So much for public education, land grant colleges, court attorneys...

Brad DeLong asks,

But does anybody doubt that social insurance is one of the (many) proper jobs of the government? Has anybody ever doubted this?

No.

Well, actually yes. Greg Mankiw, for starters, who thinks all taxation is theft.

Ever since before the days of Sarru-kinu Sargon in the 23rd century BC, if there was famine in Ur due to a crop blight and an abundant harvests in Nineveh it was one of the jobs of the government to move grain down the Tigris and up the Euphrates to Ur--precisely to remedy at least some of life's inequities.

To say "vote for the Democrats if social insurance is even one of the government's proper roles" is to make a very strong endorsement of the Democrats (and Obama) indeed… 

Unless you're a Randian putz like Greg Mankiw.