Obama: Johnson’s Critics Said He Supported ‘Socialized Medicine’ Too

"'The meat in the coconut' -- as President Johnson would put it -- 'was the Voting Rights Act.' So he fought for and passed that as well. Immigration reform came shortly after, and then a Fair Housing Act. And then a health care law that opponents described as socialized medicine that would curtail America's freedom, but ultimately freed millions of seniors from the fear that illness could rob them of dignity and security in their golden years -- which we know today as Medicare. What President Johnson understood was that equality required more than the absence of oppression. It required the presence of economic opportunity."