Take it from a Canadian who pays 39% tax every year and gets raped in the ass by people who don't work and collect welfare based on my hard work.
The reason America was a great nation to begin with was because there were no handouts given. Do you think George Washington saw poor people and thought, hmmm I should give all my cash away to them so that they can live? Hell no, people who messed around and didn't work got what they deserved, pain suffering and eventually death. Was that a bad thing? No it wasn't, it's not like America all of a sudden died out because of lack of people. Instead it spurred everyone on to work hard and do great things. That is one of the main reasons the US became the top nation in the world in less than 150 years. Everyone will bust their hump if they need to so that their kids can eat, American or otherwise. Frankly, healthcare, medicare and welfare (all of which Canada has) are very socialist and right next to communist. For all of the younger kids, the US fought wars to make sure communism didn't get to America and now it pervades society as all the lazy good for nothing punks think that they deserve to be fed by the government "just because". The Soviets did that for 70 years and guess what, Russia is still and will continue to pay the price for an unknown amount of time. It is like spitting on the Vietnam monument in Washington except worse as those who died are rolling in their graves. And it is only going to get worse. Canada has a system in which it taxes the shit out of the rich and the middle class in order to pay for all the social programs (and we are still in massive debt! Not to the crazy extent of America, but still surprisingly in debt) whereas the US continues to add unwanted/ poorly thought out government programs without any plan to increase income. It used to be that poor people relied on the charity of others, not the government. And if someone says people wouldn't survive on charity alone, then good. If I want to keep the money I make, why should I be obligated to help out, in America freedom to choose used to be a virtue. It's land of the free not land of the forced to give. When I started working hard and saw that almost half my income went to the government I wished I lived in America where people didn't get raped by big government. Now many years later, I don't see much of a difference and I see big tax hikes coming for anyone who makes a decent wage. The US will soon be like Canada if the government continues on the path they are going on. And we will all be screwed as countries like China completely take over production of most things as all North Americans will stop working and just pick up welfare checks. Unfortunately what people don't understand (especially those who are on welfare) is that welfare has to come from somewhere; a place that is continually getting smaller while the welfare system is just getting larger. If you suck that tit dry, there is no more milk and everyone starves.

As a side I think if you go on welfare you should lose your right to vote just like convicts in prison. It is obvious you are not contributing to society (rather taking from it) so why should you decide the direction of the country?