This week will mark the 70th anniversary of the Social Security Act.
On August 14, 1934, The Progressive wrote about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal victory in securing real income security for Americans in the aftermath of the Great Depression caused by the Wall Street crash of 1929. (A copy of that story about this historic law can be downloaded below.) As detailed in that story, the bill did not pass Congress unanimously and was attacked by the rightwing of that era.
For seven decades, Social Security has been under attack by opponents who consider government-guaranteed pensions for Americans to receive as they get older or if they become disabled to be socialism and unAmerican.
Social Security is one of the most successful and most popular government programs in American history.
For more than 30 years, opponents of Social Security have peddled the lie that the Social Security Trust Fund is going bankrupt or is nearly insolvent.
The roots of the efforts to attack Social Security run deep in the far right.
They include CEOs such as Fred Koch, who promoted the John Birch Society’s red-scare-era smears that such New Deal reforms were “socialist” or “communist.” In the 1960s, Fred’s sons, Charles and David, inherited his fortune—and his ideas. Charles began funding think tanks to develop arguments for dismantling Social Security.
David ran for vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket with a platform that included privatizing Social Security. Since then he’s spent millions on groups to push disinformation about Social Security and promote an array of sophisticated corporate propaganda. The donations of Koch Industries and others to groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that promote claims that Social Security is going broke have paid off.
Also, as detailed in SourceWatch (which is published by The Progressive/the Center for Media and Democracy), billionaire Peter Peterson has pledged a billion dollars to attacking Social Security.
Last year, CMD uncloaked and debunked one of the astroturf groups funded by Peterson, called “Fix the Debt,” which lost its battle last year to get a “grand bargain” on the deficit that would include harmful changes to Social Security.
But, it is part of the rightwing playbook to attack Social Security in a variety of ways, most often by asserting it’s broke and sometimes by calling it a scam, as did most of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates, or a even a “pyramid scheme,” as asserted by Rep. Michelle Bachmann of the Tea Party caucus in Congress.
The truth is that Social Security wasn’t broke in 1980, 1990, or 2012, and it’s not broke today.
According to trusted actuaries, in about 25 years Social Security could face a shortfall—a gap that would allow it to pay most but not all of the earned benefits—unless it’s fixed.
One easy solution is to apply Social Security taxes to all earned income. Under the current system, any wages over the first $106,800 are exempt from Social Security withholding. If we close this loophole soon, the potential shortfall—a quarter century from now—would be solved. Only about 6 percent of Americans earn that much, and removing this exemption would help ensure that the other 94 percent have the protection of this basic social safety net for decades to come.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $110,000 in one-time donations and to add 1350 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
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With gratitude and resolve,
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