Why Entitlements Keep Growing, and Growing, and . . .

Once granted, benefits always multiply and are nearly impossible to repeal, John Cogan says. Only three presidents have been able to rein them in.

By Tunku Varadarajan of The WSJ.

"entitlements have been the main cause of America’s rising national debt since the early 1970s."

"remarkable phenomenon of the growth in Civil War pensions. By the 1890s, 30 years after it had ended, pensions from the war accounted for 40% of all federal government spending.” About a million people were getting Civil War pensions, he found, compared with 8,000 in 1873, eight years after the war."

"pensions from the Revolutionary War . . . saw exactly the same pattern." 

"this matched “the evolutionary pattern of modern entitlements, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps.”"

"entitlement programs typically begin with relatively narrow eligibility requirements. “For the Civil and Revolutionary War pensions,” he says, “original eligibility was limited to soldiers who had been injured in wartime service, or the widows of those killed in battle.”"

"But these rules were incrementally relaxed, and by 30 or 40 years after each war, virtually all veterans were covered"

"We’ve seen the same phenomenon in modern entitlements. “When Social Security started, we had about 50% of the workforce covered,” he says. That was 1935. “By the 1950s, coverage was universal. The Social Security disability program was originally limited to those 50 years or older. And you had to be totally disabled—so disabled that you were unable to perform any job in the U.S. economy.” Gradually, Congress eliminated the age requirement. Then lawmakers allowed benefits for temporary disabilities.

“You see the exact same phenomenon in the low-income benefit entitlement programs,” Mr. Cogan says. Medicaid “extends to all individuals who live in poverty, regardless of whether or not they’re receiving cash welfare.” ObamaCare gave federal health-insurance subsidies to households with incomes up to 400% of the poverty line—currently $98,400 for a family of four.

The same forces that were at play in the 19th century are alive and kicking (the economy) today. “It’s step-by-step expansion,” Mr. Cogan says. “Each expansion tends to be permanent. And each expansion then serves as a base upon which Congress considers the next expansions.”"

"“After an entitlement is created,” he says, “individuals who are just outside the eligibility line start clamoring for assistance on the grounds that they’re no less ‘worthy’ of receiving assistance than the group that is eligible.” In the case of Social Security disability, why should a 49-year-old who was disabled in a car accident receive any less help than a person who’d had an accident at 50?

“The natural human impulse to treat similarly situated individuals equally under the law,” Mr. Cogan argues, inevitably results in “serial, repeated expansions of eligibility.”"

"rescindments “occur under rather extraordinary circumstances.”"

"‘Who achieved the largest reduction in any entitlement in the history of the country?’ Well, surprisingly, it was FDR, a person whom we normally associate with launching the modern era of entitlements.”"

"in 1933 . . veterans’ pensions accounted for 25% of all government spending. “Within seven days in office,” Mr. Cogan says, “FDR asked Congress to repeal the disability entitlements to World War I, Philippine War, and Boxer Rebellion veterans. Congress gave him that authority, and within a year, he’d knocked nearly 400,000 veterans off the pension rolls."