Real News:' Where Are We Now With the Welfare State?

The Senate Budget Committee Republican staff has released a new report revealing that welfare was the single largest budget item in FY 2011, costing the US approximately $1.03 Trillion dollars. Federal welfare spending alone reached $745.84 Billion in 2011, an increase of 34% over the past 4 years. Welfare spending appears to have not correlated with a decrease in the number of Americans unemployed or in poverty during the Obama administration, and there has been a growing call from conservatives for some time arguing that President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs have not accomplished their goals if not had a negative impact on society.

Questioning of America's welfare spending becomes more pressing when observing a new Treasury Department summary on Federal Spending in 2012 that shows that for every 7 dollars the federal government takes in, it spends nearly $11.

On 'Real News' Thursday the panel discussed these new reports and whether the current welfare system is functioning as it was intended to, and given the curent financial disaster that the nation could be heading toward, could this be the time a Republican administration is able to will the support necessary to institute substantial welfare reforms: