Letter: Entitlement reform is a fancy term for robbery

Reading the Nicholas Kristof editorial in the April 4 Herald, one wonders if there’s anything that Trump’s base will consider grounds to stop supporting him.

I don’t have an answer, but I do want to call attention to a term we’ll probably hear soon from Trump and the Republicans — entitlement reform. Social Security and Medicare are consuming ever-larger portions of the U.S. budget. Republicans want to cut entitlement spending so they can have bigger tax cuts for the rich and more military spending.

But here’s the problem: They’re called entitlements because the recipients like me have paid for them and are entitled. Entitlement reform is a fancy term for robbery. Imagine you’re walking out of Winco with your groceries and store security stops you and says “yes, you paid for those groceries, but if everyone takes their groceries home, we’ll run low. We’re going to go through your cart and decide what we need for entitlement reform.”

Now if they want to raise the rates for people still paying into Social Security and Medicare, so they don’t have to steal from seniors, that’ll be a political heavy lift — but at least it won’t be outright theft.

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 4:26 AM with the headline "Letter: Entitlement reform is a fancy term for robbery."