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“Where Is the Money Coming From?”1. The Reconstruction of Social Security Finance, 1939–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2011

Julian Emmanuel Zelizer
Julian Emmanuel Zelizer
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Albany
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Extract

Social Security has achieved a privileged status in American politics. As a result of the Social Security tax, supporters claim, recipients have not received unearned benefits, nor has Congress felt as if it were building a massive welfare state. Indeed, the Social Security tax system has legitimated the program in the minds of policy experts, politicians, and recipients. Through Social Security, the American state has forged a strong alliance with the elderly and their descendants, both with retirees who received cash payments and with working families who did not have to finance their parents' retirement years.

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Articles
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 1997 , pp. 399 - 424
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Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 1997

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References

Notes

2. Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, Final Report to the President, Washington, D.C., January 1995, 8Google Scholar.

3. Brownlee, W. Elliot, “Reflections on the History of Taxation,” in Funding the Modem American State, 1941–1995: The Rise and Fall of the Era of Easy Finance, ed. Brownlee, W. Elliot (Cambridge, 1996), 3–36Google Scholar.

4. Much of the recent historiography about Social Security has focused on the racial and gendered exclusions that were embedded, according to their analyses, in the policies. See, for example, Mink, Gwendolyn, The Wages of Motherhood: Inequality in the Welfare State, 1917–1942 (Ithaca, 1995)Google Scholar; Gordon, Linda, Pitied But Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare (New York, 1994)Google Scholar; Fraser, Nancy and Gordon, Linda, “‘Dependency’ Demystified: Inscriptions of Power in a Keyword of the Welfare State,” Social Politics 1 (Spring 1994): 12–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Quadagno, Jill, The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined The War on Poverty (New York, 1994)Google Scholar; idem, The Transformation of Old Age Security: Class And Politics in the American Welfare State (Chicago, 1988); Solinger, Rickie, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade (New York, 1992)Google Scholar; Katz, Michael, The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare (New York, 1989)Google Scholar; Patterson, James T., America's Struggle Against Poverty, 1900–1985 (Cambridge, Mass., 1981)Google Scholar.

My work raises three issues regarding the aforementioned literature. First, my findings suggest that there were many other crucial issues on the minds of policy experts and politicians, other than excluding particular groups, that drove the dynamics of Social Security politics. Finance was among the most important. Second, some of the limits built into the program, such as the regressive tax system, were implemented on pragmatic grounds so that the program could withstand political attack. Finally, Social Security policymakers believed in a gradual, incremental expansion of the program and many of the exclusions were gradually eroded. Many African American farm workers, for example, who were initially excluded from the program, were brought into the program through the 1950 amendments. It is essential to understand this long-term strategy in order to understand some of the policy exclusions initially built into the law. In short, my work begins with the question; How did federal policymakers accomplish what they did, despite the nation's antistarist political culture? as opposed to the question, Why were the accomplishments so limited?

5. For a discussion of the historical relationship between this anristatist tradition and public policy, see the following: Keller, Morton, Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth-Century America (Cambridge, Mass., 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Hawley, Ellis W., “Social Policy and die Liberal State in Twentieth-Century America,” in Federal Social Policy: The Historical Dimension, ed. Critchlow, Donald T. and Hawley, Ellis W. (University Park, Pa., 1988), 117–41Google Scholar; Karl, Barry D., The Uneasy State: The United States from 1915 to 1945 (Chicago, 1983)Google Scholar.

