Operation COFFEECUP - How Reagan Worked to Stop Universal Health Coverage in 1961

[Octafish]

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.



Funny: 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 Woman’s Auxiliary, and the trusted friends and neighbors of the Auxiliary women. Reagan’s 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 don’t 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

Reagan’s 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 Reagan’s 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/

To think some believe history started only yesterday. The right's been organized for a long time. They've demonized liberals like me and my political heroes as socialists and communists. We've 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 America’s first presidential Reverse Robin Hood.

[slipslidingaway]

1. knr - thanks :))) n/t

[Octafish]

3. Pruneface Loved Property -- Private Property. Like People.

He should be on the back of the dime, all right.

Most importantly: You are most welcome, slipslidingaway.

[peekaloo]

2. Reverse Robin Hood = Dennis Moore

Dennis Moore

robbed from the poor

gave to the rich

Dennis Moore

STUPID BITCH!

(thanks to Monty Python)

[Octafish]

Cleese!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tr_jjs2LKQ

Who IS that in your photo, peekaloo? The fellow haunts me... from my mirror.

[peekaloo]

5. THE greatest entertainer of all tiiiimmmmmeeeeee

Tony Clifton! That sorry ass Andy Kaufman rode his coattails to fame.

;-)

[Octafish]

12. Beeyooteeful!

Awesome!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3KIJt17keOY/SX-cISakEJI/AAAAAAAABZE/ZBarW2LmL14/s400/Tony+Clifton.jpg

Now I have found Peace.

[Selatius]

4. Yesterday was the anniversary of the passing of FDR. Funny that Reagan used to support him.

In his 1944 SOTU Address to the nation, FDR outlined a future that America should work towards and included in it a so-called Second Bill of Rights recognizing that people have economic rights as well as individual rights. Just some months later, FDR was dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

If FDR had lived a few years longer, he probably would've been able to ram through a Medicare For All bill through Congress.

[Octafish]

7. Like I told EFerrari -- Give the guy a break! He was just doing what the Mafia told him to.

Here's where I got my idea: Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob, a masterpiece by Dan Moldea.

Dark victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob. - book reviews

Washington Monthly, Oct, 1986 by Sam Donaldson

Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and Mob.

Dan Moldea* has set himself the formidable task of demonstrating that that nice man in the White House, so straight and honest of image, is actually a creature of and collaborator with the Mob. Ronald Reagan has been called many things but "godfather' is something new.

* Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob. Dan Moldea. Viking, $18.95.

Moldea traces the rise of MCA--originally named the Music Corporation of America--from its founding as a dance band booking agency in 1924 by the late Jules Stein, to its emergence as the most powerful force in Hollywood history, a company that came to be called the "octopus' because it had its tentacles into every facet of film and later television production. And how was MCA able to grow so great?

First, because it played "footsie' with the mafia, according to Moldea. Every Mob figure of the thirties and forties seems to be mentioned in this book. It is not always clear what these sinister characters had to do with MCA, and Moldea repeatedly swings the yellow brush of "guilt by association.' If it weren't the Mob we would all cry foul, there is so much innuendo and so little proof offered. But the Mob did invade Hollywood, and the reader will probably conclude that where there was so much smoke there must certainly have been fire. It's different when it comes to the second reason Moldea gives for the success of MCA: Ronald Reagan and his alleged Mob ties. When it comes to presidents we'd like a little more proof.

In 1940, MCA president Lew Wasserman engineered the first million dollar studio contract in the agency's history for his actor-client Ronald Reagan. Moldea's thesis is that Reagan subsequently used his position as president of the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) to benefit MCA in return for that and for future payoffs. In particular, Reagan pushed through a permanent waiver for MCA from SAG rules in 1952 so that it could produce shows, as well as represent the talent who worked on them. That gave MCA a tremendously profitable advantage over its competitors. In return, Moldea suggests MCA saved Reagan's career by giving him his premier television host roles on the "G.E. Theater' and "Death Valley Days,' and even bailed him out financially by arranging purchase of his ranch at a price far above market value. Moldea records how MCA and Reagan continued scratching each other's back right into the White House (yes, Wasserman supported Jimmy Carter in 1976 but failed to do so in 1980). And all the while, the Mob hovered 'round (remember, the only major union to support Reagan's presidential bid was the Teamsters).

