From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
And The Likely Republican Nominee Wants To Kill It
Today marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone that reminds us what a Democratic president and solid Democratic majorities in Congress can accomplish. And, like Obamacare, it wasn't a slam dunk until late in the game. Ladies and germs, let's give it up for LBJcare…
History: Presidents Johnson and Truman
shake hands after Medicare signing in
Independence, Missouri---July 30, 1965.
The legislative logjam finally broke with the election of 1964, which swept LBJ into the White House behind large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Shortly after that election, a breakthrough occurred when House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Wilbur Mills (D-Ark.), who had previously blocked Medicare proposals, said, "I can support a payroll tax for financing health benefits just as I have supported a payroll tax for cash benefits."
When the long-stalled Medicare effort came before the 89th Congress in January 1965, congressional leaders designated the bills as H.R. 1 and S. 1. Despite determined resistance by organized medicine and some of its congressional allies, the Medicare bill moved forward. A Mills rewrite cleared the House on April 8 by 313-115. The Senate approved its version on July 9 by 68-21. A conference committee labored for more than a week in mid-July to reconcile 513 differences between the two chambers.
At the [signing ceremony in Independence, Missouri], Johnson enrolled Truman as the first Medicare beneficiary and presented him with the nation’s first Medicare card.
Said President Johnson at
the signing:
Harry Truman's Medicare application,
signed by Lyndon Johnson.
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"No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine. No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years. No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes, eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral obligations to their parents, and to their uncles, and their aunts. And no longer will this Nation refuse the hand of justice to those who have given a lifetime of service and wisdom and labor to the progress of this progressive country.
Republicans---particularly George W. Bush's brother and probable 2016 GOP presidential nominee Jeb Bush---have
made no secret of the fact that they want to turn Medicare into a voucher plan so they can whittle it down until it resembles Swiss cheese and the private sector can feast on the carcass. Fat chance. Americans like it a lot. That's why every Medicare-cutting "trial balloon" floated by Congress gets shot down before they have time to turn their head and cough.
It'll be interesting to see what historians write about the 50th anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But this much we know already: it's dramatically reducing the number of uninsured Americans, people love the benefits, and it's helping to improve Medicare's own financial outlook.
Of course, the real proof will be revealed in the number of tea party protesters standing at the door to the Capitol in 2060 yelling, "Keep your government hands off my Affordable Care Act!" I think I may join them---I'll be 96, I'll have nothing else to do that day, and it'll be a fine way to test out the battering ram on my scooter.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, July 30, 2015
Note: Just a heads up that there will be no C&J on Monday, because if we don’t deprive you of your spice mélange every once in awhile you'll get too complacent. Back Tuesday, and I'm bringing half the Bene Gesserit with me so look sharp and don't forget to wash behind your ears. ---Mgt.
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9 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the last Stewart-hosted
Daily Show:
7
Days 'til the 6th annual
Sacramento Banana Festival:
9
Crowd size at the Pontchartrain Center in New Orleans when Bobby Jindal announced his White House bid:
1,000
Estimated crowd size at the Pontchartrain Center in New Orleans when Bernie Sanders made a campaign stop there Sunday:
4,000
Amount by which gas is cheaper this summer than it was last summer:
79 cents
Expected year when the first module of the new LaGuardia Airport opens, thanks to $4 billion secured by Joe Biden:
2019
President Obama's average Gallup approval rating in his 26th quarter, from 4/20 to 7/19:
46%
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
So, now all we know about John Roberts is that he has nice manners and is being managed by a bunch of morons---and he's willing to say what they spin for him. Then we start getting the record. He's defended the often violent Operation Rescue.
He went to Florida to advise Jeb Bush during the 2000 election recount. Other Federalists, Timothy Flanigan (who's now in confirmation hearings for deputy attorney general) and Ted Olson (who became solicitor general of the United States) signed onto the brief to convince the Supremes to stop the count in Florida and install Bush. It's all classic, right-wing judicial activism---the very "activism" they complain bitterly about if it doesn't fit their radical agenda.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Well, you knew there had to be one somewhere out there…
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CHEERS to fresh flickers. When Michael Moore released his shoestring-budget documentary Roger & Me a lifetime ago, I was living in Saginaw, Michigan, which is just a stone's throw from Flint, whose demise Moore was lamenting both shockingly and hilariously. So I've been a Moore-o-holic forever, and it's been so long since Capitalism: A Love Story came out that I started assuming he'd retired and was content to snipe from the sidelines on Twitter. I'M HAPPY TO BE WRONG! Coming this fall: the "epic" Where to Invade Next:
Start poppin' the popcorn...
“[The film has] a small crew because we have to be able to move at a moment’s notice, usually someone chasing us,” Moore said of the filming process, explaining that he and his crew worked to gather footage on three continents. That crew is made up of people Moore has worked with on previous projects, including Bowling for Columbine, Capitalism: A Love Story, and more.
Moore said that the idea of America perpetrating an “infinite war … provides the necessary satire for this film, and you’ll see that when you see the movie,” as well as the “constant need to have an emeny … so we can keep our whole military industrial complex alive and keep the companies that make a lot of money for us in business.”
