Gov. Paul LePage said this week that “transfer receipts” – a figure tracking payments to individuals, mostly from government programs – are “welfare benefits” and they should be excluded from calculations of personal income. Nearly 60 percent of the category is Social Security and Medicare payments for retirement income and health care that people pay into from their paychecks. Most of the rest of the $12.33 billion Mainers received in the first three months of the year is made up of Medicaid, which is health care coverage for the poor, and a catchall category that includes payments for food stamps, Temporary Aid to Needy Families, railroad pensions, veterans benefits and other programs. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis