You can thank an Oklahoman for Medicare, Medicaid, and the NEA

[OKNancy]

Social Security Act of 1965 ( Medicare ) and many other of LBJ's Great Society bills were pushed through the House of Representatives by the Speaker of the House at that time... Carl Albert of Oklahoma.

Medicare, the establishment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Voting Rights Act, Medicaid, the Immigration and Nationality Act, establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, and the Elementary and Secondary School Act.

From: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/G/GR017.html

Many of the measures passed by Congress owed gratitude to House Majority Leader Carl Albert, representing Oklahoma, and the Democratic force in the legislature. For his leadership Johnson bestowed on Albert a framed set of fountain pens inscribed "With these fifty pens, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the foundations of the Great Society which were passed by the historic and fabulous first session of the 89th Congress." Measures passed in 1965 included Medicare, the establishment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Voting Rights Act, Medicaid, the Immigration and Nationality Act, establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, and the Elementary and Secondary School Act. In 1964 as part of the "War on Poverty" the process began with the passage of Headstart, the Civil Rights Act, and the Twenty-fourth Amendment outlawing poll taxes. All of these programs impacted Oklahomans in greater or lesser degree over the next decade and beyond.