Give Me What I Put In And You Have a Deal

Politicians are terrified to cut Social Security and Medicare, mostly because poll after poll finds that everyone from Tea Partyers to Teamsters is unwilling to consider benefit cuts. Yet Americans are not as averse to entitlement reform as it seems. Pollsters have just been asking the wrong questions.

A new Reason-Rupe national public opinion poll finds a majority of Americans are actually open to reforming Social Security and Medicare – as long as they get back the money they already have paid into the system. In fact, 61 percent of voters would be willing to cut Social Security benefits and 59 percent willing to cut Medicare benefits if they were guaranteed to get back what they and their employers have contributed into the two programs.