Robert Ball and the politics of Social Security / Edward D. Berkowitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berkowitz, Edward D.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ball, R. M. (Robert M.).

Ball, R. M.

United States. Social Security Administration--Officials and employees--Biography.

United States.

United States. Social Security Administration.

Social security--United States--History.

Social security.

Biography.

History.

Physical Description:

xx, 455 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, [2003]

Summary:

In the second half of the twentieth century, no one had more influence over Social Security than Robert Ball, who in 1947 wrote the key statement defining why social insurance, not welfare, should be America's primary income maintenance program. Drawing on exclusive access to Ball's papers and Ball's own extensive oral memoir created for this project, Edward D. Berkowitz explains how Social Security came to be America's most important social welfare program. Ball's role in expanding coverage to more workers, as well as in supporting the indexing of benefits to the rate of inflation, directly affected the lives of senior citizens and the overall U. S. economy. Finally, Berkowitz considers Ball's legacy in the face of the George W. Bush administration's goal of replacing Social Security with private accounts.

Contents:

Arriving

Bureau manager

Medicare

Expanding Social Security

Defender of the faith

Savior.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 367-427) and index.

ISBN:

0299189503

OCLC:

52031455