Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill that created Medicare and ensured that senior citizens would never again have to go without life-saving medical care.
And now, it’s time to reboot – and use a very, very, very simple message so all Americans can understand it.

Let’s use Medicare, which nearly every American understands. Just create “Medicare Part E” where the “E” represents “everybody.” Just let any citizen in the US buy into Medicare.

It would be so easy. No need to reinvent the wheel with a so-called “public option” that would be a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won’t – but everyone will have access to affordable healthcare.

Just pass a simple bill – it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people – that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.

Thus, Medicare Part E would be revenue neutral!

To make it available to people of low income, Congress could raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me - under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.

This would blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with United Healthcare and it’s $100 million/year CEO. Those who like Medicare can buy into Part E. Simplicity itself.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Steven Druker, Alliance For Bio-Integrity/Altered Genes, Twisted Truth (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Need to Know: Kochs Snub Trump
- America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio

Screwed: Defunding Planned Parenthood Hurts Women
- Kimberly Inez McGuire, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

Best Of The Rest: Be Careful When Eating Salmon
- Patty Lovera, Food & Water Watch

Conversations with Great Minds - Steven Druker, Alliance For Bio-Integrity/Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public

Thursday's Daily Stack

Hour One: A Conversation About Race In America
- Kymone Freeman, Black Lives Matter DC/We Act Radio/#FTP

Site: Black Lives Matter DC (Kymone Freeman).

Article: "Kymone Freeman's One-Man Show: #ABMIT Whites Only" by Kymone Freeman.

Article: "University of Cincinnati Officer Indicted in Fatal Shooting of Driver" by Richard Pérez-Peña.

Article: "5 Black Women Have Been Found Dead in Jail in the Last Month" by Terrell Jermaine Starr.

Article: "Confederate flags placed near MLK's church in Atlanta" by Kate Brumback.

Case: "Roe v. Wade", 1973.

Quote: "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." - Frederick Douglass.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Quote: "When the last man who remembers the horrors of the last great war dies, the next great war becomes inevitable." - attributed to Arnold Toynbee.

Bill: "H.R.40 - Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act" by Rep. John Conyers.

Article: "Eric Garner’s Family: Settlement With New York City ‘Is Not a Victory’" by Josh Dawsey.

Art: "The Runaway" by Norman Rockwell.

Hour Two: Bernie Organizing Party last night
- progressive commentator Danielle Guilday

Event: July 29, nationwide: "Let's organize" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Article: "Let's get to work: Volunteer for Bernie" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Video: "I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'." Ronald W. Reagan.

The Greek Debt Crisis...Tsipras Calls For New Vote
- Economist James K. Galbraith, University of Texas at Austin

Event: Jul 30 2015: Hart Senate Office Building, DC: "Conference on the Greek Debt Crisis".

Article: "Greek deal: The full document", 12 July 2015.

Article: "J Curve" (James Chowning Davies) by Wikipedia.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Law: "Commodity Futures Modernization Act", 2000.

Law: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999) (Financial Services Modernization Act Of 1999).

Article: "HSBC pays record $1.9bn fine to settle US money-laundering accusations " by Jill Treanor and Dominic Rushe, 11 December 2012.

Article: "Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation" (FDIC) by Wikipedia.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief

Article: "Dems. Celebrate 50 Years Of Medicare, Chastise GOP" by William Hadden.

Article: "Radio Address on Socialized Medicine" by Ronald Reagan, 1961.

Article: "White House Releases Revised HIV/AIDS Domestic Goals" by William McDonald.

Article: "Senate committee omits renewables from energy package" by EA Dyson.

Article: "Sanders rebuffed on amendment stating climate change is real" by Devin Henry.

Article: "Clinton will testify before Benghazi panel on Oct. 22" by Rachael Bade.

Article: "University Cop Pleads Not Guilty For Murdering Unarmed Black Man" by Anna Merod.

Article: "Judge Temporarily Blocks Undercover Planned Parenthood Video" by Austin Ruse.

Article: "House Passes Highway Bill, Moves To Reluctant Senate" by William McDonald.

Article: "Senate Passes Own Highway Bill, Bucks House Passed Short-Term DOT Funding" by William McDonald.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 7/30" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 7/29" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: It's Been 40 Years...Where's Jimmy Hoffa?
- Lamar Waldron, Watergate: The Hidden History--Nixon, the Mafia, and the CIA

Book: "Ultimate Sacrifice" by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Legacy of Secrecy" by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann.

Article: "John Kerry will travel to Havana on Aug. 14" by Adam B. Lerner.

Article: "Church Committee", 1975-6.

Article: "James Gilmore, Ex-Virginia Governor, Files Papers to Run for President" by Alan Rappeport.

Article: "Fox News lowers entry requirements for second-tier GOP debate" by Jake Miller.

Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Do you consider Medicare a successful health care program?

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Rumble - Why not stuff this big game hunter dentist to hang on the wall?

Rumble - Are people of color really any safer in America?

Full Show 7/29/15: Dentist Lion Killer Should Be Put to Death and Stuffed

Tonight’s Rumble discusses the release of body cam video in the killing of Sam Dubose, how Chris Christie would end everyone’s high if he’s elected president, and the disgusting murder of Cecil the Lion by an elitist Dentist from Minnesota. Thom discusses the latest health insurance merger and the 50th anniversary of Medicare with the Center for Public Integrity’s Wendell Potter and the California Nurses Association’s Michael Lighty. And we end the show airing Bernie Sanders live speech to the one hundred thousand plus people attending Bernie parties all over the country and in Canada and Mexico.

Colin Powell, Justice Thomas - House Negroes?

What is it Like to be Black in America?

Check Out the District Sentinel...

Congressman Files Motion to Remove Boehner as Speaker...

Hunter: Hunting Anything You Can't Eat is Wrong!

Caller: Cecil the Lion a Victim of the "Thrill Kill"...

White Cincinnati Cop Indicted for Murder of Black Man!

Thom Hartmann to Hillary Clinton: Talk About the Issues...