As many pundits have repeatedly punditized, cutting Medicare or Social Security is the third rail of American politics. No politician can even hint that the thought once crossed his mind, during an interminable bus ride in Iowa 45 years ago. There are a couple of reasons for this: 1) a fiercely organized lobby with hundreds of thousands of members, all of whom have a great deal of time on their hands and 2) everyone is sentimental about grandparents, who hand out bits of folksy wisdom and Toblerones. This is in notable contrast to The Poor, who only hand out methamphetamines and crack babies.
In our rapidly hobo-izing society, however, some hard truths must be acknowledged. Belts must be tightened, bootstraps must be pulled, cat food must be eaten. Just as there are deserving and undeserving Poor, there are clearly undeserving Olds. Many, many old people are quite cranky and mean-spirited. They don't have jobs, and most of them aren't even trying to get a job! Worse, a staggering percentage of them are on drugs--drugs paid for by YOUR TAX DOLLARS. What kind of example is this for the youth of America? What message does it send to them: that if you simply manage to live long enough, the taxpayers will keep you in a life of leisure? Most of these people don't even have the common decency to be grateful for the hard working Americans who keep them in golf carts and Early Bird Specials at the Golden Corral: 44% of Social Security recipients and 40% of Medicare recipients don't believe that they are the beneficiaries of government programs.
Nuts to all that. Time to means-test the Olds--not by income, but by actual meanness. Did you beat the family dog? Cheat on your taxes? Threaten your neighbor? Did you never, ever volunteer at a soup kitchen? Then I'm sorry, but we simply can't reward that kind of behavior.
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