Obama: USA wasn't a great country until 1965.

Not an exact quote, but that's exactly what he's saying here...right?

We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck, a crippling illness or a layoff, may strike any one of us.  “There but for the grace of God go I,” we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities.  We are a better country because of these commitments.  I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments.

So, we would not be a great country without Medicare, Social Security, unemployment, and Medicaid?  Well, we didn't have all of them until 1965.

I think having all four in place is what he meant because he uses "commitments"--indicating he means all these programs are necessary for greatness, not just one of them.  Either way, even if he even meant just one of these programs, the US wasn't a great country until the mid 1930s.

Also, in case you think he was off teleprompter when he read the "I'll go further" line--he wasn't.  It appears in his prepared remarks.

What an incredible disconnect.  This guy believes America is great because it has four bloated programs all revolving around mandatory removal of cash from productive citizens, to be given away at the government's discretion.

These programs aren't what make us a great nation.  They are what is making us a  nation that is broke.