A fascinating tale but what of proof? After the key move--the granting of the SAG waiver to MCA--Moldea tells us "at the Justice Department, there was deep and open suspicion that there had been some sort of illegal tie-in--or even a payoff--between MCA and Reagan . . . it is clear that, within months of the deal, Reagan benefited personally, financially, professionally, and politically from his relationship with MCA.' Smoke, yes, but nothing like a smoking gun. What is more likely, I think, and Moldea gives us plenty of evidence of this, is that Stein, Wasserman, and the others found in Reagan an easy going fellow who has always put himself in the hands of managers who could be persuaded that he and they had common interests without the need for any under-the-table tactics. Reagan says he favored the waiver because it would help actors find more work. You can just see him nodding his head in sincere concern as Wasserman makes that argument to him. Support for the "Reagan did it from pure motives' theory can be found in secret federal grand jury testimony Reagan gave in 1962 about his association with MCA that Moldea uncovered. It is worth reading as another example of vintage Reaganese. He has lapses of memory, transposes dates, and wanders off into irrelevancies. But to anyone who has followed his public career, that's no criminal mind at work, that's just "our Ronnie' being himself. The classic line comes when the prosecutor asked him what type of contracts he signed with MCA. "Oh, I never read them . . .' replied Reagan, who is still signing documents in the Oval Office with similar scrutiny.

CONTINUED...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_v18/ai_4473387/

Thank you for the info on FDR, Selatius. I often wonder how different our nation would be if he had lived even just a few years longer. FDR was one of our nation's Greats.

[glitch]

20. One of my personal conspiracy theories

"I often wonder how different our nation would be if he had lived even just a few years longer."

Perhaps it's my economics/accounting training but I always look to the bottom line first.

[eppur_se_muova]

23. Well, the Reagan WH was run like a Mafia family ... bribes, favors, and hits all around.

http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=440222&articleId=333128&func=5&channel=People+Connection

[LiberalFighter]

16. Reagan probably supported FDR because it would had been suicide to oppose him.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Octafish.

[Octafish]

9. THE REAGAN YEARS: A Statistical Overview of the 1980s

You are most welcome, Uncle Joe. Here's the work of a real giant, the late Steve Kangas:

THE REAGAN YEARS: A Statistical Overview of the 1980s

[Echo In Light]

8. As always, the Rec

[Octafish]

10. The Origins of the Overclass

Thanks, Echo In Light!

For those new to the subject, the late Steve Kangas really pegged Pruneface and his ilk:

The Origins of the Overclass

[Echo In Light]

19. Thanks for the link!

[G_j]

11. Reverse Robin Hood

well that captures it pretty well..

great post, K&R

[Octafish]

14. His 1982 tax program represented the largest transfer of wealth in history.

That is, until Poppy's administration.

And then, Smirko's administration.

They were inspired!

You knew that, though. Thank you, G_j.

[G_j]

15. inspired

for sure..
:banghead:

[redqueen]

13. K&R

[Octafish]

22. He was the stereotypical heartless GOP bastard and he wasn't acting.

A quote:

"The time has come to stop being our brother's keeper." -- Concerning welfare budget cuts in California, 1967

PS: Thanks, redqueen! Really appreciate what you do, my Friend.

[redqueen]

25. "The time has come to stop being our brother's keeper."

Wow... never saw that quote before. That pretty much says it all about the conservative movement. Sad.

[Canuckistanian]

17. Don't forget Lemuel Boulware

From A review of The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of His Conversion to Conservatism (by Thomas W. Evans)

Based on a newly discovered collection of private papers as well as interviews and corporate documents, The Education of Ronald Reagan offers new insights into Reagan's ideological development and his political ascendancy. Thomas W. Evans links the eight years (1954-1962) in which Reagan worked for General Electric—acting as host of its television program, GE Theater, and traveling the country as the company's public-relations envoy-to his conversion to conservatism.

In particular, Evans reveals the profound influence of GE executive Lemuel Boulware, who would become Reagan's political and ideological mentor. Boulware, known for his tough stance against union officials and his innovative corporate strategies to win over workers, championed the core tenets of modern American conservatism-free-market fundamentalism, anticommunism, lower taxes, and limited government. Building on the ideas and influence of Boulware, Reagan would soon begin his rise as a national political figure and an icon of the American conservative movement.

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13860-4/the-education-of-ronald-reagan

[Octafish]

26. Indexed

Didn't know the fellah's name. Got him in my Junior J Edgar Hoover Index, now.

