Welfare is small potatoes. The author of this piece is a coward to focus on it. The elephants in the room is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The solutions are simple but unpopular - reduce benefits, raise taxes to pay for said benefits or a combo of the the two. That's it.
Glad someone else found that fact: federal revenue averages 19% of GDP - _always_. A little fluctuation, yes, but always right around that. Play whatever games you like with soaking the rich, spreading the pain, flat tax, fair tax, VAT tax, whatever - revenue never exceeds 20% of GDP. Squeeze somewhere hard enough and the money will go elsewhere. Every deficit solution and every spending plan MUST take this into account.
And I’d expect any serious attempt to exceed that natural limit will lead to war of some kind. Respect the limits of human nature, or society will break down fast.