75 years ago: Roosevelt signs Social Security Act

[Hannah Bell]

On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law...

The nation’s patchwork quilt of charities, private pensions, and mutual benefit associations had collapsed under the weight of the Great Depression, which had driven unemployment upwards of 25 percent and had slashed the income of a typical family by 40 percent.

Millions of retired workers were also devastated, with over half of senior citizens living in poverty. In 1932, only 15 percent of the US workforce received a pension through their employers; only 17 states had a form of legally mandated pensions for senior citizens.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/twih-a09.shtml#50

[saracat]

1. And 75 years later a Democratic Admin puts together a commission that wants to suggest

raising the retirement age and diminishing benefits. How very sad. And ironic :cry:

[pampango]

2. "Most people know that our Social Security Act of 1935 is modeled on the German pension system"

in the 19th Century. Or they should know that! Geoghegan tells us in his book something that I didn't know: The present-day system of worker involvement with their employers was put in place by American New Dealers and British Labour Party socialists after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. They wanted to prevent a repeat of the close collaboration of the country's manufacturers with the Nazi regime and figured that with workers on the board of directors, this wouldn't happen."

http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/100807-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html

Saw this in an article about Germany and its unions.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

3. The Democratic party should be celebrating this milestone

This party should be embracing FDR and his legacy every day.
Unlike the GOP and Ronnie, Roosevelt actually accomplished things.
Instead, the DLC folks would prefer Americans forget his deeds.

[bvar22]

5. Shhhhh!

The Centrist Democratic Party Leadership would rather keep this quiet.
They think FDR was a "fucking retard."

bvar22
---proud member of the FDR wing of the Democratic Party

[vi5]

4. But was it bipartisan?

I mean yeah, Social Security is nice and all, but if it wasn't sufficiently bipartisan than it really wasn't all that important a milestone. At least now we know what is important. I mean the deficit commission will be bipartisan, so if they say Social Security needs to be cut then and we act on that, then THIS....this will be a true historical acheivement.

[klook]

6. Republicans supported it, 81-15 in the House

And Democrats 284-15. In the Senate, it was 60-1 Democrats, and 16-5 Republicans.

And btw, the Farm Labor Party was pretty evenly split (1 Yes, 2 No in the House, and 1 Yes in the Senate). Members of the Progressive and "Other" parties voted 6-1 Yes in the House. There were 27 House members of all parties who either voted Present or didn't vote, and 12 senators who didn't vote.

See the Social Security Administration web site for details.

I think this bill would get almost no Republican support in today's Congress, and probably a lot less support from Democrats.

[blindpig]

7. Guess they were right....

history doesn't repeat itself.....more the pity.

k&r

[felix_numinous]

8. FDR needs to be pulled out of the memory hole

And his 2nd Bill of Rights shouted from the rooftops. A semblance of sanity can return to this country if enough people put a fire under their butt.