If the Republican primaries are any indication, one big debate in the upcoming election will be whether President Obama is pushing the country toward a European-style welfare culture.

While it’s true that the country has been headed in this direction for many years — with the explosion in entitlements since the 1960s and the aging of the population — Obama has, in fact, greatly accelerated the trend.

According to the Census Bureau 49% now live in homes where at least one person gets a federal benefit — Social Security, workers comp, unemployment, subsidized housing, and the like. … That’s up from 44% the year before Obama took office, and way up from 1983, when fewer than a third were government beneficiaries.

This year, more than 46 million (15% of all Americans) will get food stamps. … That’s 45% higher than when Obama took office, and twice as high as the average for the previous 40 years.

  food stamp rolls soar under Obama, Welfare