It’s no secret that more Americans are dependent on government than ever before. The Heritage Foundation released its 2012 Index of Dependence on Government. The results emphasize our slide toward a European welfare nation. Here are some of the highlights …

• One in five Americans—the highest in the nation’s history—relies on the federal government for everything from housing, health care, and food stamps to college tuition and retirement assistance. That’s more than 67.3 million Americans who receive subsidies from Washington.

• Government dependency jumped 8.1 percent in the past year, with the most assistance going toward housing, health and welfare, and retirement.

• The federal government spent more taxpayer dollars than ever before in 2011 to subsidize Americans. The average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, more than the nation’s average disposable personal income ($32,446).

• At the same time, nearly half of the U.S. population (49.5 percent) does not pay any federal income taxes.

• In the next 25 years, more than 77 million baby boomers will retire. They will begin collecting checks from Social Security, drawing benefits from Medicare, and relying on Medicaid for long-term care.

• As of now, 70 percent of the federal government’s budget goes to individual assistance programs, up dramatically in just the past few years. However, research shows that private, community, and charitable aid helps individuals rise from their difficulties with better success than federal government handouts. Plus, local and private aid is often more effectively distributed.

American dependency on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under our Dear Ruler. This represents the biggest two-year jump since Jimmy Carter was president. (Remember those wonderful years?) And this dependency will continue to rise as long as Democrats are in control. Is this the kind of America you want? Do you really want to live in a country where the average moocher has more disposable income available to them then an upper middle class working American? Do you want to live in a country were more people depend on the government for their existence … where they use the force of government to stake a claim on a portion of your life? Moocher class dependency is a lien on the life of every productive American who is self-sufficient. If that’s the America you want, then keep voting for these Democrats. Slap an Obama 2012 bumper sticker on your car .. right next to your “My child is an honor student at their government school” bumper sticker.

Even the most basic of parasitic creatures understand that their survival depends on the survival of the host they leach off of … apparently the moochers in America don’t understand that they could soon render their host, productive Americans, incapable of sustaining their parasitic behavior for much longer. Once we reach that point, then what?