President Barack Obama says Social Security and Medicare fulfill “the guarantee of a secure retirement,” providing Americans benefits they have earned through a working lifetime of contributions.
Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan looks at a broad array of so-called entitlement programs and sees a corrosive effect. “More and more able-bodied people are becoming dependent upon the government,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in January. Left unchecked, Republicans say, Obama’s “entitlement society” will bankrupt the nation.
