programs. The programs have shown rapid growth, which in turn reflects their value to voters. This value has seemed to preclude reform, and to get any reform at all it is necessary to establish a popular basis for these reforms. SSI is part of the commitment that all Americans should be entitled to health care and a decent retirement after working for a lifetime (Marshall and Schram, 1993, 34-35). Through the years, the level of benefits was gradually increased in an effort to keep pace with inflation. By 1983 retired workers, their dependents, and their survivors were receiving about $152 billion annually from the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) portion of the program, while Disability Insurance was dispensing about $18 billion to disabled workers and their dependents. About $41 billion in medical benefits was being provided under the Medicare program, with all of these totals increasing rapidly. The system covered more than 90 percent of the jobs in paid employment. These benefits are financed by a payroll tax that rose from a rate of 2 percent at the inception of the program to more than 13 percent by the early 1980s. The taxable wage base, or maximum amount of earnings that can be taxed, is escalating as well, since the ceiling is linked to the growth in wages. As a result of rapid inflation, slow economic growth, and high unemployment that characterized the late 1970s, the fund experienced an increasing gap between tax receipts and outlays. In 1982, for the first time, the retirement fund borrowed money from the disability and the hospital funds to pay benefits. In 1983, Congress approved changes in the social security law designed to restore the solvency of the system. The new law accelerated the tax rate increases scheduled for 1985 and 1989 and raised the tax on the self employed to a level equal to 100 percent of the combined employer employee rate. Workers with dependent spouses also received additional b...