cash aid)
- Supplemental Security Income
- Additional Child Tax Credit
- Earned Income Tax Credit (refundable component)
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- School Breakfast Program (free/reduced price components)
- National School Lunch Program (free/reduced price components)
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
- Child and Adult Care Food Program (lower income components)
- Summer Food Service Program
- Commodity Supplemental
- Food Program Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico
- The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
- Nutrition Program for the Elderly
- Indian Education
- Adult Basic Education Grants to States
- Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
- Education for the Disadvantaged—Grants to Local Educational Agencies (Title I-A)
- Title I Migrant Education Program
- Higher Education—Institutional Aid and Developing Institutions
- Federal Work-Study
- Federal TRIO Programs
- Federal Pell Grants
- Education for Homeless Children and Youth
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers
- Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR-UP)
- Reading First and Early Reading First
- Rural Education Achievement Program
- Mathematics and Science Partnerships
- Improving Teacher Quality State Grants
- Academic Competitiveness and Smart Grant Program
- Single-Family Rural Housing Loans
- Rural Rental Assistance Program
- Water and Waste Disposal for Rural Communities
- Public Works and Economic Development
- Supportive Housing for the Elderly
- Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities
- Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance
- Community Development Block Grants
- Homeless Assistance Grants
- Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)
- Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)
- Public Housing
- Indian Housing Block Grants
- Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers
- Neighborhood Stabilization Program-1
- Grants to States for Low-Income Housing in Lieu of Low-Income Housing Credit Allocations
- Tax Credit Assistance Program
- Indian Human Services
- Older Americans Act Grants for Supportive Services and Senior Centers
- Older Americans Act Family Caregiver Program
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (social services)
- Child Support Enforcement
- Community Services Block Grant
- Child Care and Development Fund
- Head Start HHS
- Developmental Disabilities Support and Advocacy Grants
- Foster Care
- Adoption Assistance
- Social Services Block Grant
- Chafee Foster Care Independence Program
- Emergency Food and Shelter Program
- Legal Services Corporation
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (employment and training component)
- Community Service Employment for Older Americans
- Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult Activities
- Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Youth Activities
- Social Services and Targeted Assistance for Refugees
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (employment and training)
- Foster Grandparents
- Job Corps
- Weatherization Assistance Program
- Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
