Based on accusations regarding the borrowing of funds, President George W. Bush is frequently cited as having borrowed the largest amount, with estimates suggesting up to $1.37 trillion (or a net of around $708 billion) in Social Security surplus revenue was used during his administration for general government expenses. However, this "borrowing" is a routine, lawful process where the Treasury replaces surplus funds with special-issue bonds.
Bush financed income tax cuts and the Iraq war by plundering money from Social Security.
President Reagan signed major bipartisan Social Security reforms in 1983, primarily to address funding shortfalls, which included making some benefits taxable, gradually raising the full retirement age to 67, and accelerating payroll tax increases; he also signed legislation restoring minimum benefits and increasing penalties for misuse of Social Security numbers.
The FRA was originally set at 65 when Social Security was established in the 1930s. However, in 1983, Congress passed legislation to gradually raise the FRA to reflect increases in life expectancy and to help ensure the program's long-term financial stability.
Meanwhile, the tax rate reduction reduced the tax payments of middle class and poor taxpayers. The net effect was a marked shift in the tax burden toward the top 1 percent amounting to about 10 percentage points. Lower top marginal tax rates had encouraged these taxpayers to generate more taxable income.
February 2005 – Republican President George W. Bush outlined a major initiative to reform Social Security which included partial privatization of the system, personal Social Security accounts, and options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments.
Washington, D.C. – Today, the President signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA), bipartisan legislation authored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Senator Collins attended the bill signing ceremony at the invitation of the White House.
HEW reorganization plan published in Federal Register, creating the Health Care Financing Administration to manage the Medicare program. President Carter signed the Social Security Amendments of 1980. Major provisions involved greater work incentives for disabled Social Security and SSI beneficiaries.
Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) significantly expanded Social Security by signing the landmark 1965 Amendments, creating Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor, and boosting benefits; he also reorganized the Social Security Administration (SSA) and controversially moved its finances "on-budget," though he didn't steal funds, but rather shifted accounting to disguise war-related deficits.
After a Conference which lasted throughout July, the bill was finally passed and sent to President Roosevelt for his signature. The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935.
In this ten-minute recording, Reagan "criticized Social Security for supplanting private savings and warned that subsidized medicine would curtail Americans' freedom" and that "pretty soon your son won't decide when he's in school, where he will go or what he will do for a living.
On January 10, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012, reinstating lifetime Secret Service protection for his predecessor George W. Bush, himself, and all subsequent presidents. Richard Nixon relinquished his Secret Service protection in 1985, the only president to do so.
According to a 2003 Treasury study, the tax cuts in the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 resulted in a significant decline in revenue relative to a baseline without the cuts, approximately $111 billion (in 1992 dollars) on average during the first four years after implementation or nearly 3% GDP annually.
In a 2020 research paper, economists David Hope and Julian Limberg analyzed data spanning 50 years from 18 countries, and found that tax cuts for the rich increased inequality in the short and medium term, and had no significant effect on real GDP per capita or employment in the short and medium term.
So with Reagan's signature, Congress undid a good chunk of the 1981 tax cut by raising taxes a lot in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1987. George H.W. Bush signed another tax increase in 1990 and Bill Clinton did the same in 1993.
For a 70-year-old, average retirement savings vary significantly by source, but generally fall between $250,000 and over $600,000 (mean/average), while the median (half have less) is much lower, around $100,000 to $200,000, highlighting a wide gap due to high earners skewing averages. Key figures show the mean for ages 65-74 around $609,000, but the median for that group is closer to $200,000.