----------------from wiki
Operation Coffee Cup was a campaign conducted by the American Medical Association (AMA) during the late 1950s and early 1960s in opposition to the Democrats' plans to extend Social Security to include health insurance for the elderly, later known as Medicare. As part of the plan, doctors' wives would organize coffee meetings in an attempt to convince acquaintances to write letters to Congress opposing the program. The operation received support from Ronald Reagan, who in 1961 produced the LP record Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine for the AMA, outlining arguments against what he called "socialized medicine". This record would be played at the coffee meetings.
Governor Sarah Palin quoted Ronald Reagan from the 1961 album during the 2008 Vice-Presidential debate, "It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free." [1]
The operation was described in 1999 by political scientist Max Skidmore.
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Paul Krugman did not have kind words for Governor Palin and this is what Palin said and it is a quote from the Regan lp below. (taken from his New York Times blog Oct 3, 2008 in article entitled Raising the White Flag)
"It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free. "
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This is from American Heritage in an article about public relations and American history.
American Heritage, May/Jun2000, Vol. 51 Issue 3, p77
Most Underrated Public Relations Campaign:
The most underrated PR campaign in American history--indeed an unfamiliar one to most people--was the 1949 effort that killed the possibility of guaranteed health care for all Americans. There had been attempts to establish a national health care system during the 1930s, and following the war the public demand for guaranteed health care continued to grow. By January 1949 national health insurance bills were pending in Congress, and the prospect of universal, federally insured coverage seemed bright.
Panicked that doctors' customary privileges would be compromised by such a system, the American Medical Association hired Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, a California-based husband-and-wife public relations team, to bury the prospect of legislation. Postwar politics provided an ideal context for their efforts, and they had the AMA launch an aggressive smear attack linking national health insurance with communism.
The campaign downplayed public health care needs and spotlighted the evils of governmental intervention. Over an eleven-month period, fortified by the largest public relations war chest that had ever been assembled, Whitaker and Baxter waged a pervasive public assault on what they christened "Compulsory Health Insurance," and by November 1949 they had their target dead in the water.
Today, more than fifty years later, millions of Americans still lack adequate health insurance, and the problem is getting worse. Looking back, we have Whitaker and Baxter and the American Medical Association to thank for this predicament.
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Since it is estimated that 18000 Americans die from lack of medical care and some 83,000 die from insurance companies turning down folks each year, these folks over the last 50 years could be thought to be the most polific mass murders in North American history.
Do the math, how many Americans have died from lack of medical care and the insurance company saying no since Obama took the second oath of Office? Does anyone wonder why the supporters of HR676 have a dim view of some of the folks at the Obama healthcare group when HR676 folks are excluded?
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by the way, the medical program opposed here is Medicare. This launched Ronald Reagan's political career and this "effort" was thought well by Republicans. Reagan lied in presidential debates/campaign about this by the way.
Some simular tactics used by "Coffee Cup" folks used to kill Clinton Health care plan. You might see some of this shortly. Know your history, for sometimes some things repeat themselves. Do not believe the entire drug/insurance industry has suddenly decided to mend policies to help the American people
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