Current Challenges
Despite ostensible success, Social Security has routinely encountered economic and political challenges through the present day - particularly in the wake of the 2008 recession.
Despite conservative skepticism, economist Tim Smeeding of UW-Madison stated in an interview his belief that the problem of the Social Security fund running out of money was "absolutely solvable" through shifts in taxes and benefits. The article below references Witte and Smeeding in the name of preserving the program.
Then Senator Obama on Social Security, ABC News, 2007
Witte understood the needs of the working class, drafting the SSA with an intent of permanency, to sustain them when private institutions failed. Social Security forms the essential safety net that America needs for success.