The conservative Republican businessman and former presidential candidate opines: "Medicaid and Medicare had a gross combined enrollment of 119,249,000 in 2011. At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that 112,556,000 people worked full-time in the United States in 2011, including 17,806,000 who worked for all levels of government and 94,750,000 who worked for the private sector."
Mr. Cain continues his commentary about the growth of Big Government: "Who do you think pays for the benefits enjoyed by Medicare and Medicaid recipients? Private-sector workers, of course. Now of course, government workers pay taxes too. But where do you think the money comes from to the pay the salaries of government workers at every level of government? From private-sector workers! Without private-sector workers first paying taxes, there would be no government salaries from which to withhold taxes.
The bottom line is that private-sector producers ultimately must generate all the wealth that’s needed to support government at every level. We already know that the federal government is spending 25 percent of the nation’s entire $14 trillion economy, but when you include state, county and local governments, then add in local school districts all across the country, government is actually spending more than 40 percent of GDP."
More: "President Obama likes to say that we have such a large deficit because
the rich don’t pay enough taxes. No. The reason we have such a large
deficit is that there are not enough people producing in the
private-sector to pay for the size of government, and one of the biggest
costs in government is the health care benefits we’re paying to 119
million people – more than a third of the entire population. It’s true
that many of the current recipients have paid into the system during
their lives, some for many years. But the bottom line remains that such a
system is unsustainable."
Herman Cain: "More Americans Are Now Getting Government Health Care Than Are Working. This Is Unsustainable"