6. There were many precedents for the use of earmarked taxes to pay for contributory programs. On the federal level, there were a series of smaller programs for selected government workers that used a “contributory system” of finance. These included programs for employees of the federal and District of Columbia governments (1920); officers of the Foreign Service (1924); workers on the Panama Canal (1931); employees of Federal Reserve Banks and of die retirement system (1934); and railroad workers (1934). On the state and local level, die Wisconsin unemployment program required firms to pay taxes into their own reserve, which then funded benefits to workers when they were unemployed. Finally, in the private market, die insurance industry provided die clearest model for die use of earmarked contributions. Nonetheless, the Social Security Act marked a dramatic departure in scale and scope from anything that had existed in die past at die federal level. For the best work on the origins of earmarked taxes before the 1930s in the United States and abroad, see Richards, Richard, Closing the Door to Destitution: The Shaping of the Social Security Acts of the United States and New Zealand (University Park, Pa., 1994)Google Scholar, chap. 2; Gordon, Pitied But Not Entitled, chap. 6; Skocpol, Theda, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, Mass., 1992)Google Scholar, chap. 3; Baldwin, Peter, The Politics of Social Solidarity: Class Bases of the European Welfare State, 1875–1975 (Cambridge, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7. Teja, Ranjit S. and Bracewell-Milnes, Barry, The Case for Earmarked Taxes: Government Spending and Public Choice (London, 1991), 11Google Scholar.

8. Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers.

9. The main exception involves die debates over a negative income tax between 1964 and 1971. See Moynihan, Daniel P., The Politics of a Guaranteed Income: The Nixon Administration and the Family Assistance Plan (New York, 1973)Google Scholar; Quadagno, The Color of Welfare, 117–34.

10. See, for example, Skidmore, Felicity, ed., Social Security Financing (Cambridge, Mass., 1981)Google Scholar; Campell, Colin D., ed., Financing Social Security: A Conference Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (Washington, D.C., 1979)Google Scholar. In this article, 1 discuss only Old-Age Insurance. The Unemployment Compensation program, which also included an earmarked tax system, offers another important area of study that followed a different trajectory than Old-Age Insurance or Public Assistance.

11. On the debates over die payroll tax during die New Deal, see Leff, Mark, The Limits of Symbolic Reform: The New Deal and Taxation, 1933–39 (Cambridge, 1984)Google Scholar, chap. 1; Berkowitz, Edward D., America's Welfare State: From Roosevelt to Reagan (Baltimore, 1991), 13–65Google Scholar; Robert J. Myers, “Pay-As-You-Go Financing for Social Security Is die Only Way to Go,” Journal of the American Society of CLU & CHFC (January 1991): 52–58; Orloff, Ann Shola, The Politics of Pensions: A Comparative Analysis of Britain, Canada, and the United States, 1880–1940 (Madison, Wis., 1993)Google Scholar; Richards, Closing the Door to Destiaaion, chaps. 2, 5, and 6; Ball, Robert M., Social Security Today and Tomorrow (New York, 1978)Google Scholar; Otto Eckstein, “Financing the System of Social Insurance,” and Pechman, Joseph A., “Discussion of die Paper by Otto Eckstein,” in The Princeton Symposium on the American System of Social Insurance: Its Philosophy, Impact, and Future Development (New York, 1968), 47–73Google Scholar. For die best analysis of die corporate interests and influence behind this legislation, see Gordon, Colin, New Deals: Business, Labor, and Politics in America, 1920–1935 (Cambridge, 1994), chap. 7Google Scholar.

12. Cates, Jerry, Insuring Inequality: Administrative Leadership in Social Security, 1935–1954 (Ann Arbor, 1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Derdiick, Martha, Policymaking for Social Security (Washington, D.C., 1979)Google Scholar, chaps. 12, 13, and 17; Achenbaum, W. Andrew, Social Security: Visions and Revisions (Cambridge, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13. Zollars, Cheryl and Skocpol, Theda, “Cultural Mythmaking as a Policy Tool: The Social Security Board and the Construction of a Social Citizenship of Self-Interest,” in Political Culture and Political Structure: Theoretical and Empirical Studies, ed. Weil, Frederick D. for Research on Democracy and Society 2 (1994): 381–408Google Scholar; Balogh, Brian, “Securing Support: The Emergence of the Social Security Board as a Political Actor, 1935–1939,” in Federal Social Policy: The Historical Dimension, ed. Critchlow, Donald T. and Hawley, Ellis W. (University Park, Pa., 1988), 55–78Google Scholar.

