FDR, on signing the Social Security Act, August 14, 1935

[Bluebear]

Today a hope of many years' standing is in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last.

This social security measure gives at least some protection to thirty millions of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old-age pensions and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.

We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.

This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete. It is a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions. It will act as a protection to future Administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy. The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation. It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.

I congratulate all of you ladies and gentlemen, all of you in the Congress, in the executive departments and all of you who come from private life, and I thank you for your splendid efforts in behalf of this sound, needed and patriotic legislation.

If the Senate and the House of Representatives in this long and arduous session had done nothing more than pass this Bill, the session would be regarded as historic for all time.

http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html#signing

[Denver Progressive]

1. k & r. Here's some photos of the signing of the Social Security Act:

<http://www.ssa.gov/75thanniversary/>

[Divine Discontent]

2. off to the greatest!

[indurancevile]

3. and here's reagan signing the 1983 amendments that set the stage for this farce.

those amendments, among other things, initiated taxation of benefits and increased fica to produce huge surplus collections just when the boomers, the biggest generation in us history, were moving into their prime earnings years & when a larger percentage of people than ever were in the paid workforce thanks to the women's movement. and raised the age to collect full benefits in steps.

another bipartisan screw job.


10. Remarks on Signing the Social Security Amendments of 1983 --April 20, 1983

The President. Well, I want to extend to all of you a very warm welcome. Something ought to be warm. But it's especially fitting that so many of us from so many different backgrounds--young and old, the working and the retired, Democrat and Republican--should come together for the signing of this landmark legislation.

This bill demonstrates for all time our nation's ironclad commitment to social security. It assures the elderly that America will always keep the promises made in troubled times a half a century ago. It assures those who are still working that they, too, have a pact with the future. From this day forward, they have our pledge that they will get their fair share of benefits when they retire.

And this bill assures us of one more thing that is equally important. It's a clear and dramatic demonstration that our system can still work when men and women of good will join together to make it work.

Just a few months ago, there was legitimate alarm that social security would soon run out of money. On both sides of the political aisle, there were dark suspicions that opponents from the other party were more interested in playing politics than in solving the problem. But in the eleventh hour, a distinguished bipartisan commission appointed by House Speaker O'Neill, by Senate Majority Leader Baker, and by me began, to find a solution that could be enacted into law...

Today, all of us can look each other square in the eye and say, "We kept our promises." We promised that we would protect the financial integrity of social security. We have. We promised that we would protect beneficiaries against any loss in current benefits. We have. And we promised to attend to the needs of those still working, not only those Americans nearing retirement but young people just entering the labor force. And we've done that, too...

The amendments embodied in this legislation recognize that social security cannot do as much for us as we might have hoped when the trust funds were overflowing. Time and again, benefits were increased far beyond the taxes and wages that were supposed to support them. In this compromise we have struck the best possible balance between the taxes we pay and the benefits paid back. Any more in taxes would be an unfair burden on working Americans and could seriously weaken our economy. Any less would threaten the commitment already made to this generation of retirees and to their children.

We're entering an age when average Americans will live longer and live more productive lives. And these amendments adjust to that progress. The changes in this legislation will allow social security to age as gracefully as all of us hope to do ourselves, without becoming an overwhelming burden on generations still to come.

So, today we see an issue that once divided and frightened so many people now uniting us. Our elderly need no longer fear that the checks they depend on will be stopped or reduced. These amendments protect them. Americans of middle age need no longer worry whether their career-long investment will pay off. These amendments guarantee it. And younger people can feel confident that social security will still be around when they need it to cushion their retirement.


http://www.ssa.gov/history/reaganstmts.html#1983

lies. as usual. that iron-clad commitment lasted just long enough to suck up billions in excess revenue until the boomers started to retire.

[Doctor_J]

4. Maybe the president can give an equally stirring speech when he kills it

The teabaggers will still hate his guts, of course, but at least it will go in the archives.

[SidDithers]

5. And what were his comments with Executive Order 9066?...nt

Sid

[checks-n-balances]

7. And why do you bring up an irrelevant topic?

Do I detect a pattern here?

[Octafish]

6. No wonder Wall Street went ape-treasonous and tried to overthrow FDR.

http://www.ctka.net/pr399-fdr.html

"It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness."

That'd be... That'd be... That'd be... Just. And they -- those who consider themselves privileged and above others -- can't have that.