On August 14, 1935, the Social Security Act was enacted ... "To provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of federal old-age benefits and by enabling the several states to make more adequate provision..." The real significance of this Act is that it was the country's first major federal government program to deal directly with the economic security of its citizens. Before then, such matters were handled by states and private sources. Federal action became necessary …showed first 75 words of 1062 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1062 total…news.yahoo.com/040225/ap/d80ugs9g1.html+social+security+at+a+glance&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 http://www.freep.com/money/business/tompor8_20040308.htm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4390276/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4467643/ http://www.ssa.gov http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/fool/20040308/bs_fool_fool/1078763760 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040226/ts_latimes/socialsecuritycutsnecessarygreenspansays