14. Ikenberry, G. John and Skocpol, Theda, “Expanding Social Benefits: The Role of Social Security,” Political Science Quarterly 102 (Fall 1987): 404–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robert J. Myers, “Estimates of the Reserves Under the Old-Age Insurance System in the United States,” 18 September 1950, NAS, RG 47, Office of die Actuary, Box 37, File: 705,1950.

15. Compton, Ralph T., Social Security Payroll Taxes (New York, 1940), 31Google Scholar.

16. Robert J. Myers, “Methodology Involved in Developing Long-Range Cost Estimates for the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System,” May 1959, Actuarial Study No. 49, RMP, Unprocessed, 48–49; idem, “Actuarial Aspects of Financing Old-Age and Survivors Insurance,” Social Security Bulletin 16 June 1953): 7; Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 11 January 1950, WCP, Box 33, Folder 3.

17. Social Security Administration, “Facts About the Trust Fund of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System,” January 1950, NAS, Office of the Actuary, Box 37, File: 705,1950.

18. Weaver, Carolyn L., The Crisis in Social Security: Economic and Political Origins (Durham, N.C., 1982)Google Scholar, chap. 6; Berkowitz, , “The First Advisory Council and the 1939 Amendments,” in Social Security After Fifty: Successes And Failures, ed. Berkowitz, Edward D. (New York, 1987), 55–78Google Scholar; Cates, Insuring Inequality.

19. Wilbur Cohen to Myer Jacobstein, 31 August 1948, WCP, Box 28, Folder 4. For the best institutional analysis of the Social Security trust fund, see Patashnik, Eric M., “Credible Commitments? The Politics of Federal Government Trust Funds” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1996)Google Scholar.

20. Myers, “Actuarial Aspects of Financing Old-Age and Survivors Insurance”; idem, “Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Provisions: Summary of Legislation, 1935–1956,” Social Security Bulletin 20, (July 1957): 3–8; James S. Parker, “Financial Policy in Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, 1935–1950,” Social Security Bulletin 14 (June 1951): 3–10; Myers to Cohen, 11 January 1950, WCP, Box 33, Folder 3.

21. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1939,76th Congress, 1st sess., 1939; Weaver, The Crisis in Social Security, 118–19.

22. U.S. Department of Treasury, Division of Tax Research, “The Extetision of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance to the Self-Employed,” 5 December 1945, HTL, Papers of Fred Vinson, Roll 19. See also Wilbur Cohen to Professor Milton Handler, 12 October 1949, WCP, Box 29, Folder 4.

23. Marion Folsom, “Greater Security for Your Old Age,” 21 December 1948, NAS, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 26, File: Folsom.

24. Robert J. Myers, “Estimates of the Reserves Under the Old-Age Insurance System in die United States,” 18 September 1950, NAS, RG 47, Office of die Actuary, Box 37, File: 705,1950.

25. Technical Staff of the Office of die Secretary of the Treasury, “Questions and Answers on Social Security,” 11 March 1949, HTL, Papers of John W. Snyder, Box 85, Folder Questions and Answers on Social Security.

26. Robert Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 11 January 1950, WCP, Box 33, Folder 3; Myers, “The Financial Principle of Self-Support in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System,” April 1955, Actuarial Study No. 40, RMP, Unprocessed.

27. Roy Blough to Secretary Vinson, 28 February 1946, HTL, Papers of Fred Vinson, Roll 19.

28. Mark H. Leff, “Speculating in Social Security Futures: The Perils of Payroll Tax Financing, 1939–1950,” in Social Security: The First Half-Century, ed. Gerald D. Nash, Noel H. Pugach, and Richard F. Tomasson (Albuquerque, 1988), 243–78; The American Forum of the Air, “Should We Freeze the Social Security Taxr 5 December 1944, NAT, RG 56, Office of Tax Policy, Box 40, File: Social Security Finance.

