I worked for Social Security Administration in a local office beginning with Nixon and Ford who supported Social Security (and the hiring of many new Federal employees to set up the Supplemental Security Income program that replaced and improved inadequate local welfare programs for elderly and disabled and is NOT funded by Social Security payroll tax Trust Fund).
Under Carter there were actions to rein in spending such as stopping payments of Social Security disability to prisoners and tightening disability requirements, to allay concerns about waste and abuse of the system.
But not until Reagan did officials try to undermine public support for Social Security by adding remarks to the official Social Security brochures and leaflets stating that the program needed to be fixed because it was going broke. I was shocked because we had always assured people that the program was sound and successful and those who paid in sufficiently would get their promised benefits. It's the only Federal program that fully pays for itself AND has had a continuous surplus because of the payroll tax.
Under Reagan/Greenspan and Dems who went along, the benefit formula and COLAs were reduced, age for full benefits raised and benefits began being subject to Federal income taxes. Despite those changes, the last earnings statement I got in mail before GW Bush left office said that the Trust Funds would be exhausted by 2041 and unable to make promised payments unless measures were taken to fix it. Bush's push for privatization failed but a Repub President will again push for privatization (at least to contract handling claims and benefits instead of Federal employees) , reduced COLAs, another age increase for full benefits plus some kind of reduction in disability payments rather than expanding the payroll tax for higher earners.
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