Say it ain’t so, Teach, say it ain’t so:
In a
Jan. 17, 1935, address to Congress, Roosevelt, the originator of the
federal retirement system, looked into the future and saw the need to
move beyond the pay-as-you go financing and eventually establish
"self-supporting annuity plans," noted Wall Street Journal columnist
John Fund."For
perhaps 30 years to come, funds will have to be provided by the states
and the federal government to meet these pensions," Roosevelt told
Congress.But
after that, he said, it would be necessary to move to "voluntary
contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the
annual amounts received in old age."Roosevelt
proposed that "the federal government assume one-half of the cost of
the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by
self-supporting annuity plans."
Oh, like President Bush is proposing, right? Now what, Contrarians? Here you have the head honcho for Social Security saying that this is the road we should go down. But, we all know that if it was Kerry proposing it, the Contrarians would be all for the plan.
Update: some info from Julie from Passing Thoughts, a thought that should not pass (which I had missed):
I have read a ton of smack today over the social security reform issue.
For quite a few years, my parents (who are over 55) have spoken of this
issue in regards to my brother and me, our spouses, our children and
their children. They’ve been worried about this for some time now. It’s
nothing new! Some people are running around here whinning as if this is
a new issue. When Pres Bush ran for Congress in 1978, he spoke of a
problem in the future with social security. That was over 20 years ago!
It’s not a new problem–it’s not gonna go away on it’s own–it’s going
to just get worse if something isn’t done. OK–President Bush compared
his proposition (personal accounts) to the Thrift Savings Plan. I can
speak of this firsthand because this is the retirement plan I have!
It’s great! There are 5 funds in which you can diversify your
money–they range from very, very safe to a little risky. I have mine
half and half and it’s grown to a very hefty sum in a short period of
time. I contribute (or I did when I worked full time) 12% which at the
time I enrolled was the max you could contribute. You cannot sit back
and expect it to take care of itself. You have to watch it carefully
which I do and it’s not a hard thing to manage. If you can manage a
checking account (which I realize not all people can,) you can manage
an account like this. Someone said that this is not a good thing unless
you are a financial wiz…not true! I’ll leave this topic with
this–why do you think I go work a few days here and there?? For my
health–NOT–I do it because I am a Federal Employee, I have a great
job with great benefits and I’d really like to hang on to it
(specifically b/c of the TSP) for when I do decided to return to work
full-time.
Exactically. Not a new problem, and not going to go away, no matter how hard the Contrarians want to poo poo it, because W is President. Let’s not wait to the point where we go "oh, shat. SS is toast."
You know–I wrote about this crap in my blog last week. You’re right–had Kerry or Hillary Clinton proposed this, it would’ve been the best thing since peanut butter..My father worked for the gov and contributed to the Thrift savings plan from the day they started it and even though he didn’t put into it as many years as I will, he has a hefty retirement..He and my mom surely couldn’t live off of Social Security even at their age..he’s been telling my brother and me FOR YEARS that Soc Security was headed downhill and something had to be done..it’s over and over, “Julie you better get somewhere with a good retirement b/c you won’t be able to draw much of anything Soc Security.” So I did. If Bush’s proposal is anything like the TSP, it should be good. It won’t be buggless..it’ll have to be reevaluated, tweeked and probably tweeked somemore to get it right..all and all, I think it’s a good plan!
Exactly, Julie. We need to get some sort of reform, then tweak it time and again to fit the situation.
There you go again with facts. When will you learn?
Excellent, excellent post. I’d heard that FDR had said this but hadn’t read it until I came across it here.
But then, I’ve always liked FDR, and would have voted for him. This sometimes makes me the odd man out among conservatives, but so be it. The quote you cite is more evidence; FDR knew well that Social Security would need to be changed. But he needed something during the depression and it was what the doctor ordered.
Modern liberals are just locked into big government everything.