29. Robert Myers to Mr. Williamson, 24 October 1946, NAS, Office of the Actuary, Box 40, File: 750.

30. Robert Myers to G. W. Calvert, 10 July 1947, NAS, Office of the Actuary, Box 26, File: C

31. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Amendments of 1949: Report Number 1300,81st Congress, 1st sess., 1949,4. For a brief scholarly discussion of the Murray amendment, see F. J. Crowley, “Financing die Social Security Program —Then and Now,” U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy, Studies in Public Welfare: Paper No. 18,93d Congress, 2d sess., 1974,29–32; Wilbur Cohen, “Financing,” 1960, WCP, Box 72, Folder 6; Derrhick, Policymaking for Social Security, 240–41; Leff, “Speculating in Social Security Futures,” 243–79, and Leff, “Historical Perspectives on Old-Age Insurance: The State of the Art on the Art of the State,” in Social Security After Fifty, 29–55.

32. Wilbur J. Cohen, “Cost Factors Under the Wagner-Murray and Dingell Bills,” 26 July 1943, WCP, Box 40, Folder 2; Robert Myers to Robert Ball, 17 June 1949, NAS, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 38, File: 710; Myers, “Estimates of the Reserves Under the Old-Age Insurance System in the United States,” 18 September 1950, NAS, RG 47, Office of die Actuary, Box 37, File: 705,1950.

33. Acting Secretary of die Treasury to James Webb, 1 August 1947, HTL, White House Bill File, Box 29, Folder August 6,1947 [H.R. 3813-H.R. 4079]; Technical Staff of die Office of the Secretary of die Treasury, “Questions and Answers on Social Security,” 11 March 1949, HTL, Papers of John W. Snyder, Box 85, Folder Questions and Answers on Social Security. See also J. S. Parker to Daniel Gerig, 23 April 1946, NAS, RG 47, Office of die Actuary, Box 1, File: Ways and Means Committee (1946).

34. Robert Myers, “Estimates of the Reserves Under die Old-Age Insurance System in die United States,” 18 September 1950, NAS, RG 47, Office of die Actuary, Box 37, File: 705,1950.

35. Robert Myers, “Material for die Meeting of die Advisory Council on Social Security,” 12–13 March 1948, NAS, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 5; U.S. Department of Treasury, “Comments on Congressman Reed's Statement on die Old-Age Insurance System,” 29 March 1939, NAT, RG 56, Office of Tax Policy, Box 36, File: Social Security and Relief.

36. In 1940, for example, there were only 222,000 people, less than one percent of the elderly population, receiving Social Security benefits. Weaver, The Crisis in Social Security, 126.

37. This paragraph is drawn from die following works: Lichtenstein, Nelson, “From Corporatism to Collective Bargaining: Organized Labor and Eclipse of Social Democracy in die Postwar Era,” in The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930–1980, ed. Fraser, Steve and Gerstle, Gary (Princeton, 1989), 140–45Google Scholar; Stevens, Beth, “Blurring the Boundaries: How the Federal Government Has Influenced Welfare Benefits in the Private Sector,” in The Politics of Social Policy in the United States, ed. Weir, Margaret, Orloff, Ann Shola, and Skocpol, Theda (Princeton, 1988), 123–48Google Scholar; Quadagno, The Color of Welfare, 155–73; Gordon, Pitied But Not Entitled, 1–3; 287–306; Berkowitz, , “Social Security and the Financing of the American State,” in Funding the Modem American State, 1941–1995: The Rise and Fall of the Era of Easy Finance, ed. Brownlee, W. Elliot (Cambridge, 1996), 148–93Google Scholar; Weaver, The Crisis in Social Security; Derdiick, Policymaking for Social Security; Cates, Insuring Inequality.

38. Derdiick, Policymaking for Social Security, 273; Berkowitz, America's Welfare State, 55–65; Cates, Insuring Inequality, 104–53; Berman, Jules H., “State Public Assistance Legislation,” Social Security Bulletin 12 (December 1949): 3–10Google Scholar.

39. Quadagno, The Transformation of Old Age Security and The Color of Welfare; Marmor, Theodore, Mashaw, Jerry, and Harvey, Philip, America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities (New York, 1990)Google Scholar.

