 My name is
Ronald Reagan. I have been asked to talk on several subjects
that have to do with the problems of the day.
It must seem
presumptious to some of you that a member of my profession would
stand here and attempt to talk to anyone on the serious problems
that face the nation and the world. It would be strange if it
were otherwise.
Most of us in
Hollywood are very well aware of the concept, or the misconception,
that many people, our fellow citizens have, about people in show
business. It was only a generation ago that people of my
profession couldn't be buried in the churchyard. Of course,
the world has improved since then. We can be buried now.
As a matter of fact, the eagerness of some of you to perform that
service gets a little frightening at times.
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 will adopt every fragment of the
socialist program.
There are many
ways in which our government has invaded the precincts of private
citizens, the method of earning a living. Our government is in
business to the extent of owning 19,000 businesses covering 47
different lines of activity. This amounts to a fifth of the
total industrial capacity of the United States.
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. Its very easy to disguise a medical
program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little
reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people
who possibly can't afford it.
Now, the
American People, if you put it to them about socialized medicine,
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.
So, with the
American People record as not wanting socialized medicine,
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 dependants and those
who are disabled. This would be young people if they are
dependants of someone eligible for social security.
Now,
Congressman Forand brought the program out on that idea of just for
that particular group of people. But Congressman Forand was
subscribing to this foot-in-the-door philosophy, because he said "if
we can only break through, and get our foot inside the door, then we
can expand the program after that."
Walter Reuther
said "it's no secret that the United Automobile Workers is
officially on record as backing a program of national health
insurance." And by national health insurance, he meant
socialized medicine for every American.
Now, let's see
what the Socialists themselves have to say about it. Thay say,
"Once the Forand Bill is passed, this nation will be provided with a
mechanism for socialized medicine capable of indefinite expansion in
every direction, until it includes the entire population."
Well, we can't
say we haven't been warned.
Now,
Congressman Forand is no longer a Congressman of the United States
government. He has been replaced, not in this particular
assignment, but in his backing of such a bill by Congressman King of
California.
It is
presented in the idea of a great emergency, that millions of our
senior citizens are unable to provide needed medical care. But
this ignores the fact that in the last decade 127 million of our
citizens, in just ten years, have come under the protection of some
form of privately-owned medical or hospital insurance.
Now the
advocates of this bill, when you try to oppose it, challenge you on
an emotional basis. They say, "What would you do? Throw
these poor old people out to die with no medical attention?"
That's ridiculous, and of course no one is advocating it.
As a matter of
fact, in the last session of Congress, a bill was adopted known as
the Kerr-Mills Bill. Now, without even allowing this bill to
be tried, to see if it works, they have introduced this King Bill,
which is really the Forand Bill.
What is the
Kerr-Mills Bill? It is a frank recognition of the medical need
or problem of a senior citizen that I have mentioned. And it
is provided from the federal government money to the states and the
local communities that can be used at the discretion of the state,
to help those people who need it.
Now, what
reason could the other people have for backing a bill which says we
insist on compulsory health insurance for senior citizens on a basis
of age alone, regardless of whether they are worth millions of
dollars, whether they have an income, whether they're protected by
their own insurance, whether they have savings.
I think we can
be excused for believing, that as ex-Cogressman Forand said, this
was simply an excuse to bring about what they wanted all the time,
socialized medicine.
James Madison,
in 1788, speaking to the Virginia Convention said, "Since the
general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances
of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and
silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden
userpations."
They want to
attach this bill to social security, and they say here is a great
insurance program, now instituted, now working.
Let's take a
look at Social Security itself.
Again, very
few of us disagree with the original premise that there should some
form of saving that would keep destitution from following
unemployment by reason of death, disability or old age. And to
this end, Social Security was adopted. But it was never
intended to supplant private savings, private insurance, pension
programs of unions and industries.
Now, in our
country, under our free enterprise system, we have seen medicine
reach the greatest heights that it has in any country in the world.
Today, the relationship between patient and doctor in this country
is something to be envied and it is the privacy, the care that is
given to a person, the right to choose a doctor, the right to go
from one doctor to the other.
But let's also
look from the other side, at the freedom the doctor loses. A
doctor would be reluctant to say this. Well, like you, I'm
only a patient, so I can say it in his behalf. The doctor
beings to lose freedoms. Its like telling a lie, and one leads
to another.
First you
decide that the doctor can have so many patients, they're equally
divided among the various doctors by the government. But then
the doctors are not equally divided geographically. So a
doctor decides that he wants to practice in one town, and the
government has to say to him you can't live in that town, they
already have enough doctors. You have to go some place else.
And from here
it's only a short step to dictating where he will go. This is
a freedom that I wonder whether any of us have the right to take
from any human being. I know how I'd feel if you, my fellow
citizens, decided that to be an actor I had to become a government
employee and work in a national theater. Take it into your own
occupation or that of your husband. All of us can see what
happens once you establish the precedent that the government can
determine a man's working place and his working methods; determine
his employment.
From here it's
a short step to all the rest of socialism, to determining his pay.
And pretty soon your son won't decide when he's in school where he
will go what he will do for a living, he will wait for the
government to tell him where he will go to work and what he will do.
In this
country of ours took place the greatest revolution that has ever
taken place in the world's history. The only true revolution.
Every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for
another.
But here, for
the first time, in all the thousands of years of man's relation to
man, a little group of men, the Founding Fathers, for the first
time, established the idea that you and I have within ourselves the
God-given right and ability to determine our own destiny. This
freedom was built into our government, its safeguards. We talk
democracy today. And strangely we let democracy begin to
assume the aspect of majority rule is all that is needed.
Well, majority
rule is a fine aspect of democracy, provided there are guarantees
written in to our government concerning the rights of the individual
and of the minorities.
What can we do
about this? Well, you and I can do a great deal. We can
write to our congressmen, to our senators. We can say right
now that we want no further encroachment on these individual
liberties and freedoms. And, at the moment, the key issue is:
We do not want socialized medicine.
Now you may
think, when I say right to the congressman or the senator, that this
is like writing family over a television program, it isn't. In
Washington today, 40,000 letters, less than a hundred per
congressman, are evidence of a trend in public thinking.
Representative
Halleck, of Indiana, has said: "When the American People want
something from Congress, regardless of its political complexion, if
they make their wants known, Congress does what the people want."
So write.
It's as simple as finding just the name of your congressman, or your
senator, and then you address your letter to that individual's name.
If he's a congressman, to the House Office Building, Washington,
D.C. If he's a senator, to the Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C.
And if this
man writes back to you and tells you that he too is for free
enterprise, that we have these great services and so forth that must
be performed by government, don't let him get away with it.
Show him that
you've not been convinced, write a letter right back and tell him
that you believe in government economy and fiscal responsibility;
that you know that governments don't tax to get the money they need,
governments will always find a need for the money they get; and that
you demand the continuation of our traditional free enterprise
system.
You and I can
do this. The only way we can do it is by writing to our
congressmen, even if we believe that he's only our side to begin
with, write to strengthen his hand. Give him the ability to
stand before his colleagues in Congress and say "I have heard from
my constituents, and this is what they want."
Write those
letters now, call your friends and tell them to write.
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, as Norman Thomas said, we
will awake to find that we have socialism.
And if you
don't do this, and if I don't do this, 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.
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