I don't think you are going far enough. Enough Middle class people are waking up to the fact that this economy will delay their retirement and still burden their children. We are moving from a center right to far right country. The 52% that pay all the taxes are not going to put up with the rest not having "skin in the game".
But there’s the big difference between the left and conservatives.
In a situation like this, the left would push for open class warfare and anger.
Conservatives, on the other hand, don’t want revenge, they want the non-productive Americans to become productive.
This is a pretty across the board philosophical difference as well. For example, crime and punishment.
The liberal approach is to create thousands of laws and send millions of people to prison, but that prisons shouldn’t be harsh places. Like a “time out” in elementary school.
Conservatives, on the other hand, don’t want thousands of laws, yet know that people who commit serious crimes need to be sent to prison; but those they send to prison they want to experience harsh punishment to deter them from doing it again. They would much prefer that people not commit crimes in the first place.
In any event, conservatives look at largess, in whatever form, as a bad thing, and something people need to be motivated away from because of the harm it inflicts on them and their children. But they also recognize that a small number of people cannot make it on their own, so need a “safety net”.
This is why they pushed for “workfare”, instead of just canceling welfare outright. They don’t want to hurt or inflict revenge, they want people to change and better their own lives.
Virtually every largess system can be seriously reformed with an eye to eventual elimination, with other systems picking up the slack. The trick is to do this while harming or cheating as few people as possible.