40. Derthick,Policymaking for Social Security, 271–74; WUbur Cohen to Herbert Seibert, WCP, Box 66, Folder 5.

41. Staff Comments, “Memorandum for Mr. Murphy: Expansion and Extension of Social Security System,” 14 February 1949, WCP, Box 28, Folder 8. This document is also in HTL, Files of Charles S. Murphy, Box 27, Folder Social Security [Folder 2]. See also W. Rulon Williamson to Robert Myers, 26 March 1949, RMP, Box M86-W3, Unprocessed.

42. Mr.Berkowic, Edward D.Social Security: The life of Wilbur J. Cohen (Lawrence, Kan., 1995), 65–67Google Scholar.

43. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1949: Hearings, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 1949, 1081–83; 1221. See also Arthur Altmeyer, “Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance,” Social Security Bulletin 12, no. 4 (April 1949): 3–15; Richard Neustadt to Gerhard Colm, 16 December 1949, HTL, Papers of Richard Neustadt, Box 1, Folder Chron. Files, 1947–56; Mr. Kirby to Mr. Lynch, 9 November 1948, HTL, Papers of L Laszlo Ecker-Racz, Box 1, Bound Book.

44. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1949: Hearings, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 1949,1390.

45. WUbur Cohen to Arthur Altmeyer, 15 April 1948, WCP, Box 28, Folder 2; Robert Myers to M. A. Linton, 22 April 1949, RMP, Box M86-W3, Unprocessed. To improve the chances for passing this bill, Mills and the administration decided to avoid more controversial issues such as health insurance. See Charles Murphy to President Truman, 14 February 1949, and Murphy for the Files, 11 February 1949, HTL, Files of Charles S. Murphy, Box 27, Folder Social Security [Folder 2].

46. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 5 October 1949,13905.

47. Robert Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 25 February 1949, RMP, Box M83–106, Unprocessed; Myers to Carl Curtis, 5 May 1949, RMP, Box M86–43, Unprocessed; Myers, “Question Raised by Mr. Byrnes,” 5 April 1949, RMP, Box. M83–106, Unprocessed; Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 4 June 1947, RMP, Box M83–106, Unprocessed; Myers to Cohen, 24 June 1947, RMP, Box M83–106, Unprocessed. His views were seconded by an Advisory Council on Social Security, which recommended a substantial general-revenue contribution in future years. See Cohen and A. J. Altmeyer, 23 March 1948, WCP, Box 28, Folder 2; Myers, “Actuarial Cost Estimates for Proposals of Social Security Administration and Advisory Council,” 14 January 1948, RMP, Box M83–106, Unprocessed.

48. Gerhard Colm and David Christian to Leon Keyserling, 25 January 1949, HTL, Papers of Leon Keyserling, Box 9, Folder Social Security Program.

49. Robert M. Ball, “What Contribution Rate for Old-Age and Survivors Insurance?” Social Security Bulletin 12 (July 1949): 9. Likewise, the CIO and AFL proposed a provision allowing the balance of the cost to be paid through general revenues. See, for example, William Green to President Truman, 14 January 1949, HTL, Official FUes 121-A, Box 665, Folder O.F. 121-A, Unemployment Insurance, Social Insurance (May 1949-February 1949).

50. Cited in Derthick, Policymaking for Social Security, 240.

51. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1949: Hearings, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 1219.

52. Ibid., 1236.

53. Julian E. Zelizer, “Learning the Ways and Means: Wilbur Mills and a Fiscal Community, 1954–1964,” in Funding die Modem American State, 1941–1995, 289–352; idem, “Taxing America: Wilbur Mills and the Culture of Fiscal Policy, 1949–1969” (Ph.D. diss., The Johns Hopkins University, 1996).

54. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 5 October 1949,13905. Also cited in Leff, “Speculating in Social Security Futures,” 266. See also Colin Stam to Wilbur Mills, 28 May 1949, WMPC, Box 38, File: HR 6000.

