Alignment with Original Intent and Policy Recommendations

Franklin D. Roosevelt envisioned New Deal programs like those under the Social Security Act to foster domestic employment and infrastructure, ensuring public spending recirculated within U.S. communities. He did not intend these programs to enrich multinational corporations through exclusive contracts and offshore sourcing. Modern implementations deviate from the origianl design by allowing 50-60% of WIC formula and Medicaid materials to originate abroad, undermining job generation in agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, which comprise only 23% of GDP. To realign, programs should mandate U.S.-sourced procurement thresholds, prioritizing raw materials and labor to generate sustainable infrastructure and employment, thereby transforming taxpayer burdens into national economic multipliers

Corporate Profiteering in U.S. Social Welfare Programs

The attached document comprises an extensive analytical dialogue examining how major U.S. corporations derive substantial revenue from federal social welfare programs, including SNAP, WIC, Medicaid, and Head Start, while highlighting inefficiencies in domestic economic recirculation and corporate tax advantages. This analysis reveals that retailers like Walmart capture 3-4.5% of their U.S. revenue from nutrition assistance, infant formula producers like Abbott Laboratories and Reckitt Benckiser derive 40-50% of their U.S. formula sales from WIC subsidies, and health insurers such as UnitedHealth Group and Centene manage over $400 billion annually in Medicaid funds with an aggregate profits of $40-45 billion. The discussion extends to macroeconomic breakdowns, showing that only 15-20% of retail prices in these sectors reflect U.S.-sourced raw materials, with much of the taxpayer-funded spending leaking abroad through imports and shareholder distributions.​

Comparative International Spending Burdens

U.S. per capita health spending exceeds $12,000 annually, roughly double the OECD average of around $6,000, encompassing both public programs like Medicaid and Medicare and private insurance, while social expenditure on programs including food and housing assistance totals about 20% of GDP—higher than many peers when adjusted for private contributions. For economically equivalent countries like Germany or Canada, combined per capita outlays on health, nutrition, and shelter support hover at $5,000-7,000, with more efficient public systems reducing administrative overhead to 3-5% versus the U.S.'s 8-10%, leading to twice the spending without proportionally better outcomes in life expectancy or preventive care. This disparity positions American taxpayers as the primary bearers, funding a system where corporate intermediaries capture significant value without equivalent domestic job or infrastructure gains.​

Economic Leakage and Domestic Retention

Taxpayer dollars funneled through social programs often fail to maximize U.S. economic benefits, as evidenced by breakdowns where only 6-7 cents of every WIC-funded dollar for formula returns to domestic raw material suppliers, and Medicaid provider spending retains about 50% U.S.-origin materials including assembly but drops to 22% for raw inputs alone. Historical and current GDP compositions underscore this, with U.S. services dominating at 69% while raw materials and manufacturing contribute just 23%, and imports offsetting 13% of output through foreign sourcing in sectors like pharmaceuticals and consumer goods. Programs like SNAP and WIC sustain corporate models reliant on low-wage labor supplemented by $2.5-2.6 billion in annual public assistance to Walmart employees, representing 15-20% of their income and subsidizing employer costs indirectly.​

Efficiency Gains from Program Restructuring

Removing corporate providers and insurers from welfare administration could enhance service value per dollar by minimizing 8-10% administrative costs and 2-3% profit margins currently siphoned by entities like UnitedHealth Group, potentially redirecting $300-400 billion annually toward direct care and reducing overall expenditures. Such reforms align with reducing reliance on imported materials (85% in some product lines) and imported active ingredients in pharmaceuticals (70-80%), boosting domestic retention from current lows of 40-50% to near 90% as seen in service-heavy Medicaid flows. This would decrease costs for equivalent or improved services, countering the current model where federal subsidies enable corporate scale but limit U.S. job creation in primary sectors.​