About twenty minutes before the end of the Rush Limbaugh show today, a 35-year-old caller (who had begun the call by asking why Republicans weren't trying to cut government) "pointed out" that only twenty-eight cents of every tax dollar spent on welfare actually reaches a welfare recipient. The two agreed that if a charity advertised that twenty-eight cents of every dollar it collected was actually spent on its publicized cause, no one would contribute. Rush then stated that this was a colossal waste of money, because dollars ostensibly intended to fight poverty vanished into thin air.

First, the caller's facts are off. Thirty-seven cents of each welfare dollar reach recipients.

Second, and more important, the idea that the sixty-three cents in administration costs are wasted is just ludicrous. It's not as if the sixty-three cents just vanishes and represents lost wealth. The money is paid to government employees. These employees pay taxes, partly funding even more money going to recipients. The employees spend the rest of the money on food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, and transportation; this provides jobs to other people, keeping them off welfare, which saves welfare dollars. These other people then pay taxes, contributing yet more dollars to the welfare pool.

Most obvious of all, though, if Rush weren't too stupid to realize it, is that the welfare administrators themselves are kept off welfare by having these government jobs. Would you rather just give them the money for nothing, or make them actually work for the money? At least by shuffling papers around, they're being productive members of society.