Spun from the right:

Boulwarism: Ideas Have Consequences

by William H. Peterson

April 1991 • Volume: 41 • Issue: 4 • Print This Post • 0 comments

Dr Peterson, Heritage Foundation adjunct scholar, holds the Lundy Chair of Business Philosophy at Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina.

EXCERPT...

Boulwarism. An idea. Sweet or sour? Description or invective? The death of Lemuel R. Boulware (1895-1990) in Florida last November recalls the controversy over his name as embodied in a General Electric employee strategy that prevailed for some 15 years after World War II. The controversy is seen in a 1969 U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that GE had committed an “unfair labor practice” via Boulwarism. Asserted the Court in passing: “We do not think that Board Member Fanning’s use of the term ‘Boulwarism’ was indicative of bias; the term is more description than invective.”

Certainly America’s unions sought to make Boulwarism into invective, to undo Lemuel Boulware’s lifelong idea of avoiding force, public or private, by “trying to do right voluntarily.” He held that labor and capital, employees and managers, wages and profits, are allies and not enemies in production. His ideas help explain GE’s innovative employee policy following a rough seven-week strike in 1946 that saw acts of sabotage at various plants.

The strike shocked the company, which had long voluntarily installed such forward-looking employee programs as a suggestion system (1906), pensions (1912), and insurance (1920). Employee disapproval and distrust of the company, fanned by union hype, were widespread. GE charged Lemuel Boulware to correct the situation.

So began “Boulwarism,” the GE program that can be reviewed in his book, The Truth About Boulwarism (Bureau of National Affairs, 1969), written eight years after he retired from GE. Boulware tackled his charge first through job research, applying merchandising techniques that had been successful with GE’s consumer products. He interviewed employees, for example, to find out what they knew about economics including the origin of jobs and wages. His finding: Not much. His solution: employee economic education on a massive scale.

For starters, he borrowed Du Pont’s flannel-board economic study course entitled “How Our Business System Operates,” and gained full participation of every GE employee (then 190,000 of them) “from top management to the last non-supervisory worker.” The course involved three 90-minute sessions on company time. He also distributed thousands of copies of New York University economist Lewis H. Haney’s book, How You Really Earn Your Living, to supervisors and other sponsors of study and discussion groups in GE plants, offices, and plant communities.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/boulwarism-ideas-have-consequences/

Thank you for the heads-up, Canuckistanian. Mr. Boulware helps us understand how Pruneface fits into the conservative puzzle. It also shows how the ultraright has hijacked universal ideas -- like unions and management working together -- into Reagan's demonization of unions and labor.

[Turborama]

18. I posted the audio from his vinyl record on YouTube last October...

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z43NCL6Fxug">Operation Coffee Cup: Ronald Reagan's Early War Against "Socialized Medicine" - AKA Medicare

Here's the text that went with it:

The idea behind Operation Coffeecup, as the name hints, was to arrange a series of coffee-klatches hosted by the members of the Womans Auxiliary. The Auxiliary members receiving the Operation Coffeecup materials were instructed to downplay the purpose of the get-to-gathers, depicting them as sort of spontaneous neighborhood events: Drop a note—just say Come for coffee at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. I want to play the Ronald Reagan record for you.20

The idea of using women in this way—as the grass-roots defenders of medical care—tapped into a long tradition of what historians now typically call maternalist approaches to social reform. From the earliest days of the Revolutionary Period when the mothers of the Republic were thought to be special repositories of civic virtue, to the settlement movement and the campaign for Mothers Pensions during the Progressive Era, Americans have often viewed women as providing a kind of motherly succor that gives them a special claim to authority on matters relating to social welfare. Thus it was a clever tactic to have the members of the Womans Auxiliary and their friends and neighbors write the first-person grassroots letters to members of Congress, rather than having the largely male physician-members of the AMA do so.

The attendees at these coffees were trained and encouraged in writing apparently spontaneous letters to members of Congress expressing their strong opposition to the pending King-Anderson bill. It was essential, the attendees were instructed, that their letters appear to be the uncoordinated, spontaneous, expressions of a rising tide of public sentiment. If the letters were perceived as being part of an organized campaign—the organizers of the organized campaign told the attendees—they would be dismissed by members of Congress, who were routinely inundated with such mail.21

The kit of materials sent to each Auxiliary chapter contained:

A cover letter, informing the attendees that the chips are down, in the next months Americans will decide whether or not this nation wants socialized medicine;

A list of members of Congress;

A ten-point check-list on how to write effective letters to Congress;

A set of instructions to hosts in what Operation Coffeecup was and how it was to be carried out,
including Provide guests with stationery, pens and stamped envelopes. Dont accept an Ill do it tomorrow reply—urge each woman to write her letters while shes in your house—and in the mood!;

A report form listing the number of attendees, the number of times the accompanying record was played, and the number of letters written.

