By Jim Meyers

The expansion of benefit programs since 2000 has led to the greatest increase in social spending in American history – with entitlement programs now accounting for more than half of all federal spending.

A USA Today analysis released Tuesday of 25 major government programs – including health care, college aid and food stamps – revealed that enrollment surged an average of 17 percent from 2000 to 2005, while the nation’s population increased by only 5 percent.

It marked the largest five-year growth in enrollment since Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs were created during Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” movement in the 1960s.

Spending on social programs was $1.3 trillion last year, an inflation-adjusted increase of 22 percent since 2000, according to the USA Today report.

Enrollment growth accounted for most of the spending increase:

-Medicaid added 18 million beneficiaries – a 50 percent increase since 2000 – and is now the nation’s largest entitlement program, costing the federal government $198 billion last year. Once a program for Americans on welfare, Medicaid has been expanded to include the working poor and now has an enrollment of 53.4 million.

-The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose 49.6 percent in the past five years and now stands at 25.7 million. Expanded eligibility led to much of the increase and helped put the 2005 tab at $33 billion.

-The number of college students receiving Pell grants increased 41 percent over five years, to 5.3 million. The program cost $13 billion in 2005.

-The five-year period also saw enrollment increases in child nutrition programs, unemployment compensation, veterans benefits and other programs.

The worse may be yet to come: The nation’s 79 million baby boomers will begin to qualify for Social Security in 2008, and for Medicare in 2011.

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Most of the time, I blame the liberal left for most of the problems in America. However, everyone in Congress and President Bush is certainly responsible for our growing deficit and our position when it comes to entitlement funding.

I blame every Congressman and Presidents Clinton and Bush for the outrageous welfare spending at the federal level. Not only do we have a massive deficit that the taxpayers will be unable to even get to a managed and/or comfortable level with for at least 30 years, we have so-called entitlement welfare programs that make up half the federal budget!

If Congressional Republicans would like to see our country on the road to conservative values and personal responsibility as we once were, they must end the entitlement mindset of this country, not only in the elderly who depend on Social Security and Medicare, but in the middle and lower class who shouldn’t even have these benefits in the first place.

Many people demand these programs of their respresentatives because of a mindset that government “owes me something” or always blaming someone else for their problems, instead of taking the responsibility to fix problems themselves. We must end that ”blame someone else first” mindset if we are ever to get the federal budget under control and end the coming United Welfare States of America.