Samuelson: Social Security = Welfare

Robert Samuelson, who writes for RealClearPolitics, says Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are all forms of welfare. He advocates means testing these three programs, an action which would make their being welfare very explicit.

Samuelson defines a welfare program as follows:

First, it taxes one group to support another group, meaning it's pay-as-you-go and not a contributory scheme where people's own savings pay their later benefits. And second, Congress can constantly alter benefits, reflecting changing needs, economic conditions and politics. Social Security qualifies on both counts.

The political magic of the Social Security system has been that while everybody pays, everybody also collects, earning it widespread support. What Samuelson fails to deal with is that public support for Social Security will drop precipitously if it is explicitly described as welfare and benefits are means tested.

When the affluent, who vote in large numbers, understand that they will pay into Social Security all their working lives but never draw anything back out, their present support for the system will disappear.