All of this material was packaged as inserts to an LP vinyl recording entitled Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine. The 19-minute recording featured a 2,000-word, 11-minute, impassioned address by Reagan, followed by an 8-minute follow-up by an unnamed announcer. Reagans work on behalf of the AMA was, listeners were assured, unpaid (although there was no mention of the fact that Reagans father-in-law was a top official of the AMA) and was motivated only by his own strong political convictions on the issue.

The record was the focus and the central product of Operation Coffeecup. It was the motivational message from Reagan that was expected to inspire the attendees to write those spontaneous letters to Congress. The AMA pressed 3,000 copies of Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine and distributed them to AMA Womans Auxiliary members nationwide. The resulting letters to Congress, the AMA boasted, were legion.22 At the June 1962 convention each state President presented the highlight accomplishments of her state during the preceding year. The convention was told that Operation Coffeecup spurred many members-at-large to personal action, and one state president reported that one of her auxiliary members was personally responsible for getting 250 people to write letters to Congress opposing the King-Anderson bill.

Full original article: http://www.larrydewitt.net/Essays/Reagan.htm

[Octafish]

27. ¡Muchisimas gracias, Turborama!

Operation COFFEECUP is the parent of today's Astroturf warriors, the Tee-Bekkers.

Financial support

Reports indicate that the Tea Party Movement benefits from millions of dollars from conservative foundations that are derived from wealthy U.S. families and their business interests. Is appears that money to organize and implement the Movement is flowing primarily through two conservative groups: Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

In an April 9, 2009 article on ThinkProgress.org, Lee Fang reports that the principal organizers of the Tea Party movement are Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works, two "lobbyist-run think tanks" that are "well funded" and that provide the logistics and organizing for the Tea Party movement from coast to coast. Media Matters reported that FreedomWorks receives substantial funding from David Koch of Koch Industries, the largest privately-held energy company in the country, and the conservative Koch Family Foundations, which make substantial annual donations to conservative organizations, including FreedomWorks (and its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy) as well as other conservative think tanks advocacy groups, etc. Media Matters reports that the Koch family has given more than $12 million to CSE/FreedomWorks between 1985 and 2002.<1><2>

Media Matters also lists the Sarah Scaife Foundation as having given a total of $2.96 million in funding to FreedomWorks.<3> The Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil, and banking fortune. <4>

The Claude R. Lambe Foundation, also controlled by the Koch family, has donated more than $3 million to Americans for Prosperity. <5>

SOURCE w/LINKS:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tea_Party_movement_funding

Some serious moneygrubbers and warmongers, there.

[robertpaulsen]

21. That scene playing the record in Sicko was just eerie.

They accuse us of having a pre-9/11 mentality, but the reich-wing mentality is not only pre-9/11, it's pre-1991. That's why they're going to continue to lose elections: there's an entire generation growing up with no memory of the Cold War who are going to hear the buzzword "socialism", wonder what it is, google it, and say, "Well, what's wrong with socialism?" It's my ultimate hope that this strategy of theirs is a recipe for electoral failure.

[Octafish]

28. Love the way you think, Sir.

Thank you also for the kind reminder from Sicko. Having recently enjoyed Capitalism, a Love Story, (Octafish gives it 8 Tentacles) my memory bank must be using that storage compartment.

Wonder how many have heard, let alone understand, what Oliver Wendell Holmes said:

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.

Unintended consequences for moneygrubbing warmongers and traitors might be their biggest nightmare: The loss of real property and wealth pales compared to the loss of their imagined sense of priviledge and entitlement. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

You know they hate the Kennedy's, including JFK who observed:

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

So they don't have to keep shooting every Liberal who comes down the pike, the lazy cowards have hired one-quarter of the workforce to protect their loot. May they still be sore surprised.

[jxnmsdemguy65]

24. Ronald Reagan was a turd and Nancy was the blowjob queen of Hollywood...

http://www.villagevoice.com/1998-02-10/news/paying-lip-service/