Possibly workfare and perhaps a incremental decrease of benefits over a relatively short to moderate amount of time would work?
The problem is there will always be a politician willing to extend or increase benefits in exchange for votes.
If you eliminate one program they will just replace it with another.
Emotional blackmail works! A long with a covert implied message that you will give people of entitlement their money or they will commit crimes in order to maintain a certain lifestyle.
I would be willing to take the chance and cut off 70-90% of the recipients off the dole.
Have work programs ready. Have churches on standby for the influx of government assisted lost souls.
Yep, sounds good.
There should be encouraged more emphasis on church charity and less on Caesar charity. Somewhere I think I still have a copy of the perfidious letter that FDR sent to a former pastor of a church I visited while living more closely from hand to mouth... ah how wonderful this Social Security scheme is... well guess what, security is to be found in God and at best Caesar is only one passing medium for the means.
I could make an astounding proposal but if it was accepted it would be even more astounding: Tax credits (up to the amount of taxes otherwise due in a tax accounting period), not just deductions, for eleemosynary activities. The charity is going to do it more efficiently than Caesar will, so why not let the charity do it.