JACOB SULLUM: ALAN SIMPSON AND THE SACRED COW. “The reaction to the former senator’s comments on Social Security shows he’s right. . . . Just three entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—account for two-fifths of federal spending, representing 10 percent of GDP. Without reform, they are expected to consume half of the budget and about 20 percent of GDP by 2050. . . . Social Security is neither a pension fund nor a means-tested assistance program for the needy. It is a pay-as-you-go system of transfer payments that takes money from relatively poor workers and gives it to relatively affluent retirees.”