A few timid people, who fear progress, will try to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it ‘fascism,’ sometimes ‘communism,’ sometimes ‘regimentation,’ sometimes ’socialism.’ But, in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical.

Among constant chatter and debate about the proposed health care reform, this presidential quote seems just another drop in the rhetoric-bucket. Until, of course, one realizes the man who said it died before President Obama was born– President Franklin D.Roosevelt.

President Roosevelt’s initiative to provide social insurance for the elderly (aka the Social Security Act of 1935) has striking similarities to the health overhaul President Obama pitched with a new level of detail during his Sept. 9 address. Someone must have pointed this out to the current president, as he has recently been heard invoking the legacy of FDR in recent speeches in defense of the reform.

Let’s look at some of the similarities surrounding the SSA and the Health Reform

• Economical and societal change preceded each act. In 1935 the precipitating changes include the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, the Great Depression and an unheard of increase in the average life span. In 2009, they include the increase in private health care costs, 13 million uninsured “young invincibles,” and our stumbling economy in general
• The SSA and, if successfully adopted, the health reform are both game-changing feats of liberalism, nudging and redrawing the line between government and markets
• Discrimination concerns abound. When the SSA was passed, women and minorities were largely excluded from receiving benefits. As the bill evolved it became more egalitarian, though there are still charges of discrimination. In 2009 we have Sarah Palin’s enthusiastic claims about death panels that will determine who has a right to health care and life, to the peril of the terminally ill and disabled
• Democratic party opposition. The Republican opposition in both cases is fairly predictable, but the SSA caused a dramatic rift in the left as many felt the plan did not do enough or help a broad enough spectrum of people. Today, the left is divided over a similar issue: whether a strong enough “public option” will be drafted and passed in the health reform

Now, for the really juicy ones

• The “S” word. Critics of the SSA–from 1935 to today–and critics of the proposed health reform love our gut reaction to the word “socialism.” Even the former head of the Chamber of Commerce accused FDR of “soviet-izing” America. The Social Security Act revolutionized the role that American people expect the government to take. Nevertheless, as many see increased federal intervention and the Constitution at odds, protests and even Town Hall meetings have become rowdy and violent in recent days.
• Alas, we still haven’t found a tree that grows money (it would be decidedly un-green to ravage it anyway). Reporters are loving a second phrase lately: “Trillion dollar reform.” Though the proposed reform is supposed to cost someone $100 billion a year (the trillion is over 10 years), the president and lawmakers have yet to really nail down the details on where it’s coming from. Though the SSA and its payouts have been decidedly imperfect, we know where that money comes from now: our paychecks. Where it goes after that, well, that’s another story!