Today we celebrate the 88^th anniversary of the Social Security Act being signed into law! Over nearly a century, it has since become a bedrock of social justice policy and law in the United States, growing to encompass many important health and economic security programs, most notably unemployment insurance, workers compensation, retirement income, disability insurance and SSI, maternal and child health and welfare, and Medicare and Medicaid.

Social Security programs are beloved and highly valued by people across the US, across the political spectrum. Yet there are still forces who want to scale it back or privatize it in the name of supposedly “saving it” and the ideas they talk about would actually undermine it as a social insurance program benefiting millions who live paycheck-to-paycheck.  

There are simple ways to stabilize the Social Security Trust Fund for many years into the future, such as lifting the cap on annual income subject to FICA contributions. In addition, there are bills in Congress to actually strengthen and expand Social Security to provide more help to more people. Meanwhile, House Speaker McCarthy says he favors setting up a special commission to fast-track changes behind closed doors – we know that’s a really bad and scary idea that will threaten the financial security and health of tens of millions of people and families.

How best to celebrate Social Security:

• Join a special virtual town hall today at 1 p.m.(E) on either YouTube or Facebook.
• Contact Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and YOUR House Rep. and tell them to reject Speaker McCarthy’s special commission idea. Urge them to instead support the Social Security Expansion Act (S.393/Sanders, HR 1046/Schakowsky) and the Social Security 2100 Act (S.2280 Blumenthal, HR 4583/Larson)
• Watch this terrific recent webinar about the history of Social Security and what can be done to protect and improve it:

AND IN ADDITION…

There’s one other, NEW anniversary happening this Wed. Aug. 16 – the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law just one year ago. It is taking historic steps to lower Rx drug prices and co-pays for people on Medicare, and it can be built on to lower drug prices for people with other kinds of insurance over time.

We’re marking this new political holiday by holding a protest against the greedy drug corporations who are suing Medicare to stop its new Rx drug price negotiation program that will start to move ahead publicly in just 3 weeks on Sept. 1^st.

Here’s all the information on our protest. Please join us this Wed. at noon in lower Manhattan, along the Hudson River adjacent to the World Trade Center complex. Here are social media resources you can also use.