Robert Samuelson hates government entitlements. This article is intended to encourage youthful voters, who supported Obama in 2008, to vote against him in 2012. They should do because entitlements are bad for them and Obama does not want to reduce Social Security benefits. The GOP, and pundits like Samuelson, have worked hard to get young people to oppose Social Security for a long time. Samuelson tells them that the benefits won't be there for them when they retire, and that their taxes will be increased to pay for today's elderly.
Samuelson is a good propagandist, however. He tells the younger generation two stories. The first story is largely true. They will not have it as easy as previous generations. Circumstances have changed and they will have more hurdles to overcome. That story is intended to get their attention, and to make the story about the perils of Social Security more credible. They really should be worried about how their circumstances have been changed. Some of that is the result of government policies that enabled the financial crisis and a weak global economy. They are being squeezed as the article suggested. It is not, however, by Social Security. They are being squeezed by the policies favored by those who Samuelson tells them to vote for. He does this by telling them who to vote against.
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