Civil War pensions

[Darrell]

(09-21-2017 10:26 AM)richard petersen Wrote:  There was an article in the WSJ 9/8/17 on Entitlements by John Coogan of Stanford University.
Mr. Coogan states that in 1873 8000 were receiving Civil War pensions. Eligibility was limited to soldiers who had been injured in battle or widows of those killed.
By 1890 30 years after the war 1 million were getting pensions and the pensions from the war accounted for 40% of all Federal government spending. The original rules were relaxed and the civil war vets were covered if you were disabled or not.
Mr. Coogan states that once granted benefits multiply.

Interesting info. As a comparison, veterans benefits accounted for just 4 percent of the total federal budget in 2014. I assume that, in 1890, there were few (if any) other entitlement programs. However, since the Great Depression, we have seen an explosion in such programs. IIRC, three programs now account for over half of the federal budget (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid).

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/blog/...-veterans/