What happens to the sick and elderly when the economy collapses? What happens to the rest of us? Where are YOU going to get medical care when you can't get a job and can't afford insurance, and the clinics are closing their doors in bankruptcy? What good is your "compassion" when the system implodes?

I was THERE before there was Medicare, and damn few elderly were "dying sick" for lack of care. My grandparents got medical care. My aunts and uncles got medical care. Elderly neighbors got medical care. NONE of these people were rich. If what you say is true, hundreds of thousands of people a year should have been dying for lack of care. Were they? The Medicare system was a scam, and once it was initiated, the private insurance system died on the vine. Now the elderly couldn't get private insurance if they tried.

I challenge ANYONE to find me statistics showing a raging need in 1964 for a socialized medical system for the average elderly person.

Johnson lied in his teeth to get the bill passed. About the costs, and about the needs. But why not? He could be a hero, and it wouldn't cost him a cent.

The idea that nobody can survive unless our Masters in Washington care for us is what's gotten us in this financial mess, and God knows the politicians aren't going to disabuse us of the notion that we cannot exist without them. Hell knows if the nation goes into the toilet, none of our leaders are going to miss a meal. When a socialist nation collapses into grinding poverty and oppression, somehow the leaders NEVER miss a meal.

Your goddam class warfare has only one function: to empower the politicians. Get over it already.