From Washington Straight

It is beginning to look as if Medicare, which the Kennedy Administration believed to be the issue which would carry the Democrats to victory in the 1962 congressional elections, is a political bust. The Administration strategy was built around the assumption that this issue could be raised to fever pitch prior to the November elections. Then, if Medicare got through both Houses of Congress, the voters could be expected to register their thanks by electing large numbers of Democrats. If Medicare failed, so the thinking went, the Administration would have a red-hot issue to take to the voters. Republicans would be blamed for obstructing passage of the bill and the voters, aroused by the GOP’s indifference to the plight of our “senior citizens” (ghastly phrase), would banish them from the political scene.

Cato

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It is beginning to look as if Medicare, which the Kennedy Administration believed to be the issue which would carry the Democrats to victory in the 1962 congressional elections, is a political bust. The Administration strategy was built around the assumption that this issue could be raised to fever pitch prior to the November elections. Then, if Medicare got through both Houses of Congress, the voters could be expected to register their thanks by electing large numbers of Democrats. If Medicare failed, so the thinking went, the Administration would have a red-hot issue to take to the voters. Republicans would be blamed for obstructing passage of the bill and the voters, aroused by the GOP’s indifference to the plight of our “senior citizens” (ghastly phrase), would banish them from the political scene.

Cato