The Safety Net Remains

The protests by now are loud and angry: the Reagan budget cuts are all but dismantling American social programs that have been built up over the past half-century. The protests are wrong: spending in those areas is actually increasing. In fact, even after inflation during the past few years is taken into account, the level of Government expenditures for major social programs will be higher in 1983 than it was in 1977 at the beginning of the Carter Administration. Overall, the Administration cuts will simply roll back some of the huge increases made in the past few years.

Among the largest trims are reductions in proposed outlays for federal spending on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which sends monthly welfare checks to some 11 million individuals. The President's budget projects expenditures of $5.5 billion in fiscal 1983, a 29% drop below current levels. This slash is deep enough to wipe out all recent AFDC increases when inflation is taken into account. Spending on the program was $6.4 billion in 1977, and the 1983 level would sink to $3.2 billion after adjustment for inflation.

Food stamps, which are distributed monthly to some 20.5 million recipients, fare better under the Reagan budget. Outlays for 1983 would total $9.6 billion, down about 15% from the current year. But in constant dollars, the expenditures would amount to $5.6 billion, up about 4% from 1977. The number of people in the program, though, has increased from 17 million to 18.6 million, so each person will be receiving somewhat less. Says Rudolph Penner, a budget expert with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington: "Food stamps grew rather rapidly under Carter, and the Reagan cuts, in essence, just offset some of the very recent growth."

Medicaid assistance, which goes to 22 million people, would also fall in 1983 compared with 1982, but would rise slightly if measured in 1977 terms. Budgeted expenditures of $17 billion for 1983 are down 6% from the current year. In noninflated dollars, however, the outlays would still be up 3% from the level of six years ago.

Nearly 26 million Americans are eligible for Medicare, Medicaid's larger sibling. This program would grow in size next year, although at a slower rate than previously. Outlays of $55.4 billion would be up 11% in 1983 over 1982. That increase compares with gains of 17% in 1982 and 21% in 1981. After inflation is taken into account, Medicare expenditures in the next fiscal year would be 50% higher than in 1977.

Social Security, which provides income support for 36 million Americans, has been effectively off limits to Administration budget cutters ever since the Senate last year rejected some changes in the program by a stunning 96-to-0 vote. The 46-year-old transfer program is by far the largest social plan operated by the Government, and it will receive another whopping increase next year. Outlays are to grow to $173.5 billion in 1983, up 12% from 1982--a year in which the level also increased by 12%. After inflation is taken into account, 1983 spending will be a stunning 21% above the 1977 level.

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