I can't speak for Republicans, who live on a planet of their own, but in the US the call for means-testing of benefits is muted, because of the awareness that wealth is so concentrated here that few people, numerically, would be caught in it and it thus wouldn't save much money, even leaving aside the costs of administering the means-testing.
Another point sometimes seen in discussions of the issue is that giving the benefits to all seniors, however wealthy, has the moral virtue of putting everyone in the same boat. Once you means-test, the benefits may be seen as hand-outs to the poor, and any glance at current US political discourse reveals how vigorously the Republicans are conducting class warfare on that basis.
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Date: 2012-09-26 01:39 pm (UTC)Another point sometimes seen in discussions of the issue is that giving the benefits to all seniors, however wealthy, has the moral virtue of putting everyone in the same boat. Once you means-test, the benefits may be seen as hand-outs to the poor, and any glance at current US political discourse reveals how vigorously the Republicans are conducting class warfare on that basis.