Social Security program turns 70 today

In 1935, Cal Rampton was working as a congressman's administrative aide in Washington, D.C. He was 21 years old and fully aware of groundbreaking legislation passing through Congress that year, in the midst of the Great Depression.

One measure called for creation of a "social security" program. While his parents never received what would become known as Social Security checks, Rampton — later to become a three-term governor of Utah, from 1965 to 1977 — remembers the impact of that law on aging neighbors.

The program offered a chance at stability and independence. It stretched budgets.

"I knew many elderly people that would not have had adequate means and were really dependent," says Rampton, now 91.

"I was quite cognitive of what was going through Congress. I was supportive of the dealmakers."

Today, the resulting "social insurance" program, while modified and facing challenges to its solvency, turns 70 years old, the Social Security Act having been signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Aug. 14, 1935.

President Bush spurred debate last winter when he made changes to Social Security a centerpiece of his State of the Union address. Debate had faded by summer, but Congress and interest groups are gearing up for a fight this fall over the program's future. House Republicans still hope to vote on some version of the revisions.

Regardless of current opinions of the program, it's a day to celebrate, according to pundits and Social Security administrators. Since inception, nearly 200 million Americans have received Social Security benefits. About $8.4 trillion has been paid out, beginning with the first monthly checks in January 1940.

"It is part of the fabric of the United States," said Doug Smith, public affairs specialist for the Social Security Administration's Denver office. "It has had such a beneficial effect on people. It's probably the most successful government program that's been invented."

When created, Social Security only gave retirement checks to the worker who paid into the program, according to the administration's Web site. In 1939, the program was changed to include payments to a spouse and dependents of a retired worker. Benefits were also given to survivors if a person who paid Social Security died. Disability benefits were also added.

"When Franklin Roosevelt signed the legislation into law, I'm not sure even he realized the significant role the program would play in the next seven decades," Jo Anne B. Barnhart, commissioner of Social Security, said in a press release.

"Retirement was something that happened when you could no longer work — not something you planned for in advance."