Republican plan to eliminate Medicare

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

Not really. The history of gov't provided health care is long and winding. The SSA website has a good summary. Here's the page on the post-WW2 period through the Truman years, which is when discussion of a national health care system was at its height:

http://www.ssa.gov/history/corningchap3.html

Highlights:

<In sum, the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill was the victim of a cautious Congress, massive resistance by a prestigious and vitally affected interest group, sympathy for the AMA's position from an imposing array of nonmedical groups, a lack of wholehearted support from some of the key proponents, considerable antipathy from the press, the rapid growth of private insurance, and, finally, of a hostile political climate.>

And:
<Years later, President Truman wrote: "I have had some bitter disappointments as President, but the one that has troubled me most, in a personal way, has been the failure to defeat the organized opposition to a National compulsory health insurance program. But this opposition has only delayed and cannot stop the adoption of an indispensable Federal health insurance plan.">

(Oh, Harry; you were such an optimist)

It's easy to credit our Presidents with dictatorial powers (and Shrub and Darth Cheney sure gave a good go at it), but laws are not written by Presidents; they're written by Congress. A President can push for an agenda (and Johnson was a bully and rammed a lot through, no question) but they don't govern by fiat.

Eh?

With the election of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Democrats controlled both the Presidency and the Congress, claiming a 2:1 ratio to Republicans in the House and 32 more seats in the Senate. The Democrats in the House Ways and Means Committee shifted away from Southern Democrats, making the committee more sympathetic towards health insurance reform.