The National Organization of Women has announced its intentions to descend on the Senate tomorrow to “Support Jobs, NOT Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security!” I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that this will be a truly peaceful, law-abiding, event free from the vandalism and crime that's plagued the Occupy Wall Street movement, but NOW's matra shares with OWS a disconnect between their demands and economic reality.

The choice isn't “jobs” or “cuts to entitlement programs”. Our entitlement programs are on the road to financial ruin. Pretending that they are solvent or leaching more from the private sector to prop them up isn't going to create jobs—it's going to cost them.

As we've written before, liberal activists talk about entitlement programs as if they exclusively support those who are otherwise going to suffer in miserably poverty. That's just not the case. Most of the entitlement programs transfer money from young to old, which happens to also be from the poor to the better off. Yes, seniors have paid into programs so properly expect to get something back. But that means that keeping every dime of entitlement spending isn't an act of compassion. Those who propose trimming benefits for high-income seniors aren't ogres, and they aren't proposing to gut the safety net.

The good news is that Congress—and the American people—have seen enough of these protests to know that they need more information than is contained in a slogan.

 

 

 

 

The good news is that Congress—and the American people—have seen enough of these protests to know that they need more information than is contained in a slogan.