What is Social Security?
Question by Toby K : What is Social Security? What is Social Security? A. A federal department created in the 1950s “to enhance the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services” B. A collection of programs created in 1935, particularly Old-Age, Survivors, Disability, and Hospital Insurance (OASDHI), partially financed by mandatory payroll taxes and provided for older and disabled Americans C. A collection of social programs under President Franklin Roosevelt put together in the 1930s to lessen human misery while ending the economic downturn called the Great Depression D. A collection of social programs under President Lyndon Johnson put together in the 1960s to improve life for needy Americans
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Best answer:
Answer by Philip McCrevice
E. A mandatory government sponsored welfare system If you work, you must support it in taxes. If you do not work, you get SS money. Otherwise known as “the gravy train of the Democratic base” since it is primarily funded by hard working Republicans.
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aiminhigh24u2January 25, 2010 at 12:28 pm
E. None of the Above
The Social Security Act
In early January 1935, the CES made its report to the President, and on January 17 the President introduced the report to both Houses of Congress for simultaneous consideration. Hearings were held in the House Ways & Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee during January and February. Some provisions made it through the Committees in close votes, but the bill passed both houses overwhelmingly in the floor votes. After a Conference which lasted throughout July, the bill was finally passed and sent to President Roosevelt for his signature.
The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. In addition to several provisions for general welfare, the new Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement. (Full Text of President Roosevelt’s Statement At Bill Signing Ceremony.)
“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.”–
President Roosevelt upon signing Social Security Act
Major Provisions Of The Act
The Social Security Act did not quite achieve all the aspirations its supporters had hoped by way of providing a “comprehensive package of protection” against the “hazards and vicissitudes of life.” Certain features of that package, notably disability coverage and medical benefits, would have to await future developments. But it did provide a wide range of programs to meet the nation’s needs. In addition to the program we know think of as Social Security, it included unemployment insurance, old-age assistance, aid to dependent children and grants to the states to provide various forms of medical care.
(Full text of 1935 Act)
The two major provisions relating to the elderly were Title I- Grants to States for Old-Age Assistance, which supported state welfare programs for the aged, and Title II-Federal Old-Age Benefits. It was Title II that was the new social insurance program we now think of as Social Security. In the original Act benefits were to be paid only to the primary worker when he/she retired at age 65. Benefits were to be based on payroll tax contributions that the worker made during his/her working life. Taxes would first be collected in 1937 and monthly benefits would begin in 1942. (Under amendments passed in 1939, payments were advanced to 1940.)
The significance of the new social insurance program was that it sought to address the long-range problem of economic security for the aged through a contributory system in which the workers themselves contributed to their own future retirement benefit by making regular payments into a joint fund. It was thus distinct from the welfare benefits provided under Title I of the Act and from the various state “old-age pensions.” As President Roosevelt conceived of the Act, Title I was to be a temporary “relief” program that would eventually disappear as more people were able to obtain retirement income through the contributory system. The new social insurance system was also a very moderate alternative to the radical calls to action that were so common in the America of the 1930s.
Rex KJanuary 25, 2010 at 12:33 pm
If you don’t understand it. You must not be employed. Small contributions may provide some benefits for you & your dependents.