On this day in 1934, the Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The law created the Social Security program as well as insurance against unemployment. The law was part of Roosevelt’s New Deal domestic program.
By 1930, the United States was one of the few industrialized countries without any national social security system.[1] Amid the Great Depression, the physician Francis Townsend galvanized support behind a proposal to issue direct payments to older people. Responding to that movement, Roosevelt organized a committee led by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins to develop a major social welfare program proposal. Roosevelt presented the plan in early 1935 and signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935. The Supreme Court upheld the act in two major cases decided in 1937.
The law established the Social Security program. The old-age program is funded by payroll taxes, and over the ensuing decades, it contributed to a dramatic decline in poverty among older people, and spending on Social Security became a significant part of the federal budget. The Social Security Act also established an unemployment insurance program administered by the states and the Aid to Dependent Children program, which provided aid to families headed by single mothers. The law was later amended by acts such as the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which established two major healthcare programs: Medicare and Medicaid.
Thomas has been kidnapped!
FYI…
How the world sees the U.S. these days…
CHEEP!!
(Thanks, Bob!)
Today is the birthday, in 1948, of English bass guitarist Bruce Thomas, from Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Thomas was a member of Quiver, The Sutherland Brothers, Moonrider and Al Stewart in the early 1970s and has also worked with Billy Bragg, John Wesley Harding, Suzanne Vega, and Tasmin Archer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y71iDvCYXA&list=RD3Y71iDvCYXA&start_radio=1
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