Former DNC Chair Howard Dean need History Lesson

With virtually no Republican support for the health care reform bill, some Democrats believe they will have to go it alone.

But Howard Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, isn't worried about the political repercussions.

When asked about the risks of abandoning efforts for a bipartisan bill, Dean had this to say:

"All the really great programs in American history, Social Security, was done without Republicans. Medicare was done without Republican support until the last vote where they realized they had to get on board," Dean said on the Aug. 25, 2009, episode of the Rachel Maddow Show. "So a lot of the things that have been done that have helped seniors in particular have been done without Republican support at all and there's not going to be any political penalty. The only political penalty will be suffered is if we don‘t pass a bill and the Republicans know that. And that's why they‘re not interested in helping pass the bill."

Our recollection about the votes on Social Security and Medicare was a little rusty, and we wondered whether Dean was right that both bills passed with no Republican support.

To find out, we had to turn back the clock to 1935 - the height of the Great Depression - when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, an insurance program funded through taxpayer dollars meant to support retirees. The legislation was controversial for a number of reasons, including its perceived effects on the labor market and whether its benefits favored working white men.

Nevertheless, on Aug. 8, 1935, the conference report - the final version of the bill that melds together changes made in the House and in the Senate - passed in the House 372-33, with 81 Republicans voting in support of the bill. The next day, the bill was passed in the Senate 77-6, with 16 Republicans supporting the legislation. So Social Security did pass with Republican support.

Thirty years later, a significant number of Republicans voted in favor of the Medicare bill. The House adopted the conference report on July 27, 1965, 307-116, with 70 Republicans supporting it. And on July 28, the Senate adopted the final version of the bill by a vote of 70-24, with 13 Republicans in favor of the bill. President Lydon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law on July 30, 1965. - Politifact Story