President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, August 14, 1935:
We can never insure 100 percent of the population against 100 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-stricken 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.
President Harry S Truman, July 15, 1948
Now everybody likes to have low taxes, but we must reduce the national debt in times of prosperity. And when tax relief can
be given, it ought to go to those who need it most, and not those who need it least, as this Republican rich man's tax bill did
when they passed it over my veto on the third try.
The first one of these was so rotten that they couldn't even stomach it themselves. They finally did send one that was somewhat
improved, but it still helps the rich and sticks a knife into the back of the poor....
The Republican platform is for extending and increasing social security benefits. Think of that! Increasing social security
benefits! Yet when they had the opportunity, they took 750,000 off the social security rolls !
I wonder if they think they can fool the people of the United States with such poppycock as that!
Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy, August 14, 1960
Today we commemorate one of those battles - the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 - the most important single piece of social welfare legislation in the history of this country. It was 25 years ago this very day that Franklin Roosevelt could say, after a long and arduous struggle: "Today a hope of many years standing is in large part fulfilled"; and with that he signed his name and social security became law.
For millions of Americans, with that one stroke of the pen, their insecurity and fear were transformed into hope - their poverty and hunger were transformed into a decent life - their economic degradation was transformed into a chance to live out their days in the dignity and peace they had so richly earned.
But the job which Franklin Roosevelt set out to do in 1935 is not yet done. That opening battle was won - but the war against poverty and degradation is not yet over. And no one realized this more than Franklin Roosevelt himself. "This law," he said, 25 years ago today as he signed it, "represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built, but which is by no means complete." We are here at Hyde Park today - not merely to commemorate the cornerstone - but to help complete the edifice....
No costs have increased more rapidly in the last decade than the cost of medical care. And no group of Americans has felt the impact of these skyrocketing costs more than our older citizens. Almost 20% of all those on social security must use one-quarter to one-half of their meager annual income for medical expenses alone. Those over 65 suffer from chronic diseases at almost twice the rate of our younger population - they spend more than twice as many days restricted to bed - and they must visit a doctor twice as often. And even these impressive figures do not tell us of the uncounted thousands who suffer from lack of needed medical care - from lack of vital drugs - and of hospitalization simply because they cannot afford to pay the bills.
Of course some of those who are now uncared for can get free health care. But such public assistance is often painstakingly slow, the tests for giving it are often rigid and unrealistic. The care itself is often impersonal and inadequate.
And even more important - thousands of our older citizens would rather endure pain and suffering than rely on public charity. And they should not have to ask for charity.
Commercial from the relection campaign of President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964:
On at least seven different occasions, Barry Goldwater has said he would drastically change the social security system. ... Even his running mate, [upstate New York Republican Congressman] William Miller, admits that Barry Goldwater's voluntary plan would wreck your Social Security.
Whenever they think they can get away with this, the Republicans trot out the same thing and try to do what they always do: take hard won benefits away from the middle class and the poor so that they reduce the taxes paid by the wealthy. Whenever they try to do it, and people see that they are trying to do it, they lose, and they lose big.
Including last night.