Benefits Shifting to Middle Class
The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits…The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year.
More on the government’s safety net in The New York Times.
Public choice theory suggests smart politicians will want to target most of the tax subsidies on the large number of people who vote. The only reason to spend taxes on small segments of society is only if the large block of voters has an interest in a small segment (like the poor).
I imagine that this puts us one step closer to becoming a welfare state.