1954: anyone attempting to abolish Social Security is stupid
Sometimes when I'm feeling unmoored, I reach for the collected letters of Dwight Eisenhower--a Republican of a different era, and a different stripe. Here's what Ike wrote about Social Security in a November 8, 1954 letter to his brother Edgar:
"Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.
There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other
Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Extend benefits to millions of citizens left out of system
This administration is profoundly aware of two great needs born of our living in a complex industrial economy. First, the individual citizen must have safeguards against personal disaster inflicted by forces beyond his control; second, the welfare of the
people demands effective and economical performance by the Government of certain indispensable social services.
There is urgent need for greater effectiveness in our programs, both public and private, offering safeguards against the privations that too
often come with unemployment, old age, illness, and accident. The provisions of the old-age and survivors insurance law should promptly be extended to cover millions of citizens who have been left out of the social-security system. No less important is
the encouragement of privately sponsored pension plans. Most important of all, of course, is renewed effort to check the inflation which destroys so much of the value of all social-security payments.