Bump for an absolutely correct statement, sir.
Don't want to hear about the tea party movement as a reversal of this trend either - not with all those handmade signs I saw at the town meetings demanding "Hands Off Medicare".
One of the differences is that, rightly or wrongly, people perceive themselves as having paid for Medicare and Social Security. The oldest recipients, obviously, did not pay anywhere near enough, and the youngest payees will never collect much of anything. But my point is that these were separate programs that people do not see as a pure government handout, regardless of the actual details.