The Bomb-Proof Power
The Bomb-Proof Power
This chapter presents a close examination of the drafting of the Social Security Act which corrects some key misperceptions of this history. Today, it is generally understood that the Constitution was an impediment to the adoption of a national scheme for unemployment and other forms of social provision during the New Deal. But this view was absent at the time. Instead, all of the lawyers involved in producing the Social Security Act believed that the spending power, based on the precedent of disaster relief, was broad enough in 1934 to permit the government to operate a national system of unemployment insurance. Indeed, legal experts at the time viewed the mixed federal-state programs that were pursued for political reasons as far more constitutionally vulnerable.
Keywords: Social Security Act, Constitution, social welfare, New Deal, spending power, disaster relief, unemployment insurance
Chicago Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
