You REALLY need to call your mommy to bring you a warm sippy cup full of milk, and a teddy bear so you can wrap yourself in your baby blanket and cry yourself to sleep.
What self-serving, egotistical bull****.
Congratulations, you've lost your mind.
Part of the problem with a lot of people who rail against "entitlements" is that they have no idea (or deliberately ignore) what an "entitlement program" actually is and why they are classified as such. That's why people like bartmc lump Obamaphones in the same category as Social Security. They either don't know the difference or they deliberately ignore it.
An entitlement program, legally and in every other way, is a program to which persons are entitled, without having to prove need, because either they or their employers paid for those benefits in advance of statutory eligibility. The three main examples are:
Social Security
Medicare
Unemployment Insurance
There are some sub-programs (such as Disability and Survivor's Benefits) and some other less-common examples, including some state programs; but the above are the three most common.
Social Security is an entitlement for most Americans upon reaching age 62 or becoming disabled because both they and their employers paid into the system in advance. This isn't semantics. It's the way the law was written. Only self-centered Gen X's and Millennials try to deny that. That's not to say it's a "good" program: I've already said that I think it needs to be scrapped. But it is what it is, and what it is is a legal entitlement.
Medicare is also an entitlement. Most Americans become entitled to Medicare upon reaching age 65 or becoming disabled, for the same reason: they paid into the program in advance. Again, that doesn't mean it's "good" (although I think it's probably better-managed than Social Security, which isn't saying much), but it is in fact a legal entitlement.
Unemployment Insurance is also an entitlement. Everyone who has worked for the requisite amount of time in a job for which unemployment insurance was carried and premiums paid on their behalf is entitled to collect Unemployment Insurance if they lose their job due to no fault of their own. They don't have to prove that they need the money. They only have to prove that their unemployment was involuntary and not their own fault, and that they are actively looking for work. It's an insurance program, not a welfare benefit. Whether it's a good one is highly debatable; but again, for the time being, it is what it is, and what it is is a legal entitlement.
Programs like TANF (what most people mean when they say "welfare"), SNAP ("Food Stamps"), Medicaid, Obamacare subsidies, Obamaphones, and most other federal and state social service programs are
not entitlement programs. No one is automatically entitled to them by virtue of having paid into these programs in advance, individuals seeking these benefits must prove financial need, and the programs can be done away with at any time by Congress or the state legislatures.
In theory, Social Security and Medicare are pooled deposit accounts with both defined contributions and defined-benefit payouts. You deposit money into them all your working life which in theory is placed in a "trust fund" from which you will draw when you meet the statutory entitlement standard (age or disability, or in the case of your survivor's benefits, death).
In practice, the trust fund is just a box of IOUs; but in theory and in law, it is a real account with real money. It's like a bank account or any other deposit account. And yes, it's not-so-slowly going broke. That's why I advocate scrapping Social Security and compensating those who paid into the account, allowing them to invest that money in private retirement accounts while there's still something left to invest; and also freeing the OP, bartmc, their generations, and future generations from a failing, unsustainable program.
That's not enough for some Gen X's and Millennials, however. They demand not only that the programs be scrapped, but that no repayment be made to those who have money invested in the trust funds. Somehow this makes sense in the context of their sociopathically self-centered outlooks on life. It's perfectly okay to dissolve an account and say "**** you" to the people whose money that account contains if it makes their own financial situations a bit better.
As I said earlier, if I were dependent on the next generations to help me through my old age, I would be worried. There seem to be all too many among them who are genuine sociopaths concerned only with their own well-being. I hope, but am not at all certain, that either they're just a vocal minority or that they will mellow with age and wisdom.
Rich