
By White House Press Office – Lyndon Baines Johnson Library (Austin, Texas)This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the National Archives Identifier (NAID) 596403.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work.|https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1394392
As large elements in the GOP try to turn back the clock on health care in this country, let’s remember 1965 and the passage of Medicare and Medicaid. Many ideological conservatives opposed the effort first begun by Harry Truman and completed by Lyndon Johnson to provide essential healthcare to seniors and the poor. President Johnson signed the act that put Medicare and Medicaid in place in President Truman’s hometown of Independence, Mo with the former President present at the signing ceremony. The vote of the Florida delegation, almost entirely made up of Democrats ranging from the liberal Claude Pepper and Dante Fascell to the conservatives Albert Herlong and Bob Sikes largely supported the President. Some no votes were cast though, most notably by Senator Spessard Holland.
Florida vote below:
HOUSE
Florida | |||
Yea | D | Sikes, Robert | FL 1st |
Nay | D | Bennett, Charles | FL 2nd |
Yea | D | Pepper, Claude | FL 3rd |
Yea | D | Fascell, Dante | FL 4th |
Yea | D | Herlong, Albert | FL 5th |
Yea | D | Rogers, Paul | FL 6th |
Yea | D | Haley, James | FL 7th |
Yea | D | Matthews, Billy | FL 8th |
Nay | D | Fuqua, Don | FL 9th |
Yea | D | Gibbons, Sam | FL 10th |
Yea | R | Gurney, Edward | FL 11th |
Yea | R | Cramer, William | FL 12th |
SENATE
Florida | |||
Nay | D | Holland, Spessard | FL |
Yea | D | Smathers, George | FL |