There is a particular kind of cruelty that government can accomplish without ever calling it cruelty. It does not require police at the door or some dramatic announcement from a podium. Sometimes all it takes is an accounting rule—one that looks at a disabled person living with family, notices that somebody is helping keep a roof over their head, and concludes that perhaps the government should pay them less. The government shouldn’t treat a family keeping a disabled loved on

A scam. A Ponzi scheme. A bill of goods. Those are not descriptions coming from anonymous Facebook accounts or fringe political activists. They are increasingly part of the way prominent Republicans talk about Social Security, one of the most successful and widely relied-upon programs the federal government has ever created. Senator Tommy Tuberville has called it a “government-approved Ponzi scheme.” Senator Ron Johnson has used similar language. And behind those insults is a