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Roosevelt saw need for personal accounts: Said Social Security would require such reform by 1965
WorldNetDaily ^ | 2/7/05 | WorldNetDaily

Posted on 02/07/2005 6:42:12 PM PST by wagglebee

Democrats appealing to President Franklin Roosevelt in their opposition to President Bush's proposal to offer private Social Security accounts may have to turn elsewhere for inspiration.

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."

Fund quoted a top Republican member of the Ways and Means Committee.

"What Roosevelt was talking about is the need to update Social Security sometime around 1965 with what today we would call personal accounts," he said. "By my reckoning, we are only about 40 years late in addressing his concerns on how [to] make Social Security solvent."

In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush argued that without reform, Social Security will go into the red by 2018 and be bankrupt by 2042.

"With each passing year, fewer workers are paying ever-higher benefits to an ever-larger number of retirees," he said.

The president has proposed that younger workers be allowed to invest a small portion of their income in tightly restricted personal retirement accounts. In the first year the maximum investment would be limited to $1,000 a year, with an increase of $100 each year thereafter.

But last week, Democrats sought to dramatize their fight against President Bush by holding a news conference at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.

Noting that he represents Las Vegas, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has called Bush's proposal a "dangerous" plan akin to gambling.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; democrats; fdr; ownership; retirementaccounts; roosevelt; socialsecurity
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It appears that FDR was willing to relinquish the government's control, something today's 'Rats would rather perish than do.
1 posted on 02/07/2005 6:42:12 PM PST by wagglebee
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To: wagglebee
It appears that FDR was willing to relinquish the government's control, something today's 'Rats would rather perish than do.

If FDR were alive today, he, like Zell Miller, would be disgusted by the conduct of today's Democrats...........Especially the way they have taken over the jobs of Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose of undermining the U.S. war effort by any propaganda means they can.

2 posted on 02/07/2005 6:48:15 PM PST by Polybius
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To: wagglebee

There's one you won't see in the MSM. It would upset the AARP.


3 posted on 02/07/2005 6:48:24 PM PST by GVnana (If I had a Buckhead moment would I know it?)
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To: wagglebee

Waiting for this DIM bubble bursting information to make the rounds to the American public via Fox and other news sources...


4 posted on 02/07/2005 6:48:58 PM PST by frogjerk
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To: Polybius

And JFK would probably kick the crap out of his drunken brother!


5 posted on 02/07/2005 6:50:05 PM PST by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: wagglebee
"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."

And the dictatorship of the proletariat will wither away....

6 posted on 02/07/2005 6:50:31 PM PST by freebilly
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To: freebilly
And the dictatorship of the proletariat will wither away....

Except the American commies don't seem any fonder of this concept than their Soviet comrades did.

7 posted on 02/07/2005 6:53:04 PM PST by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: GVgirl
AARP

Aged Activists Reaping Profits

8 posted on 02/07/2005 6:53:14 PM PST by frogjerk
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To: wagglebee
It appears that FDR was willing to relinquish the government's control, something today's 'Rats would rather perish than do.

this is too perfect. i never would have attributed such restraint to him (and I'm still skeptical).

9 posted on 02/07/2005 7:01:51 PM PST by the invisib1e hand ("What are you gonna believe, the media, or your own eyes?" -- Marx .............(Groucho))
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To: wagglebee

Even FDR realized that it was a Ponzi scheme destined to fail yet the 'Rats today cannot. But this is about fighting ANYTHING that would tend to help Bush, even if it is bad for America.


10 posted on 02/07/2005 7:02:19 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (God is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Polybius
If FDR were alive today, he, like Zell Miller, would be disgusted by the conduct of today's Democrats...........

The man who tried to pack the court? I'm not sure I agree with you.

11 posted on 02/07/2005 7:10:03 PM PST by CaptRon (Pedecaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: the invisib1e hand
i never would have attributed such restraint to him (and I'm still skeptical).

Actually, this makes sense.

While Roosevelt introduced the concept of entitlements to America, the simple fact of the matter is that Roosevelt probably gave us the bare minimum we could have gotten away with during the Depression. He was squeezed into where he was by the more radicals, such as Father Coughlin and Huey Long, who would have been much more redistributory. Things really could have been a lot worse.

This gives more credence to my suspicion that Roosevelt was as moderate as he could be at the time. Part of the rationale for social security during the Depression was to get the old guys out of the workforce and replace them with younger workers.

12 posted on 02/07/2005 7:13:38 PM PST by jude24 ("To go against conscience is neither right nor safe." - Martin Luther)
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To: wagglebee

I'll be damned!


13 posted on 02/07/2005 7:22:41 PM PST by Mears ("Call me irresponsible")
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To: wagglebee
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.

I would like to see a transcript of this speech - for all the debate about accounts as long as it's been happening and only NOW is something like this being quoted? It's almost 'convenient'.

14 posted on 02/07/2005 7:27:46 PM PST by solitas (So what if I support a platform that has fewer flaws than yours? 'Mystic' dual 500 G4's, OSX.3.6)
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To: solitas

http://www.search.eb.com/elections/pri/Q00111.html


15 posted on 02/07/2005 7:30:37 PM PST by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: solitas

Here ya go.........4th paragragh from the bottom.......
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/32_f_roosevelt/psources/ps_socsecspeech.html


16 posted on 02/07/2005 7:35:38 PM PST by mcgiver38
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To: wagglebee; Liz; Howlin; ALOHA RONNIE; RonDog; Mudboy Slim
"What Roosevelt was talking about is the need to update Social Security sometime around 1965 with what today we would call personal accounts," he said. "By my reckoning, we are only about 40 years late in addressing his concerns on how [to] make Social Security solvent."


17 posted on 02/07/2005 7:45:14 PM PST by Libloather (The left is dead! Long live their impeached *King and *Queen!)
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To: solitas
Almost too convenient! Take a sentence or two out of context and what do you get? More questions and distrust. Better, however, to distrust now than to find out--too late--that you have mistrusted.

Transcripts of all of FDR's statements concerning Social Security can be found here:
http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html
And, if you're interested, FDR's 1935 State of the Union Address can be found here:
http://www.albany.edu/faculty/gz580/his101/su35fdr.html

18 posted on 02/07/2005 8:11:17 PM PST by Longwalled Newbie
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To: jude24

No one but me has ever mentioned on FR, what would have happened if there had been no COLA? It was put in by Johnson, and most likely a demo congress. There was so much money in the fund at that time [on paper] they had to start spending it. Also it was an increase twice a year and it went through the Carter years that way, remember it was tied to the inflation rate, and just remember what in flation was under Carter.

My step father died in 1953 , was 77, had collected SS for 4 or 5 years, and recieved the same amount every month $17.00.

Frannie


19 posted on 02/07/2005 8:44:27 PM PST by frannie (I REPEAT --THE TRUTH WILL SET US ALL FREE--)
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To: wagglebee

bump


20 posted on 02/07/2005 8:57:24 PM PST by satchmodog9 (Murder and weather are our only news)
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