Me personally, I think it'd have to be Johnson. Nixon wouldn't have done it. It's just not his style. Johnson's "Great Society," however, would've made a good fit.
I'm not so sure about this. Twas Nixon who pushed for the Clean Air Act, after all.
Indeed, he quoting his 1974 state of the Union Address...
"Turning now to the rest of the agenda for 1974, the time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive, high quality health care within the reach of every American. I shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions of Americans who cannot now obtain it or afford it, with vastly improved protection against catastrophic illnesses. This will be a plan that maintains the high standards of quality in America's health care. And it will not require additional taxes."
This led to the 1974 Comprehensive Health Care Act, which was opposed by the AFL-CIO, among others, on the assumption that the next Democratic president would create a more favorable health care system. Oops.
http://books.google.com/books?id=3I...lqGBCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5
(Man, I love Nixon. If he'd been our president for the last 34 years, we'd be living in an Orwellian Dictatorship that was still a utopia of prosperity.)