If Social Security and Medicare both involved people voluntarily financing their own benefits, an argument could be made for seniors' "earned benefits" view. But they have not. They have redistributed tens of trillions of dollars of wealth to themselves from those younger.
Social Security and Medicare have transferred those trillions because they have been partial Ponzi schemes.
After Social Security's creation, those in or near retirement got benefits far exceeding their costs (Ida Mae Fuller, the first Social Security recipient, got 462 times what she and her employer together paid in "contributions"). Those benefits in excess of their taxes paid inherently forced future Americans to pick up the tab for the difference. And the program's almost unthinkable unfunded liabilities are no less a burden on later generations because earlier generations financed some of their own benefits, or because the government has consistently lied that they have paid their own way.
Comment: Indeed, it is VERY troubling that the government is spying on its own people. What is even more troubling is the fact that despite Snowden's leaks, not a single agency of the government has been prosecuted and no charges were filed against anyone. It's apparent that many US government agencies consider themselves above the law and run illegal operations with little or no public oversight.