#TBT: President Roosevelt Creates Social Security

 

     On August 14th, 1935, the United States joined the rest of the developed world when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, a landmark piece of legislation that drastically cut poverty rates among the elderly with the Social Security system.

     Part of his "New Deal," Roosevelt signed the law with public support to allow the elderly to retire with dignity. Its constitutionality was upheld in two Supreme Court cases in 1937.