Social spending: Paying for the ‘takers’

In his second inaugural address last week, said Nicholas Eberstadt in The Wall Street Journal, President Obama insisted that programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security “do not make us a nation of takers.” The facts, unfortunately, say otherwise. Indeed, our “increasing dependency on state largess” now threatens America’s future. Social welfare and entitlement programs now consume two thirds of the federal budget—double their share in 1960. Forty-nine percent of U.S. households now receive checks or benefits from one social welfare program or another, including entitlement programs and disability. Even Society Security and Medicare do not pay for themselves, and function only because the old are handing the debt to their children. “Yes, Mr. President, we are a nation of takers,” and this new “something-for-nothing” mentality is eroding the American work ethic.

Obama’s critics imply that he rejected any cuts in safety-net programs, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. This is untrue. He has openly stated his willingness to make changes so these programs remain viable, and in past negotiations with congressional Republicans, has offered significant cuts. In repudiating the Republicans’ rhetoric about “takers,” Obama was drawing an important moral distinction. He pointed out that “misfortune can strike Americans in all forms—a disability, a storm, illness, or merely outliving our savings—and we have some obligation to each other.” Contrast that with the approach of Republican hero Rep. Paul Ryan, whose budget “imposes savage cuts to food stamps, children’s health insurance,” and other programs for the neediest, while rejecting any tax increases on the wealthiest. Ryan even voted against relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Do Republicans really want to base their party on this kind of heartlessness?

You can defend the morality of “taking” all you like, said Major Garrett in NationalJournal.com,but somehow, we must pay for it. Social Security and Medicare outlays are soaring by 25 percent a year, and the Social Security disability program is racing toward insolvency by 2016. The “makers” can’t keep up with what the “takers” are taking. In his stirring defense of social spending, said John Cassidy in NewYorker.com, Obama left out “the less palatable side of the citizenship bargain: the obligation to pay for the social safety net.” Unless he confronts that obligation, he’ll be passing off “a time bomb” to the next president.

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