Social Security

Advocacy Groups

Prior to the enactment of Social Security in 1935, the issue attracted the attention of a variety of political leaders and spawned a diverse group of state and national advocacy groups. President Roosevelt made a political calculation that enactment of a national social insurance program would benefit his Democratic Party at the polls in successive elections. In the midst of the Great Depression, Roosevelt's party enacted a host of legislation aimed at helping Americans that were devastated by the economic collapse of the 1930s. Social Security became a central campaign issue for Roosevelt, which allowed his party to control the White House and Congress for more than two decades.

In successive election cycles, both major political parties advocated continuing Social Security, and even expanding provisions of the program. The electoral pressures to expand benefits began to grow, and in 1950, the Congress and President Harry S. Truman enacted a Cost of Living Adjustment or COLA that increased monthly benefit payments. The 1964 election cycle brought about a landslide electoral victory for President Lyndon B. Johnson. This allowed an overwhelmingly Democratic-controlled Congress to enact the Medicare program in 1965, guaranteeing health care coverage to Social Security recipients. This was a major expansion of the entitlement provisions of the Social Security Act that many scholars concluded was motivated by the electoral calculations of Congress and the president. Benefit and program cost increases continued during the administration of President Richard M. Nixon when the cost of living and the effects of inflation became a campaign issue in the 1972 and 1974 election cycles. Congress enacted a formal procedure that made automatic COLA adjustments to the program beginning in 1975. As a result, the current 46 million recipients receive an automatic annual increase in monthly checks based upon cost of living and inflation calculations from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, academics, government economists, and actuaries from the Social Security Administration began to signal potential shortfalls in the program in the 1980s that eventually led to the creation of a formal commission to study the potential liabilities of the program. The 1983 Commission, chaired by Alan Greenspan, concluded that the solvency of the program was at stake and urged the Congress to make changes to protect future beneficiaries. Many of the 1983 Commission recommendations were enacted into law, which would eventually raise the eligibility age above 65. During this period of time, advocacy groups, such as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), fiercely defended the entitlement provisions of the Social Security Act and used their constituency to either help or punish candidates who attempted to change the major provisions of Social Security. AARP and similar senior citizen groups continue to be a major political force in federal elections.

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