All citizens are still provided with subsidized rations today, even those who could otherwise afford to purchase food. President Raul Castro said in 2011 that the subsidies are far too costly for the Cuban government, involving more than $1 billion USD in food subsidies every year, and that he would like to eliminate the system and its "unbearable burden for the economy" which he claimed produces "a disincentive to work". These remarks were received very negatively among Cubans, and Castro eventually reversed his proposal.