It was approved not only to improve the health of elderly Americans, but also protect them from financial ruin.
No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that [older Americans] have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years.
- President Lyndon Johnson, when signing Medicare into law in 1965.
Jason, in 1965, Germany and Japan had just recovered from WWII and the USA was still No. 1. Eight years later, OPEC would tear apart Detroit.
And it is easy to be generous with other people’s money. Politicians love to give away the workers’ earnings and are NEVER held accountable — their pensions won’t be cut.
Kind of sick, actually.