What was America’s first Social Security Program?

1. What was America’s first Social Security Program? • English Poor Laws • Agrarian Justice • Civil War Pensions • Immigrant Assistance

2. What was the main contribution to the creation of Social Security? • War of 1812 • The Civil War • Teddy Roosevelt • The Great Depression

3. Social Security was passed in what year? • 1922 • 1935 • 1919 • 1892

4. http://www.ssa.gov/history/35actpre.html

5. Social Security is to aid all of the following except? • People of old age • The disabled • The widowed • The worker

6. How was the Social Security Act going to provide for Americans in a different way than they had previously been provided for?

7. Why do you believe the Social Security Act identified these particular groups in its preamble?

8. According to the preamble, what problem is the Social Security Act solving? Under this system, what does the federal government do and what do the states do? Why divide their duties in this way?

9. What role is assigned to government in the reading? (For instance, does the speaker call for strong federal government oversight, state control, or very limited governmental support?) • Does the speaker believe that the Social Security Act will help or harm the people of the United States? • What is the speaker's reasoning for his or her argument? Pay particular attention to whether their position is based on evidence, logic, or economic and political ideology. • Do you agree or disagree with the author of your document? Why or why not? • Do you think contemporaries would have found his or her arguments convincing? Why or Why not?

10. Basics of Social Security • Retirement • Disability • Survivors

11. Retirement • Can start drawing at age 62 and receive partial benefits. (Only 75% of full retirement)

12. Disability • Where one can not work due to a physical or mental condition that is expected to last at least one year or result in death. • In order for one to receive disability benefits they have to present medical records, names of doctors, laboratory and test results.

13. Survivors • When one dies, their family members are eligible to receive benefits. • Includes a widow or widower at a old age or at any age if he or she is caring for a child under 16. • Survivors who are children can receive benefits too.

14. Problems with Social Security Today • Current system will create disproportionate burdens for current and future youth, if left as-is. • When Social Security was started, there were 16 active workers paying in for every retiree. • In the future, there will be about 1 or 2.

15. Problems Continued • Some people say the problem isn’t whether our system is to go broke, but when is it going to go broke? •    Under current projections, we will be dipping into the so-called “trust fund” by 2018 • The Obama Administration had to raise the debt ceiling in order to make sure every recipient of Social Security got their check. • Social Security is where the majority of the federal budget goes. (20% of the budget. $707 Billion in 2010)

16. What are Politicians Saying? • Rick Perry and many other politicians say Social Security is unconstitutional. • Obama wants to cut the Social Security budget by $200 Billion over the next ten years. • Rick Santorum wants to partially privatize Social Security.

17. Myth or Fact? Do members of Congress have to pay into Social Security? YES!

18. What direction do you want Social Security to take in the future? • What are the necessary steps our nation is going to have to take to keep Social Security going? • Do you feel that Social Security is constitutional or unconstitutional?