As Michael Hiltzik puts it, “it’s important to observe that the program doesn’t pit generations against each other so much as bind them together.”

In 2014, 6.4 million children, or 8.7% of all children, benefited from Social Security, up from 5.4 million (7.3%) in 2003. Social Security keeps many of those children out of poverty—the child poverty rate in families receiving Social Security is 25.5%, but it would be 42.8% without those benefits.

“The growing number of children who rely on Social Security underscores the need to protect and expand this critical program,” [Maya] Rockeymoore said, “not slash it in the name of deficit reduction or tax reform.”