Mr. [John] Cogan has just written a riveting, massive book, \u201cThe High Cost of Good Intentions,\u201d on the history of entitlements in the U.S., and he describes how in 1972 the Senate \u201cattached an across-the-board, permanent increase of 20% in Social Security benefits to a must-pass bill\u201d on the debt ceiling. President Nixon grumbled loudly but signed it into law. In October, a month before his re-election, \u201cNixon reversed course and availed himself of an opportunity to take credit for the increase,\u201d Mr. Cogan says. \u201cWhen checks went out to some 28 million recipients, they were accompanied by a letter that said that the increase was \u2018signed into law by President Richard Nixon.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
The Nixon episode shows, says Mr. Cogan, that entitlements have been the main cause of America\u2019s rising national debt since the early 1970s. Mr. Trump\u2019s pact with the Democrats is part of a pattern: \u201cThe debt ceiling has to be raised this year because elected representatives have again failed to take action to control entitlement spending.\u201d<\/p>\n
A faculty member at Stanford\u2019s Public Policy Program and a fellow at the university\u2019s Hoover Institution, Mr. Cogan, 70, is one of those old-fangled American men who are always inclined to play down their achievements. The latest of his is the book that draws us together in conversation. To be published later this month by Stanford University Press, it is a 400-page account of how federal entitlement programs evolved across two centuries \u201cand the common forces that have been at work in causing their expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n