This image is some really indepth commentary. Despite the touch of humour, I find myself walking away more informed about the issues.

Free handouts has got to be the most meaningless phrase in politics. It basically means, ‘government spending that I personally do not approve of’. It’s the fiscal equivalent to calling people all people you just plain don’t like ‘fascists’.

Used to refer to homeowner bailouts:
www.foreclosurefish.com/blog/index.php?print=258
Agricultural subsidies:
www.readbangkokpost.com/business/agriculture/chalongphob_on_depoliticising.php
A really stupid discussion involving expanding the civil service (or whatever you yanks call it) on Keynesian principles:
community.aarp.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1977&nav=messages&webtag=rp-issues&tid=44244
(some one should have said ‘The US is mine and it owes me a living, ask me why and I’ll spit in your eye’)
Raising the minimum wage, national health, marketplace interference (another vague term/complaint):
au.answers.yahoo.com/answers2/frontend.php/question?qid=20080206004750AAe9izo
National Health Care:
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080101061932AAqAsoz
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Those are my first few google results for ‘free government handouts’ in quotations and not one has referred to welfare. By coincidence, these are all by righties, but lefties use the same term for corporate relief and so on. I also see the term frequently applied to science grants and public education, disturbingly. And of course, the fucking Space Program, possibly the only time ‘free government hand outs’ is semi-correct, but only if followed by ‘for the biggest masturbation project in human history’.
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So, yeah, welfare barely comes into it.