Protecting FDR’s Vision on Social Security’s 91st Birthday

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law 91 years ago -- on August 14, 1935 – he said its enactment was “historic for all time.” FDR was right. Nine decades later, Social Security remains one of the most successful – and most popular – federal programs ever. In poll after poll, overwhelming majorities of Americans across party lines approve of Social Security – and don’t want to see it cut. Despite public sentiment, there’s been a well-funded, long-term movement to undermine this landmark achievement of FDR’s New Deal. Many on the political right have opposed Social Security from the very beginning.
2026-08-14T18:25:55-04:00August 14th, 2026|Categories: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Social Security|

Thanks, Cato, But Let’s Not “Re-Imagine” Social Security (It’s Been Working for 90 Years)

What do you get when a libertarian think tank publishes a book proposing to radically change Social Security in collaboration mostly with other right-leaning organizations? You get something like “Re-imagining Social Security,” authored by the CATO Institute’s Ivane Nachkebia and Romina Boccia (who more than once has called the program a ‘legal Ponzi scheme’). Not surprisingly, to these authors, “re-imagining” the program that some 70 million Americans depend on for financial security essentially means altering the program beyond recognition and cutting benefits for future retirees. To which we say:  better not to let their imaginations run away with our earned benefits. The libertarian Cato Institute (which never met a federal program it liked) appears to be on a crusade to undermine the existing Social Security program. Just this week, Boccia published a post in Cato’s ‘Debt Dispatch’ blog, claiming that Social Security “operates on the Robin Hood principle in reverse.” This is, pardon the expression, quite rich coming from a think tank whose funders include the Koch network and mega-corporations like Google, Facebook, Philip Morris, the American Petroleum Institute and Chevron.

FDR Would Be “Fighting Mad” About Assaults on Social Security, Says Grandson on New Podcast

President Franklin D. Roosevelt would be “fighting mad” about conservative attempts to undermine Social Security, says his grandson, Jim Roosevelt on the first episode of our new podcast --- released this week.

Sorry, Slate Magazine, We Don’t Need to ‘Radically Rethink’ Social Security

Conservative think tanks and publications have been very busy this fall pumping out propaganda designed to undermine Social Security.  Of course, the conservative movement has been working to weaken or eliminate the program since the 1980s, and its messaging seeps quite seamlessly into the mainstream media narrative about Social Security. A recent opinion piece in Slate magazine is the latest example of anti-Social Security propaganda from the political right.
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