Social Contract

In building the case for what became Social Security, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 spoke of employing “the active interest of the Nation as a whole through government in order to encourage a greater security for each individual who composes it.” This is at the heart of what we call the social contract, the basis for providing economic security for our aged, our disabled and others who need, as Roosevelt then put it, a “safeguard against misfortunes which cannot be wholly eliminated in this man-made world of ours.”

Conservatives have always opposed the idea of government assuming this basic obligation of a compassionate society. We view our mission as defending the social contract against conservative opposition and demonstrating that the promises of the past can be sustained for the future.

Blogs and Opinion

THE LATEST

BLOGS AND OPINION

Making Voting Constitutional by Jamelle Bouie, prospect.org | January 30, 2013
Employees? Consumers? Feh! by Harold Meyerson, prospect.org | January 28, 2013
A Call for a New Social Covenant by Jim Wallis, Huffington Post | January 24, 2013
What Is Social Insurance? by James Kwak, baselinescenario.com | January 24, 2013
Suspending The Debt Ceiling Is A Great Idea. Let’s Do It Forever! by Ezra Klein, The Washington Post | January 23, 2013
Safety Net Under Siege by David Elliot , otherwords.org | January 2, 2013
FDR's 47 Percent: Will the Democrats Finally Heed Their Voices? by David Woolner, nextnewdeal.net | December 4, 2012
Arm Yourself For Fiscal Cliff Arguments by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | November 19, 2012
Why BP Isn’t a Criminal by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | November 16, 2012
Sherrod Brown Reelected Voicing Middle-Class Populism And Class-War Campaigning by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | November 15, 2012

The GOP Payroll Tax Plan Does So Stink

Terrance Heath

December 1st, 2011

No doubt Republicans know the fight over extending the payroll tax is one they could lose. Thus, they've pivoted away from opposing the extension, and have presented a plan of their own — one that Timothy Noah says the Democrats should be willing to work with because it "doesn't stink."

Well, in my experience, just because you can't smell something doesn't mean it doesn't sink. Some things "pass the smell test" because of a faulty sniffer; not because they don't stink. And the GOP's payroll tax plan does so stink.

Don't Kill Jobs and Growth In The Name Of Deficit Reduction

Don't Kill Jobs and Growth More than 300 economists, policy experts and civic leaders have signed a statement warning political leaders of “a grave danger” that the still-fragile economic recovery will be undercut by austerity economics of the kind being pushed by conservative politicians and by the White House deficit commission. Read the statement and related commentary on the critical choices we must make to revive the economy.

Social Security Isn't Broke

In the deficit hysteria now sweeping Washington, Social Security has emerged in the bull's-eye as a target for cuts. But the best "fix" for Social Security is simply to tell the truth about it. Social Security isn't broke; there is no need to "fix" it. We explain why.

Don't Kill Jobs and Growth In The Name Of Deficit Reduction

'AmericaSpeaks' Deficit Town Hall Meetings In Perspective

AmericaSpeaks, an organization funded in part by the conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation, sponsored a series of town hall meetings designed to build public support for eviscerating the social contract between Americans and the most economically vulnerable among us, particularly those on Social Security and Medicare. Did the right-wing deficit hawks get the mandate they hoped for? We don't think so, and these articles explain why.

'Virtual Summit' Offers Progressive Approaches To Addressing The Deficit

We cannot allow the debate about how to address our federal budget deficit to be a one-sided discussion dominated by conservatives who want to cut Medicare and Social Security. For our Virtual Summit on Fiscal and Economic Responsibility, we asked several experts and activists to lay out progressive approaches to reducing the federal deficit without sacrificing economic security for the most vulnerable. Get the information you need to make sure we have a real, democratic debate about the future of our safety-net programs and the pathway to a sustainable federal budget.