55. Richard Neustadt to Charles Murphy, 14 July 1950, and Murphy to Wilbur Mills, 14 July 1950, HTL, Papers of Richard Neustadt, Box 1, Folder: Chron. Files, 1947–56. See also David Christian to Leon Key serling, 2 February 1949, HTL, Papers of Leon Keyserling, Box 9, Folder Social Security Program. For examples of how Myers attacked critiques of the emerging proposals, see Myers to M. A. Linton, 7 April 1949; Myers to Gordon McKinney, 11 April 1949; Linton to Myers, 20 April 1949; Myers to Reinhard Hohsus, 21 April 1949; Myers to Mills, 27 April 1949; Myers to Linton, 3 May 1949. The aforementioned documents are inRMP, Box M86–43, Unprocessed. See also Derthick, Policymaking for Social Security, 55–58.

56. For a glimpse into the discourse in which Mills, Myers, and Cohen engaged, see the following documents: U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Actuarial Cost Estimates for die Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System as Modified by the Social Security Act Amendments of 1950,27 July 1950, H4488 (Committee—Print); Robert Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 25 January 1950, WCP, Box 29, Folder 6; Myers to Cohen, 25 February 1949; Myers, “Question Raised by Mr. Byrnes,” 5 April 1949; Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 2 November 1949; Myers, “Actuarial Cost Estimates on H.R. 6000,” 2 November 1949. All the aforementioned documents between Mills and Myers are located in RMP, Box M83–106, Unprocessed. See also Myers to Mills, 29 March 1949; Myers to Mills, 15 April 1949; Myers to Mills, 26 April 1949; Myers to Mills, 27 April 1949; Myers to Mils, 5 May 1949; Myers to Mills, 9 May 1949; Myers to M A. Linton, 22 April 1949; Myers to Reinhard Hohaus, 26 April 1949; Myers to Gordon McKinney, 11 April 1949; Linton to Myers, 20 April 1949, all in RMP, Box M86–43, Unprocessed; Myers to Mills, 23 April 1949, NAS, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 1, File: HR 2893.

57. Robert Myers to Ida Merriam, 15 July 1949, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 38, File: 710.

58. Robert J. Myers, “Methodology Involved in Developing Long-Range Cost Estimates for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System,” May 1959, Actuarial Study No. 49, RMP, Unprocessed; idem, “Underlying Factors in Long-Range Actuarial Cost Estimates for OASD1 System,” 8 June 1962, RMP, Box M83–106, Unprocessed; Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 16 December 1948, WCP, Box 28, Folder 6; Myers to Cohen, 21 May 1948, WCP, Box 41, Folder 3; Myers, interview with Peter Corning, 8 March 1967, COHP, Interview #1,7–8; Myers to Jacob Periman, 6 May 1949, and Perlman to Cohen, 21 April 1948, NAS, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 17, File: 1950–1946.

59. Myers, “Methodology Involved in Developing Long-Range Cost Estimates for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System,” May 1959, Actuarial Study No. 49, and idem, “Long-Range Cost Estimates for the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance: 1954,” Actuarial Study No. 39, RMP, Unprocessed; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1949: Report Number 1300,81st Congress, 1st sess., 1949,32; Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 25 February 1949, RMP, Box M83–106, Unprocessed; Myers to Wilbur Mills, 5 May 1949, RMP, Box M86–43, Unprocessed; Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 5 January 1949, WCP, Box 28, Folder 7; Robert Myers to Mr. Williamson, 24 October 1946, NAS, Office of the Actuary, Box 40, File: 750.

60. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1949: Report Number 1300, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 1949, 2–3. See also The Advisor by Unemployment Benefit Advisors, Inc., 16 June 1949, WCP, Box 36, Folder 3; The Advisor by Unemployment Benefit Advisors, Inc., “Status of Deliberations in Ways and Means—Second Chapter,” 5 July 1949, WCP, Box 36, Folder 3; Wilbur Cohen to Edwin Witte, 28 September 1949, WCP, Box 29, Folder 3.

61. Acting Assistant Director, Legislative Reference to William Hopkins, 24 August 1950, HTL, White House Bill File, Box 75, Folder August 28,1950 [H.R. 6000-Folder 1].

62. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1949: Report Number 1300, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 1949.

63. Wilbur Cohen, “Bureau Directors' Meeting with Commissioner,” August 15,1949, WCP, Box 36, Folder 3.

64. Robert J. Myers, The Financial Principle of Self-Support in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System,” RMP, Unprocessed.

