In a very illuminating and too brief discussion of the high cost of social programs, Robert J. Samuelson makes an alarming and obvious error, presumably because it’s a typical “journalist’s” mechanism for demonstrating reason and fairness, or, “fair and balanced” treatment.

In “Here’s what Washington really does” Samuelson exposes the enormous increases in social programs for “the poor.” Programs including, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the euphemism for “food stamps,” Pell Grants, and the inaptly named Earned Income Tax Credit which have ballooned in cost yet achieved remarkably little success.

Over the span from 1980 to 2011, in 2011 inflation adjusted dollars, spending in these programs grew from $126 billion to $626 billion.  That shows an increase from $4,300 per poor person in 1980 to $13,000 in 2011.  In1962 we spent only $516 per person on those in poverty, too little to be sure!

To balance the staggering amount spent on the “poor,” and to appeal to our sense of morality, Samuelson argues that “programs for the poor pale beside middle-class transfers. The giants here are Social Security at $725 billion in 2011 and Medicare at $560 billion.”  Nonsense!  The poor contribute a remarkably small amount to fund their benefits from Uncle Sugar, while the “middle-class” which funds nearly all of the billions “transfer[ed]” to Social Security and Medicare also pays for the programs enjoyed by the poor.

Very simply, being “middle-class” means you need a sense of humor and a barrel of K-Y Jelly!