TOM MAGUIRE ON THE NEW YORK TIMES’ CAREFUL BLURRING OF ENTITLEMENTS: “Wait – Medicare is now a ‘safety net’ program? I thought that, like Social Security, it was an earned benefit – we all paid our taxes, and we are all eligible. Medicaid is means-tested; Medicare is not.”

Plus, from the comments: “If you’re paying for the pizza, you might as well take a slice. That’s the other part of the big government agenda. One is to create a permanent class of non-paying clients while the other is to make sure everyone else takes advantage of entitlements they’re paying for.” Yeah, you don’t want people to question the whole redistribution scheme, so you displace alternative approaches then call anyone who uses it a hypocrite if they complain. It’s political genius, until you run out of other people’s money.

UPDATE: Several readers point out that you can’t decline Medicare without also giving up Social Security.