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1936 › Alf Landon (Republican) › How to finance old-age and unemployment insurance (contributory reserve vs. pay-as-you-go)
Repeal the compulsory old-age insurance plan; pay every needy citizen over 65 a pension from a direct, widely distributed tax
pledge_forwardspecific_pledgecandidate_directevidence A Relief, Welfare & Social InsuranceTaxation⚡ The "Second New Deal" (1935)⚡ Townsend old-age pension movement similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Repeal the payroll-tax insurance titles; amend the needy-aged title so every citizen over 65 gets the supplementary payment needed for a minimum income, financed pay-as-you-go by 'a direct tax widely distributed' and federal grants matching State contributions.
Rationale
The 1935 plan 'assumes that Americans are irresponsible'; it is 'the largest tax-bill in history', a tax on employment shifted to workers and consumers, and its reserve is 'roll after roll of neatly executed I.O.U.'s' -- 'a cruel hoax.'
Statements (7)
We approve a pay-as-you-go policy, which requires of each generation the support of the aged and the determination of what is just and adequate.
Every American citizen over sixty-five should receive the supplementary payment necessary to provide a minimum income sufficient to protect him or her from want.
In addition, we shall amend the Social Security Act to make it workable. We recognize that society, acting through government, must afford as large a measure of protection as it can against involuntary unemployment and dependency in old age. We pledge that the Federal Government will do its proper share in that task.
In my own Judgment--and I have examined It most carefully--this law is un just. unworkable, stupidly drafted and wastefully financed.
To get a workable old-age pension plan we must repeal the present com pulsory insurance plan. The Repub lican party is pledged to do this.
I am not exaggerating the folly of this legislation. The saving it forces on our workers is a cruel hoax.
We propose that the funds for security pay ments shall be provided as we go along. We propose that they shall be obtained from a direct and spe cific tax widely distributed.
Follow-through
not_applicable
The compulsory insurance titles were not repealed, but the 1939 amendments froze the payroll tax at 1 percent, scrapped the reserve account for a trust fund, enlarged early benefits and added dependents -- moving toward the pay-as-you-go principle Landon had urged.
Enacted by others
| 1939-08-10 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | statute Social Security Act Amendments of 1939 | Partial adoption: pay-as-you-go financing and larger immediate benefits, without repeal. source |
Reception (2)
Landon, who had promised to make the Act workable, instead proposed to demolish it and substitute an old-age dole; repealing the unemployment title amounted to abolishing unemployment insurance.
It is all the more disappointing, therefore, that in his Mil waukee speech on social security, Gov. Landon, who promised suggestions to make the Federal act workable, actually pro poses to demolish it and substitute an old age dole for the needy.
A pension plan that 'will WORK', financed by an earmarked tax instead of borrowing; the first completely honest statement in the campaign on the subject.
But Governor Landon UNLIKE PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT--insists on a pension and security plan that WILL GIVE RESULTS.
Other positions on this issue
- The Social Security Act is 'unworkable and unsound' -- 'lip service to security'; a Republican administration would offer its own legislation — Frank Knox, 1936 directional_stance
- Defense of the payroll-tax financing: the employer pays an equal share and the reserves are safe — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 specific_pledge
1936-landon-repeal-compulsory-old-age-insurance-for-pay-as-you-go-pension · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed