Don't you wish some of our leaders still thought like this?
Medicare's history suggests that tough problems in health care can be solved, but only after long struggle, and only with visionary and effective leadership from the highest reaches of our political system. Johnson pulled out all the stops for Medicare. He told Vice President Hubert Humphrey on March 6, 1965: "I'll go a hundred million or a billon on health or education. I don't argue about that any more than I argue about Lady Bird buying flour." He added: "I may cut back some tanks. But not on health."
To be fair, we do now have a Republican party that wants more tanks, more health, free cake and ice cream, subsidized trips to amusement parks, and lower taxes. But were the crunch ever to come, or were it ever to be recognized, you know exactly what'd go first. Last year we beat back an assault on Medicaid. But as the budget gets worse, if housing pops, if the economy turns south -- it'll revolve right back up to the chopping block. And the guy with the axe ain't no LBJ.