1) Starting with the most nitpicky point, "In 2011, about 49 percent of the population lived in a household where at least one member received a direct benefit from the federal government." Last I looked, 49% is not a majority.

I can be as nit picky as you are {g}. 2011 is not 2014 - I assume that with 3 more years of progressives in control of the federal government, that percentage has increased.

2) Reading on, those numbers include Medicare and Social Security. Surely, you're not counting those programs into which people pay over a lifetime and receive benefits in old age as "government assistance," right?

Your children will pay into these programs over a lifetime and not receive one penny in benefits. Yes. I do include Medicare and Social Security recipients - with today's life expectancies, I bet that most people wind up taking way more out of the system than they ever put in. I can give you just one example. My uncle worked for the IRS until he retired in 1983. He collected his government pension until he died in 2003. My aunt, who is now 96, is still collecting his government pension. So, in a way, everyone who is a government employee receives a direct benefit from the government {s}.