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24 Nov 2009 04:47 pm
Medicare As Welfare
While arguing why the Senate's proposed "0.5 increase in the Medicare payroll tax on upper-income people:
individuals earning more than $200,000, families earning more than
$250,000" is unlikely to pass, Frum explains a basic political truth:
As payroll taxes become more “progressive,” the programs they support
become more blatantly redistributionist. And smart Democrats from FDR
onward have always understood that the secret of popularity for a
government program is to appear non-redistributive: everybody pays,
everybody gets. Then you can say: It’s insurance, not welfare. With
this measure, Medicare becomes more welfare-like and therefore more
politically vulnerable.
Which is a start.
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