Democratic dilemma

The great Democratic dilemma of the 20th Century began in 1936 with the establishment of social security. This program has been the most successful and most expensive in the history of the country. When it became apparent the many people had reached retirement age and lacked the finances to take care of themselves the government stepped in to help. While the program started with modest goals it grew quickly and today represents 21% of the federal budget. Today two thirds of wage earners pay more social security tax than income tax.
This program was viewed in such a positive manner that the Democratic Party took control of congress and maintained a majority for more than 40 years. This idea of the government offering direct help to individuals gained additional momentum in 1965 with the passage of Medicare and Medicaid. Today these programs represent an important part of most peoples financial plan and have fostered a dependency on government. It is acceptable because the people pay into these programs so they are not welfare.
Other ideas have branched off from these programs, which in most cases are not paid for by the recipients. Some of the better known are food stamps, (WIC), housing allowance, S-chip and utility payments. In order to keep these from being considered welfare they are justified by the doctrine of fairness. We have a moral obligation to care for those less fortunate. Other areas of fairness are things like minimum wage and consumer protection laws.
More recently we have turned to the idea of rights to cover government benefit and the most prominent of these is the right to health care. Others feel there is a right to a job, a place to live and food to eat which to those who don’t have these items health insurance is not a top priority.
So what is the dilemma? Many elected Democrats feel that people need government to get them through the rough spots, which is another way of saying that they cannot care for themselves. They realize that offering government assistance helps to get re-elected and they want to continue along this path but they cannot allow voters to feel that congressmen think they can’t take care of themselves. This means that they must not reveal the real truth as to how they feel about the voters and thus they are living in the uncomfortable position of not being up front with people. When Bill Clinton said welfare should be a helping hand and not a way of life he understood the concept but to get votes it has to be more than a temporary help. For many it has become a way of life and many are expecting more benefits in the future.