It’s been pointed out to me that some readers have taken my post, “Top Ten Obama Socialist Programs and How They Can Be Eliminated”, seriously.
Sorry folks, but that was satire and my attempt to point out how the term socialism is being misused.
I was trying to make the point that social lifelines and especially guaranteed national healthcare should be as ubiquitous and taken for granted in this country as having a fireman come to your house to put out a fire.
None of our social programs is socialism. However, the far right and the Tea Party folks like to misuse the term to scare people and sway elections. No one in their right mind would consider doing away with fire, police, military, public schools, the FDA, or the EPA …except Rick Perry, and I already said no one in their right mind.
When you hear the far right screaming about socialist programs and “ObamaCare” think about our seniors on social security and medicare. The same type of opposition was screaming the same empty rhetoric when those programs were first introduced. Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Johnson were painted with the same knee-jerk labels. But today in historical perspective we say how farsighted these presidents were and what great programs they helped start.
It is shameful on a monumental scale that we are the only prosperous nation on the planet that doesn’t guarantee health care for all of its citizens. This is not a new debate. It’s been going on for over 70 years.
In January of 1943 , President Roosevelt, in his state of the Union message, called for social insurance “from the cradle to the grave.”
In 1947 President Truman, in another special health message to Congress, again requested a National Health Program. S. 1320 was introduced by Senators Wagner and Murray; Senator Taft’s bill (S. 545) was also reintroduced.
It wasn’t until July 30, 1965 that Medicare (as part of the Social Security Amendments of 1965) was signed into law by President Johnson. That’s a 20 year fight just to get something passed that we all take for granted now.
Social Security was signed into law in 1935 and was patterned after similar systems operating successfully in Europe, including Germany’s system which started in the 19th century. Sound familiar? Every European nation offers healthcare to all. Germany started theirs in 1883 and England in 1911. At the rate we’re going my guess is we’ll be arguing about this for another 40 years and then our great-grandchildren will accept it as normal, just like police and fire protection.
