>What I'm trying to say is that your perspective may be skewed... lots of money is spent on entitlements therefore entitlements are a problem does not follow in my opinion. Because the primary purpose of government is the well-being and comfort of the people governed.
>Too bad the pie charts only report money spent. Money indirectly GIVEN, through tax breaks and such, would be interesting too, particularly if it left (personal) income tax allowable deductions out of the pie. Very very few people get tax holidays/breaks compared to corporations. Just about anything that a corporation might do that an individual canot has some form of tax break somewhere. Let's add all those up and see 'who' it is that is being enriched by them.
>An increase in the minimum wage can't get passed, but tax breaks for oil, energy, crops, livestock, transportation, etc are plentiful and just keep on comin.

Since you think entitlements are the will of the people, here is my own personal example...

My wife and I (and 2 kids) just bought a home 30-some miles south of Dallas that sits on 58 acres of farm/ranch land. The barbed-wire fencing around the perimeter is in fair shape, but the property could use about $20,000 worth of work including fence repair, additional cross-fencing, fertilizing, brush clearing, etc.

So what would be better? Me keeping my hard earned $$$ and paying for it myself, or trying to figure out (which is not difficult) how to get USDA or some other Ag agency to GIVE me the money to pay for this?

This land is rich with wildlife (owls - at least 1 huge barn owl as well, bobcats, raccoons, deer, mallard and wood ducks, etc), is primarily vegetated with native grasses, has 2 creeks, and a large pond.

Being somewhat of an environmental advocate, we are doing what we can to preserve this local environment through these improvements that will protect its wildlife inhabitants, the quality of the 2 creeks, vegetation, etc. We plan to enhance the pond as well so it maintains water better through the summer. [oops, is that a drop of blood I see leaking from my central chest area. gotta get that fixed real quick].

BTW, it also appears that this area is on some kind of migration path for Monarch butterflies. We saw hundreds among all the milkweed plants this fall along with their caterpillars. I always thought the egg-laying was done in the Spring, but we saw their beautiful, striped caterpillars for ourselves.

By all "entitlement rights" and since I am "doing the right thing" instead of exploiting this property, the gov't should fork over the dough. Right?

So you see, I am not the right-wing ,radical extremist many think I am. I just think the gov't should stop impeding us with their oppressive tax structure, regulations, etc. I would even settle for a dollar-for-dollar tax CREDIT for the kind of work I would like to put into this land. But then we would be the ones deciding how best to spend our money instead of letting the omniscient, omnipresent gov't squander it for us.