General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A Reverse Income Tax: A Bold Replacement for Social Security, Welfare, Food Stamps, and others [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)Administrative costs are much smaller than you think they are.
Brookings, who absolutely and completely detest food stamps and overstate the costs as much as possible came up with about 14% administrative costs. http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/03_food_stamp_isaacs.aspx
I believe where your 60% confusion comes in is the Feds pay for 60% of the administrative costs incurred by the states. That would be 60% of Brookings's 14%, aka 8.4% of total spending, aka 8 cents per dollar.
As for your plan overall, how long do you think it would last when the right starts claiming everyone getting money from the program is using YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO BUY DRUGS!!!!1!!!!111!!!!!
Plus, you are targeting Social Security, which already has administrative costs below 1%. It's really easy to administer since eligibility is universal. Your proposal requires hiring a slew of tax investigators to prevent people from hiding income and thus receiving a government pay-out. That's expensive.