On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing socialism. Besides being the performative nonsense we’ve come to expect from Republicans the resolution was very likely designed to pwn Democrats who dared to vote against it. Heather Cox Richardson explained that the Democrats who voted against the resolution were wary that Republicans were using the resolution to set cup cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Richardson then notes that neither of those programs are actually socialist in nature.
This got me thinking about Social Security and Medicare. Although Republicans continually want to make cuts to those programs they are actually very popular. Dwight Eisenhower warned back in 1954 that “should any political party attempt to abolish social security . . .you would not hear of that party again in our political history.” While the animus toward social programs is probably a matter of ideological bent, any attempt to cut or abolish them has to be couched as either “reform” (cuts to make the programs “sustainable”) or denounced as “socialism” (a Republican shibboleth representing whatever the party finds objectionable at the moment).
As I considered these programs, it occurred to me that they are actually very capitalist — at least in the context of capitalism in the United States. What is Social Security other than a way to ensure that older people can still be consumers when their bodies are too old for labor? There is rhetoric about keeping seniors out of poverty and helping them live dignified lives — but that is essentially the same thing without the explicit nod to economics.
And what is Medicare if not a huge government subsidy to the health care industry? By guaranteeing medical care to seniors, the government provides a — predictable — bottom line to health care providers. Besides helping retirees live longer and healthier lives, the health care industry can count on the program to provide a steady stream of income and that income can be used to invest in innovation and efficiencies that benefit every health care consumer. In the context of other government subsidies, this is entirely consistent with how capitalism is practiced in the US.
I wish I was confident that, should they manage to cancel Social Security and Medicare, Republicans will realize that some replacement is necessary to offset the economic chaos that would result. However, as we saw with Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare, they weren’t thinking of the implications of doing so. There was no replacement. A Republican friend said the quiet part out loud when, commenting on Obamacare, he said “I’m sure glad I never needed that shit.”