It premieres in Toronto in September. And all will be right in the universe. Well, except for that whole perpetual war thing.
JEERS to the vagina idealogues. Now that opposition to gay marriage has been swept into the dustbin of history thanks to the Supreme Court, Republicans are whipping up their faithful into a froth over teh evil Planned Parenthood. A bunch of amateur tea party actors who wouldn't have passed the audition in Waiting for Guffman had lunch with PP members and are now trickling out hidden-camera footage edited to give them Hitler mustaches and bloody fangs---and Republicans in Congress and state legislatures are running with it ("Defund here! Defund now! Save the culture!") But as Kaili Joy Gray points out at Wonkette, the fundies are playing with fire:
So defunding Planned Parenthood is actually a losing issue? Yes! Very a lot, in fact:
The survey finds that voters are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports funding Planned Parenthood over one calling to end funding, by a margin of 58 to 26 percent.
Good job, Republicans, you sure do mathing real good. Why are you wasting everyone’s time with this nonsense again? Oh right, those OOOOH SHOCKING! videos of Planned Parenthood doctors talking about abortion procedures, which are legal, and how the organization helps its patients donate fetal tissue to medical research, to cure diseases and save lives. Also legal, like we have said a thousand times now. Plus, hooray for curing diseases and saving lives, which is supposed to be A Good Thing. Pro-life, for the win!
Democrats haven't made nearly enough of a stink over this---I guess they figure the conservatives are digging their own hole quite ably. But at least Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid
made his point clear when he said, “Good luck. We’re dealing with the health of American women, and they’re dealing with some right-wing crazy.” <------- More mouth moving words like this, please, team.
JEERS to the politics of fear. Fifty-nine years ago---on July 30, 1956---to ward off evil Communist spirits, the phrase "In God We Trust" became our country's national motto, a move led by a Democratic congressman---Charles E. Bennett:
He proposed putting the phrase “In God We Trust,” which began appearing on coins in 1864, on all paper and coin currency. “In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, we should continually look for ways to strengthen the foundations of our freedom,” he declared on the House floor.
Today people have no freaking clue what our national motto is ("e pluribus spongecakes et creamy fillings unum Box of Twinkies?"), but they know that rolled-up paper currency is a great way to snort cocaine.
Yay, freedom!!!
Hey Mullah! Your ride's here!
JEERS to the latest entry in the Hereafter Hall of Shame. According to multiple reports, the Taliban rat bastard Mullah Omar is apparently now Mullah Nomore. The guy who gave al-Qaeda a safe space in Afghanistan to plan the terrorist attacks of 9/11 is
as dead the proverbial doornail. There's some speculation as to how he met his end. Some reports say he died in a Pakistan hospital of tuberculosis, but others say he was knocked off by a dentist from Minneapolis on safari. As per custom, 72 virgins greeted him in paradise to grant his every wish for eternity. And from the looks of it his every wish appears to be getting beaten with shoes for eternity.
CHEERS to an eye for an eye. On July 30, 1863, in response to reports that Confederate forces were executing blacks captured wearing the uniform of the Union Army, President Lincoln played hardball by issuing orders to shoot one rebel prisoner for every black prisoner reported shot. In fairness, that was only after threats to revoke their beach volleyball privileges didn’t work.
JEERS to pushing the boundaries of free speech. Remember Allen West? Got reprimanded by the military for excessive cruelty, then served one term in Congress, got booted, and now spends his time wielding a metal detector looking for loose change on Florida beaches and flicking bitterness around like boogers at every conservative convention he can sneak into. Yesterday he decided he wasn't getting enough attention so he took to Twitter to threaten the life of the president:
If you're as alarmed as I am by that kind of rhetoric, you can drop a note to the Secret Service on Twitter at @secretservice. Please be respectful. Oh, and remember that crackpot is one word, not two.
CHEERS to heartburn. Well, if nothing else at least Dubya! Jeb! can count on home-state support, right? Sure, Marco Rubio might be better-hydrated, but Jeb! was the "beloved" governor, right? Um, well………
"Oh fer bleep's sake..."
For the first time this year, Donald Trump tops a state poll of GOP presidential candidates in Florida. A St. Pete Polls survey released on Wednesday shows the New York businessman with 26 percent support, with Jeb Bush in second place with 20 percent.
The guy isn't imploding. It's just not happening. And now even button-down logic machine Paul Krugman is
openly admitting: "I am starting to hedge my bets a bit. Maybe [Trump] really can get the nomination." Guess that explains why the RNC has replaced the Klondike Bars in their vending machines with Prilosec.
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Ten years ago in C&J: July 30, 2005
CHEERS to calling it quits. The IRA says it's turning in its weapons (hopefully) ending an era fraught with terror and violence. And yes, guys...that "weapons" includes all your boiled cabbage.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to World War III FAIL. Yesterday, while America slept, Vladimir Putin ripped off shirt and ordered mightiest ship in Soviet fleet to reduce United States to the rubbles with single shot. Too bad he forget first rule of Russian karma: it sucks to be you:
And in other news, Crimea clam flat becomes world's latest nuclear nation. Film at 11.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Top Republican Official Refuses To Say That Comparing Obama To Bill in Portland Maine Is Out-Of-Bounds
---Think Progress
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