On the issues in which the Radical and Moderate Progressives were united, nothing could stop them now that the filibuster-proof majority had been attained. The Workers' Rights Act established the right for unions to engage in collective bargaining and closed shop, and led to a massive increase in union power and membership. It also mandated a legally-required 40 hour maximum workweek, with anyone working over that having to voluntarily agree to do so with no threat to their job, and being paid extra. The Progressives did not only increase the rights of workers, they also altered the laws to decide who could work. Throughout the state legislatures, the Child Labor Amendment, which passed Congress in 1924, was finally ratified:
23rd Amendment to the United States Constitution said:
Section 1. The Congress shall have power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age.
Section 2. The power of the several States is unimpaired by this article except that the operation of State laws shall be suspended to the extent necessary to give effect to legislation enacted by the Congress.
Congress immediately passed a law outlawing labor by individuals under the age of 16 except at their own parent's company, farm, or shop. Tacked onto the Child Labor Act was an expansion of the American Employment Agency, and a raise to the salary of the employees thereof, in hopes of offsetting any economic trouble by families who depended on children working.
Perhaps the crowning glory of the 74th United States Congress's laws passed in 1935 was the Social Security Act. Many questioned the scale and feasibility of the act, with moderate Progressives balking at first. However, Vice President La Guardia convinced all of the moderate Progressive Senators to at least vote for cloture, and the bill passed and was signed into law by Floyd Olson. Post-master General Frances Perkins was made the first Secretary of Welfare, which included the Social Security Administration, as well as the newly established Maternity Insurance Administration and Unemployment Insurance Commission. Perkins would go down in history, not only as the first female cabinet secretary, but as the woman responsible for establishing the American Welfare State.
However, not all was well in Congress. The Moderate Progressives were fine with establishing a government-subsidized health system for the retired and the poor. However, they balked at the idea of establishing universal health insurance. The Republicans railed against the idea as "Socialist medicine" and pointed to similarities with the German system (with it being even more expansive), claiming it was also a "fascist health service". The moderates, already concerned with the dramatically rising national debt and deficit, and concerned about the effect of massive tax increases, grew upset over the idea of implementing another massive, expansive program, especially in the same year as the Social Security Administration. Some, in their attempts to appease the Progressive voters, criticized the system as "giving money to those who can afford to pay on their own" and said that it should be restricted to those who could not afford it. Olson refused to back down, telling the Radical Progressives that if they passed a limited Health system, it would break the inertia and ruin any chance for universal healthcare.
However, even if the Progressives in the Senate were willing to end the filibuster (they weren't), they still did not have a bill to pass. Even the Radicals were divided as to what sort of health system should be created. Some advocated for a system similar to the German one, but expanded. Others, perhaps Germanphobic due to the Great War and the Civil War which so recently was concluded with an Imperial victory, refused to back such a system. Some wanted National Health Insurance to simply provide costs, the most Radical along with the Socialists wanted a completely nationalized Healthcare system with private Healthcare outlawed. The inability of the Progressives to unite on a single healthcare model doomed hope of anything getting passed in the Spring of 1935. Olson was infuriated by it, and planned to make it his chief issue for the next two years, and failing that, his reelection campaign.
But in the summer of 1935, an even greater issue eclipsed the Healthcare debate. For a drought unlike any ever experienced hit the American plains. The farmers had failed to use the techniques necessary to prevent massive dryland erosion. So began the series of dust storms known as the Dust Bowl...
Notes:
- The 23rd Amendment was retconned from the Ballot Fusion Amendment to the Child Labor Amendment, the Ballot Fusion one, ratified in 1937, will be the 24th
- A replacement for Perkins for the position of Post-master General is needed, another woman would be nice if anyone has ideas
- Unique ideas about the future of the American Healthcare system are appreciated