The welfare state is way too big when I pay for your baby's birth

We hear about the explosion of food stamps or the numbers of people on government assistance.

Before I get a bunch of insulting email that I don't care about poor people, let me tell you a couple of things:

Our family landed in the US without a penny.  Yes, I mean zero - like, nothing.

Upon landing in the US, our family was assisted by a church, individuals and lots of smiling faces who opened doors unconditionally.  We never expected the US government to give us anything.  Americans gave us freedom and that's what my parents were looking for.  

My parents were not in a "maternity mode" but they would have never expected to have the US government pay for their babies. In fact, I remember my uncle showing my dad a private health insurance policy and telling him to get one.  It was one of the "USA-101" moments that so many of us went through.

Forward to today.  This is where we are:

"According to researchers from the George Washington University (GWU) School of Public Health, in 2010, almost half of all births in the United States were paid for by Medicaid, and that rate is only going to go up. Medicaid was responsible for 48% of the 3.8 million births in 2010, an increase of 90,000 births from 2008, which was an 8% increase during that period."

At what point is the welfare state a bit too big for our own good as a nation?  Where is the line between helping people and creating dependency?

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