McGovern

Yesterday, I was able to hear George McGovern speak at the university and he was awesome. He was really amusing and made reference to his landslide loss in 1972 against Richard Nixon for re-election and how he was the victim of the Watergate scandal.
Mostly he talked about the world and how both liberalism and conservatism are needed to balance the world, but he did point out that every social program or social movement has started from liberalism, such as Medicare, Welfare, Social Security, Women's Rights and the Civil Rights movement. All these are taken for granted but were started by "liberals". He talked about how he didn't like these new conservatives since they don't have respect for conservatism in the form of a balanced budget and small government. I agree.
He also thinks that we could easily have universal healthcare if the congress just passed a bill that say "Medicare will now apply to everyone age 1-7." Then in a few years, "Medicare will now apply to every age 8-18". Soon, there will be state sponsored healthcare for everyone. It seems so simple but I think that the transition like that would be the best way. It's ridiculous that 45 Million people, 1/6 of the country, does not have health care and we are supposedly the richest country on earth. He even talked about how some billionaires have told the government not to cut taxes on them, because though it effects them the most, they realize that it hurts the economy. If taxes are cut to the upper class then there is no money for the government, if there is no money for the government, the lower and middle classes can't spend as much and the economy won't recover as easily.
Over all it was a great speech and I was glad to witness it.