In a recent editorial, Merrill Matthews reminds us that America has now passed the entitlements tipping point. As you might have guessed, Obamacare is what has pushed the United States over the tipping point. Nearly 7 million Americans who have signed up for Obamacare receive taxpayer-provided subsidies, and another 3 million have signed up for Medicaid. This brings the total of 161 million Americans who are now getting government subsidies of some kind.

In the past there have been politicians complaining that we have too many people in the wagon and too few people pulling the wagon. You even had a presidential candidate lament that too many American are “takers.” Let’s reject some of those stereotypes.

Many of the people receiving government aid deserve it. For example, 42 million seniors are receiving Social Security and Medicare. Merrill Matthew says: “They aren’t getting something for free; they faithfully paid into the system for decades with the expectation that they would be getting it back at retirement.” Of course we can add to this those who receive benefits because of their service in the military or other parts of the government.

My point in raising this issue is not to begrudge those who deserve to receive benefits but to look at the larger issue. More than half (52 percent) of households receive benefits from the government. When a majority receive benefits from government, it will be even harder (perhaps impossible) to reduce spending and balance a budget. Benjamin Franklin warned that: “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Let’s hope not.

Certainly some people can look past their needs to the needs of the country. I have had people call my radio program who receive Social Security or other government payments who have said they would be willing to sacrifice something if it would help future Americans. But I suspect they are few in number.

It will be even harder to control government spending when a majority of Americans depend on government spending.