Total Welfare Spending Is Rising Despite Attempts at Reform
Total means-tested welfare spending (cash, food, housing, medical care, and social services to the poor) has increased more than 17-fold since the beginning of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in 1964. Though the current trend is unsustainable, the Obama Administration would increase future welfare spending rather than enact true policy reforms.
INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS (2011)
Source: Heritage Foundation calculations based on data from current and previous White House Office of Management and Budget documents and other official government sources.