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In reply to the discussion: JFK worked to keep peace, bring prosperity for all. Others since 22 Nov 1963, not so much. [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)55. Universal Health Care.
Ronald Reagan called him a "socialist" for doing so.
Operation COFFEECUP - How Reagan Worked to Stop Universal Health Coverage in 1961
In December 1961, the AMA pulled out all the stops to prevent President John F. Kennedy from proposing universal health coverage. For their effort, they recruited a TV-personality.
Write those letters now. Call your friends, and tell them to write them. If you don't, this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country, until, one day . . . we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this, and if I don't do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free.
Sounds familiar to Tea Party crapola of today. Ironic: Corporate McPravda avoids mentioning how one has-been B-movie actor took part in the organized opposition to Medicare in the early 1960s. Here's the story, thanks to Mr. Scott E. Starr:
The Campaign Against Medicare
Monday, March 22, 2010
By Scott E. Starr
EXCERPT...
In order to maintain the illusion of spontaneity, the AMA did not announce the existence of Operation Coffeecup or publicize the Reagan recording. The record was to be used, campaign organizers cautioned, only in the groups meeting under the controlled conditions of the informal coffees. Under no circumstances, recipients of the record were warned, were they to permit commercial broadcast of the recording.
Operation Coffeecup was kept deliberately low-key and internal to the AMA, its Womans Auxiliary, and the trusted friends and neighbors of the Auxiliary women. Reagans efforts against Medicare were revealed, however, in a scoop by Drew Pearson in his Washington Merry-Go-Round column of June 17th. Pearson titled his item on Reagan, Star vs. JFK, and he told his readers:
Ronald Reagan of Hollywood has pitted his mellifluous voice against President Kennedy in the battle for medical aid for the elderly. As a result it looks as if the old folks would lose out. He has caused such a deluge of mail to swamp Congress that Congressmen want to postpone action on the medical bill until 1962. What they dont know, of course, is that Ron Reagan is behind the mail; also that the American Medical Association is paying for it.
Reagan is the handsome TV star for General Electric . . . Just how this background qualifies him as an expert on medical care for the elderly remains a mystery. Nevertheless, thanks to a deal with the AMA, and the acquiescence of General Electric, Ronald may be able to outinfluence the President of the United States with Congress.24
Reagans recorded remarks are quite extensive, and reveal a determined and in-depth attack on the principles of Medicare (and Social Security), going well beyond opposition to King-Anderson or any other particular piece of legislation.
My name is Ronald Reagan. I have been asked to talk on the several subjects that have to do with the problems of the day. . .
Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program. . . .
But at the moment I'd like to talk about another way because this threat is with us and at the moment is more imminent. One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. We have an example of this. Under the Truman administration it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and, of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this.25
And what was this frightful threat that Reagan perceived as imminent?
. . . Congressman Forand introduced the Forand Bill. This was the idea that all people of Social Security age should be brought under a program of compulsory health insurance. Now, this would not only be our senior citizens, this would be the dependents and those who are disabled, this would be young people if they are dependents of someone eligible for Social Security. . . .
It should be obvious that Reagans description of the Forand bill is a description of any Medicare-type program, not just a specific piece of legislation.26 The idea that people of Social Security age should be brought under a program of compulsory health insurance, just is the idea of Medicare.
CONTINUED...
http://geotheology.blogspot.com /
If you get a chance, the geotheology blog continues with details on Operation COFFEECUP. The American Medical Association bankrolled the "mellifluous voice" of Ol' Pruneface.
It's important to bring this up because so many believe history started only yesterday. The rightwing warmongers and greedheads have been organized for a long time. They've demonized liberals like me and my political heroes as socialists and communists. The nation has devolved politically to the point where even the leaders of our own party run away from the word, "Liberal." It's past time America realizes supporting the causes of the rich helped launch the political career of Americas first presidential Reverse Robin Hood.
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JFK worked to keep peace, bring prosperity for all. Others since 22 Nov 1963, not so much. [View all]
Octafish
Nov 2015
OP
Don't turn a nice post into some CT shit. Just keep it like it was. I knew you started it for this.
Logical
Nov 2015
#13
The video taken minutes before the assassination shows the agents ordered OFF the bumper.
Octafish
Nov 2015
#47
If logical questions unanswered all these years bother you, change your name
MrMickeysMom
Nov 2015
#78
I caught a little bit of a program today that was running clips of the actual coverage from
dflprincess
Nov 2015
#34
Thanks, Octafish! JFK and his story are really more complicated than his admirers or detractors....
LongTomH
Nov 2015
#3
Thank you, CaliforniaPeggy! Did you read what Prescott Bush wrote to Clover Dulles?
Octafish
Nov 2015
#31
Thank you, my dear octafish--I had not read this. Pretty interesting stuff!
CaliforniaPeggy
Nov 2015
#35
Phil Shenon on Coast To Coast last night claims Poppy had no connection to the assassination
librechik
Nov 2015
#49
Guy is working to divert discussion of conspiracy involving secret US agencies.
Octafish
Nov 2015
#69
People still love JFK and project their hopes on him decades later. In truth he was moderate.
craigmatic
Nov 2015
#6
Ok name one initiative he got put in place to help the poor in this country?
craigmatic
Nov 2015
#12
Plus Peace Corps, space program, nuclear test ban treaty, and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
ucrdem
Nov 2015
#32
Recording of JFK telling Sargent Shriver not to let CIA infiltrate the Peace Corps [audio]
MinM
Nov 2015
#56
The truth about how close we came to annihilating each other wasn't known for 30 years.
Major Hogwash
Nov 2015
#52
Interview with blacklisted comedian, Mort Sahl, 1968 quotes and warnings after JFK's death.
Octafish
Nov 2015
#98
CIA Dulles hired MAFIA to kill Castro in 1960, yet US media continue to misreport it as JFK's idea.
Octafish
Nov 2015
#106
''All of them together will observe the law of silence...They don't want to know.''
Octafish
Nov 2015
#107
Regarding Bay of Pigs: Dulles and CIA did not tell JFK security mission was compromised.
Octafish
Nov 2015
#71
Recced. Thanks for the o.p. info, and for making a space for the info provided by other good
Mc Mike
Nov 2015
#92
Stephanie's 2-22-2006 UAE and BCCI thread reposted for those that love the truth
bobthedrummer
Nov 2015
#99
Who could imagine "our" goverment would actively seek to move jobs overseas.
Enthusiast
Nov 2015
#102