65. Oscar Ewing to President Truman, 6 July 1949, HTL, Files of Charles S. Murphy, Box 27, Folder Social Security.

66. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 4 October 1949,13835.

67. Ibid., 13836–7.

68. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 5 October 1949,13905.

69. Cited in Derthick, Policymaking for Social Security, 249.

70. Charles S. Murphy to President Truman, 6 October 1949, HTL, Files of Charles S. Murphy, Box 27, Folder: Social Security.

71. Richard Neustadt to Stephen Spingam, 21 May 1950, HTL, Papers of Richard Neustadt, Box 1, Folder Chron. Files, 1947–56.

72. Robert J. Myers, “Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Provisions: Summary of Legislation, 1935–1958,” Social Security Bulletin 22 (January 1959): 18; Wilbur J. Cohen, T h e Social Security Act Amendments of 1950: Legislative History of the Coverage Provisions,” n.d., WCP, Box 249, Folder 3.

73. Wilbur J. Cohen, The Need for More Adequate Financing of Medical Assistance,” n.d., WCP, Box 49, Folder 2; Ruth White, “Vendor Payments for Medical Assistance,” Social Security Bulletin 13 (June 1950): 3–10; Stevens, Robert B. and Stevens, Rosemary, Welfare Medicine in America: A Case Study of Medicaid (New York, 1974)Google Scholar.

74. Richard Neustadt to Charles Murphy, 14 July 1950, HTL, Papers of Richard Neustadt, Box 1, Folder. Chron. Files, 1947–56.

75. Robert J. Myers, The Financial Principle of Self-Support in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System,” April 1955, Actuarial Study No. 40, RMP, Unprocessed.

76. Robert J. Myers, “Estimates of the Reserves Under the Old-Age Insurance System in the United States,” 18 September 1950, NAS, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 37, File: 705,1950.

77. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Actuarial Cost Estimates for the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System as Modified by the Social Security Act Amendments of 1950,27 July 1950, H4488 (Committee—Print), 3–12; U.S. Department of Treasury, Tax Advisory Staff of the Secretary, “Financing Social Security,” 18 January 1952, HTL, Papers of L Laszlo Ecker-Racz, Box 6, Bound; Robert Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 10 November 1949, and Myers to Cohen, 2 November 1949, in NAS, RG 47, Office of the Actuary, Box 2, File: 1949.

78. Robert J. Myers, “Financing Policy,” 1954, DEL, Papers of Oveta Gulp Hobby, Box 60, Folder Background Book For 1954 Hearings, OASI.

79. Robert Myers to Wilbur Cohen, 11 January 1950. See also Myers, “Actuarial Balance of OASI System,” 25 May 1951; Myers to Cohen, 6 September 1951; Myers, “Actuarial Basis of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System as Contrasted with that of Private Life Insurance,” 6 June 1952, WCP, Box 33, Folder 3.

80. Robert J. Myers, “Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance: Financing Basis and Policy Under the 1958 Amendments,” Social Security Bulletin 21 (October 1958): 15–21.

81. Richard Neustadt to the Director, 14 December 1949, HTL, Papers of Richard Neustadt, Box 1, Folder Chron. Files, 1947–56.

82. Wilbur D. Mills, “Remarks to the Pulaski County Bar Association,” 30 October 1964, WMPC, Box 591, Folder Mills, Speeches.

83. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Congressional Record, 83d Congress, 2d sess., 18 March 1954, 3525.

84. Technical Staff of the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury, “Questions and Answers on Social Security,” 11 March 1949, HTL, Papers of John W. Snyder, Box 85, Folder Questions and Answers on Social Security, U.S. Congress, House Committee on Ways and Means, Social Security Act Amendments of 1949: Hearings, 81st Congress, 1st sess., 1949,1371.

85. President Truman to Senator Walter George, 25 July 1950, HTL, Official Files, Box 700, Folder O.F. 137 (March-April 1951).

