Social Security Turns Eighty-One: Working Better Than Ever For America
On August 14, eighty-one years ago, President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935 into law. Frances
Perkins, President Roosevelt’s close confidante, his Secretary of Labor,
and the chair of his interagency task force that developed the Social
Security legislation, wrote that Roosevelt “always regarded the Social
Security Act as the cornerstone of his administration and, I think, took
greater satisfaction from it than from anything else he achieved on the
domestic front.”
He would take
even more satisfaction and pride today. In honor of Social Security’s
81st birthday, Social Security Works just released a series of reports
showing how amazingly well the program works and how extremely
important it is for each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia,
all six of the U.S. territories, and, indeed, the nation as a whole.
These reports complement our other series of reports,
showing how well Social Security works for all Americans no matter how
you group them, how Social Security works for veterans, children, the
middle class, people of color, the LGBT community, people with
disabilities, and women.
These reports
show how vital our Social Security system is for all of us. Social
Security provides the majority of income for two out of three retirees
and seven out of ten people with disabilities. It provides virtually all
of the income for one out of three seniors and people with
disabilities. It lifts over 20 million people — including over a million
children — out of poverty and lessens the depth of poverty for millions
more. It boosts local economies because the benefits tend to be spent
locally and immediately, and it stabilizes the economy during economic
downturns.
When Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law 81 years ago, he explained:
This law represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means completed.
Responding to
his challenge to build on the cornerstone he set down 81 years ago,
today’s Democratic Party is wisely calling for the expansion of Social
Security. The Party recognizes that expanding Social Security is a
solution to a number of challenges facing the nation, including a
looming retirement income crisis, perilous and rising income and wealth
inequality, and the financial squeeze confronting working families.
The Democratic
presidential standard bearer, Secretary Hillary Clinton, has repeatedly
called for expanding, never cutting Social Security, most recently in the major economic address she delivered on August 11. Consistent with her view, the Democratic Platform proclaims clearly and forcefully:
We will fight every effort to cut, privatize, or weaken Social Security... Democrats will expand Social Security... and we will make sure Social Security’s guaranteed benefits continue for generations by asking those at the top to pay more.
In sharp contrast and despite Social Security’s tremendous importance and success over the last 81 years, the Republican Platform calls, in only thinly veiled language, for cutting and privatizing Social Security — in short, dismantling it.
This is a
radical position, at odds with the overwhelming majority of Americans,
including conservative Republicans and Tea Party members. It is also at
odds with past Republican leaders. President Eisenhower, for example,
proposed and presided over expanding Social Security. He explained,
This Administration’s strong support of the social security program was demonstrated by the broad expansion and improvements enacted in 1954 at my recommendation. The 1954 Amendments, which extended coverage of the program to millions of additional persons and included higher benefits for all who were then or who would become beneficiaries, have had a major impact in bringing greater security to our people.
Similarly,
President Nixon proposed and succeeded in expanding Social Security. In a
special message to Congress calling for expanding benefits and
protecting them against inflation, Nixon proclaimed,
This nation must not break faith with those Americans who have a right to expect that Social Security payments will protect them and their families.
Like so many Republican leaders before him President George H.W. Bush, in his 1990 State of the Union Address, vowed,
And there’s one thing I hope we will be able to agree on. It’s about our commitments. I’m talking about Social Security. To every American out there on Social Security, to every American supporting that system today, and to everyone counting on it when they retire, we made a promise to you, and we are going to keep it.
But today’s
Republicans are of a different stripe. They vaguely and euphemistically
talk about “saving” and “strengthening” Social Security, but their
Platform and Party leadership make crystal clear that they will cut and
dismantle Social Security, if they have a chance.
On this 81st
anniversary of Social Security, those who have a stake in Social
Security - all of us - should vote accordingly. Although many issues
divide us, Social Security unites us
- and for good reason: Our Social Security system represents the best
values of our nation: working hard and contributing; rewarding that hard
work, engaging in self-help and mutual aid; respecting the dignity of
everyone; caring for our parents, children, and neighbors; managing
resources prudently; and sharing risks as well as responsibilities.
The best
birthday present we can give Social Security and, indeed, ourselves, is
to vote for and elect a president dedicated to expanding, never cutting,
Social Security. There is only one candidate who is so dedicated in
today’s race. That candidate is Secretary Hillary Clinton.
The best
companion birthday present is to vote for and elect senators and members
of the House of Representatives who, like Clinton, are committed to
building on Social Security’s strong foundation, by expanding, never
cutting our vital and successful Social Security system.
Together,
through our votes, we can succeed in making Social Security even
stronger, more protective, and more adequate in the future. That is an
appropriate gift for Social Security’s eighty-first birthday, a gift
that benefits our families, our communities, our nation, and indeed each
and every one of us.
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