As David R. Lurie lays out in his excellent Public Notice column, Republicans have been dreaming of doing away with Social Security ever since FDR enacted it, even though it successfully reduced poverty among the elderly. Ditto for Medicare, enacted under LBJ. The most infuriating part for me is they’ve managed to corral Democrats into going along with the messaging that these anti-poverty programs that people pay into are “entitlements” that “good government” types only want to “reform” and put on a “stronger” fiscal footing.