It’s Up to All of Us to Protect Social Security

by Rose Ann DeMoro

“One thing I know. Social Security is so firmly embedded in the American psychology today that no politician, no political group could possibly destroy this Act and still maintain our democratic system. It is safe forever, and for the everlasting benefit of the people of the United States.” —Frances Perkins, on the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Social Security Act (from the book, The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience)

Good thing Frances Perkins is not hearing the disinformation from Washington and many in the media today claiming Social Security is going broke and that there is a “consensus” that cuts are needed in Social Security to reduce the federal deficit.

Or the disgraceful assertion that people who receive Social Security, or other public assistance, are “takers” who, as Mitt Romney said in the now infamous tape of a private meeting with donors last May, do not “take personal responsibility or care for their lives.”

Social Security may be the most enduring, successful, and popular reform in U.S. history. But, in the 77 years since its inception, it has never faced as grave a threat as it does today.