We need to go after both the entitlement programs and means tested welfare programs like Medicaid and food stamps if we want to change the fiscal trajectory we are currently on.
Cutting food stamps and medicaid is not going to change the socialist status of our government at all. We need to cut every activity that is outside the Federal govenrment’s constitutional boundries.
Whole departments and causes need to be cut. Trimming off a little from medicaid or food stamps won’t stop the crash.
I seriously doubt that there is the political will to cut programs like Medicaid and food stamps entirely. We have 60 million people on Medicaid and 44 million on food stamps. They represent a considerable cost driver and must be addressed. The cost drivers of our budget deficits are the entitlement programs and means tested welfare. And certainly defense spending will also have to be reduced eventually.
I wish we could eliminate the welfare state entirely, bgut the votes just aren't there to do it. It is going to take generations to undo what has been done since FDR and LBJ.