Social Spending vs. Concern for the Poorest Americans

Greg's post does little to ally the concerns some of us have that (as expressed by Eduardo) there has been lacking “a serious governmental commitment to human development among the poorest Americans.”   "Social spending," even as Greg narrows it to include only "welfare, health care and education," does not give us an indication of funds spent to help those living in poverty.  For example, the Hodges chart figures for social programs includes, e.g., pensions for government employees.   Or how much of the funds included for health care reach the poorest among us?  It is hard to even tell from the first link Greg gives us what some of the categories of expenditures mean. These concerns are apart from the fact that even the total figures are hard to pin down.  The Census bureau stats suggest that National Defense is about 20% of government outlays rather than 13%.  So more is necessary to persuade that there is the serious commitment to the human flourishing of the poorest among us.