Thomas Daschle: “37 years ago today President Lyndon Johnson traveled to Independence, MO, to the home of Harry Truman to sign Medicare…”

“37 years ago today President Lyndon Johnson traveled to Independence, MO, to the home of Harry Truman to sign Medicare into law. In signing the bill, LBJ said: 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 may 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, to their uncles, and their aunts. Medicare, he stated, would provide light and hope to older Americans 'fearing the terrible darkness of despair and poverty.' To a remarkable degree, Medicare has fulfilled that promise. But today the high cost of prescription drugs, combined with seniors' increasing need for such drugs, is once again destroying the life savings and threatening dignity and security of millions of older Americans. We have debated many important questions over the last 2 weeks, but the fundamental question facing us is, Are we willing to work together constructively to renew the promise of Medicare? Or will we refuse to help even the most hard-pressed seniors with prescription drugs? We have considered three very different plans so far. The bill I supported, the Graham-Miller-Kennedy bill, was the only true Medicare prescription drug benefit among the three plans.”