86. David E. Bell to Charles Murphy, 23 May 1950, HTL, President's Secretary's Files, Box 160, Folder Treasury, Secy of (folder 2); Mr. Lynch to Secretary John Snyder, 21 June 1950, HTL, President's Secretary's Files, Box 160, Folder Treasury, Secy of (folder 2); Joseph Pechman to L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz, 7 March 1950, HTL, Papers of L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz, Box 2, Bound; L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz to Assistant Secretary Graham, 31 May 1950, HTL, Papers of L Laszlo Ecker-Racz, Box 1, Bound; “Representative Mills Would Bt-lance Budget by Speeding up Corporation Tax Collections,” 17 May 1949, WMPC, Box 701, File 1; Press Release, 17 May 1949, WMPC, Box 707, File 1 and Box 40, File 1.

87. Gerhard Colm and David Christian to Leon Keyserling, 25 January 1949, HTL, Papers of Leon Keyserling, Box 9, Folder Social Security Program.

88. Wilbur J. Cohen, “Should Old-Age Assistance Again Outpace Old-Age Insurance? WCP, Box 249, Folder 3; Robert J. Myers, “Long-Range Trends in Old-Age Assistance,” Social Security Bulletin 16 (February 1953): 13–15; “Public Assistance: Effect of the Increase in Current Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefits,” Social Security Bulletin 14 (September 1951): 3–6Google Scholar.

89. Robert J. Myers, “The Financial Principle of Self-Support in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System,” April 1955, Actuarial Study No. 40, RMP, Unprocessed; idem, “Long-Range Cost Estimates for Old-Age and Survivors Insurance: 1954,” Actuarial Study No. 39, RMP, Unprocessed.

90. Berkowitz, Mr. Social Security, 71–94. Within the Treasury, there were also economists who continued to support alternatives to the payroll tax to finance a portion of social insurance. See U.S. Department of Treasury, Tax Advisory Staff of the Secretary, “Financing Social Security,” 18 January 1952, HTL, Papers of L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz, Box 6, Bound.

91. See Wilbur J. Cohen, interview with Maclyn P. Burg, 31 March 1976, DEL, Oral History Interview Collection, 16–22; L. A. Minnich Jr., “Legislative Leadership Conference,” 17–19 December 1953, DEL, Ann Whitman File, Legislative Meetings Series, Box 1, Folder Legislative Meetings-1953(6) [August-December]; Dwight D. Eisenhower to J. Earl Schaefer (Boeing Airplane Company), 30 September 1954, DEL, Ann Whitman File, DDE Diary Series, Box 8, Folder September 1954 (1); Eisenhower to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, 5 November 1953, DEL, Ann Whitman File, DDE Diary Series, Box 3, Folder November 1953 (3); George Humphrey to Dwight Eisenhower, 5 November 1953, DEL, Ann Whitman File, Administration Series, Box 20, Folder Humphrey, George M. 1953 (2); Arthur Bums to the Eisenhower Cabinet, 17 May 1954, DEL, Ann Whitman File, Cabinet Series, Box 3, Folder Cabinet Meeting of April 2,1954; Robert J. Myers, “Financing Policy,” 1954, DEL, Papers of Oveta Culp Hobby, Box 60, Folder Background Book for 1954 Hearings, OASI; “Extracts from Secretary of die Treasury Humphrey's Press Conference,” 21 May 1953, DEL, White House Central Files, Official Files, Box 172, Folder 9 May 1953; Berkowitz, “Social Security and the Financing of the American State.”

92. Berkowitz, America's Welfare State, 92–93.

93. Robert J. Myers, “Financing Policy,” 1954, and idem, “The Interrelationship of the OASI Contribution Schedule and the Long-Range Cost Estimates,” 22 October 1953, DEL, Papers of Oveta Culp Hobby, Box 60, Folder Background Book for 1954 Hearings, OASI.

94. Robert Doughton to President Truman, 12 July 1952, HTL, Official Files 121-A, Box 656, Folder O.F 121-A, H.R. 7800, Social Security Amendments of 1952.

95. Julian E. Zelizer, Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1974 (Cambridge, forthcoming).