From Twitter
I've never heard of this awesome person who just retired.
Reading between the lines, though, the "taxes/transfers" in the chart are mostly medicare, medicaid and social security. It could be that all of this increase is simply keeping up with inflation?
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23383703/robert-greenstein-center-budget-policy-priorities
From Twitter
After all, medical costs have risen much faster than inflation and the chart spans 40 years which might be enough for medical costs to have tripled.
The laws on the books normally don't autoincrease payments with inflation; maybe Greenstein did just enough to help hold the line.
From Twitter
But then, how would I explain this final chart? Hmm. Well, maybe there's less welfare for adults and more for children :P
From Twitter
After all, medical costs have risen much faster than inflation and the chart spans 40 years which might be enough for medical costs to have tripled.
The laws on the books normally don't auto-increase payments with inflation; maybe Greenstein lobbied just enough to hold the line.