Finally, it is my distinct pleasure to introduce our first moderator, the great Bob Schieffer. As all of you know, bob is the cbs news chief washington correspondent and the awardwinning host of face the nation. Bob made some news of his own earlier this month when he announced he was stepping down from face the nation. Im hoping we will all help change his mind before lunch today. Bob has been a reporter for more than half a century and is has virtually won every award in broadcast journalism during his august career. Including 8 emmy awards. Please give me a big round of applause for Bob Schieffer and our panelists. [applause] bob i want to tell you, i announced last week that i was going to retire after 46 years at cbs news. 58 years since i got my first job in journalism. I think for that reason alone i an appropriate moderator to talk am about how medicare got started. Next week, i am going down and signing up for part b. [laughter] bob i would also say this. You know when i announced im , going to retire, im 78 years old. That is about 13 years past the retirement age for most people. I would not be here after surviving cancer, after living with diabetes, after surviving ulcerative colitis, were it not for the health care that we get in the United States of america. And i would pose one question. What kind of a people would we be, what kind of a country would we be if we did not ensure that every single american has access to the same health care that i had and that got me to the point where, at age 78, i can say i still feel good. I still feel like i can do the job. I i just want to quit while i can still do the job. To me, what other argument needs to be made for the need to make Health Care Available to all americans . [applause] i thank you. I think it is so wonderful to mark this. The year is 19641965. Two of the most remarkable years in the history of america. We remember president s for their signature accomplishments, many times. When you think about those two years, and the hundreds of significant pieces of legislation that were passed including medicare, it is very difficult to look back on any presidency and think of that. Just think about it, we had already come through 1964. These days we all talk about , well nothing is going to , happen this year because it is an Election Year. People forget that 1964 was an Election Year and they passed the first of the two, what later would be the Fair Housing Act in 1968. But the three significant pieces of civil rights legislation. But that was only part of the enormous amount of legislation that was passed. In 1965, in addition to passing the law creating medicare, you had the Voting Rights act, the National Endowment for the arts was created, the National Endowment for the humanities was created, the Clean Air Act, the immigration act. And then, of course the medicare , and medicaid act. It is not the first time, as we all know in this room, that people had tried, that president s had tried to pass some sort of a medicare law. Fdr tried. He was not able to do it. Harry truman tried. He was not able to do it. But Lyndon Johnson managed to get it done. We want to start by showing you a few pictures of what it was like that day the legislation was signed. Announcer the Harry S Truman library in independence, missouri is the scene of a historic event. President and mrs. Johnson and the Vice President arrived for ceremonies that will make the medicare bill part of Social Security coverage. Mr. Johnson chose to sign the bill here as a tribute to former president truman. The former President Campaign campaigned for medicare 20 years ago but it took two , decades for his proposal to become law. The bill expands the Social Security program to provide hospital care, nursing home care, Home Nursing Service and outpatient treatment for those over 65. Medicare will become law on july 1, 1966. And for mr. Truman, a historic souvenir from the president. For mr. Truman, the passage of medicare is a dream come true. Bob there you are. What a remarkable day. Lynda, i want to start with you. Why was this such a priority with your father . Lynda well, daddy grew up in a world where he knew lots of people who had no choice of when they got older, they lost the farm. They used everything they had to pay for their medical care. And then finally, their only choice was to go to the poor house. He had also seen what history to what this did to their families. Not just people my age, but their children. They had to make a decision do we pay for grandma to get the medical care she needs . Or do we say weve got to take care of our own children so they can go to college or stay in school . It was a devastating, it was devastating. We had a third of the seniors living in poverty. And he recognized that there was a great need to do something about it. He was an opportunist. He recognized when he came in , after that historic election where we had, i dont know, 70 new democratic members of congress. He knew this was the time to do it. And presumably there is a story about dirksen. A lot of the stories about daddy are apocryphal, but they are so good. [laughter] believe it or not, i was not there running the nation. That is what you have to understand. I did not write this law. But it seems that after the election, senator dirksen called him and congratulated him on winning the election. He said, now i need to have this operation, but i want to wait and see if you are going to meet with the leadership. And if you are, i will post on postpone this. Daddy, presumably, said oh, its so wonderful that you and i can go and get that medical care paid for by the government. Wouldnt it be great if we could make it possible for everybody to be able to do that . And locked him in right then. [laughter] one of the things that daddy really believed in, two really important things. One, he is an opportunist. He knew when he could get something through and when he could not. And he recognized that compromise is not the enemy. He was willing to make some of those compromises in order to able to get the republicans and maybe more archconservative democrats to sign on. One of the Great Stories is that our friend congressman mills, he was not going to let it out of his committee. But then, when he saw the votes come in, and he knew he could get it passed, he jumped on it. As mother would say, he jumped on it like a duck on a june bug. He wanted to do it. It was those kinds of things. He recognized that this was something that was crucial for the country. Both for the seniors and for their families. So that you could build a stronger middleclass. You did not devastate anybody when mother and daddy got old and needed it. And one of the things that i think you brought out so well, bob, is that it wasnt just when grandma had a stroke although that was a very important thing it was when you got to the age where it was so important that you got those regular checkups. So that you discovered the cancer, diabetes, those things. In those days, you could not afford to go and get that check up. And so therefore, you were going to have bigger bills. It was going to be worse. We were not going to catch it. People like Bob Schieffer are going to be healthy at 78 and instead of having problems when they were 62. Bob to me, that was one of the things as a political reporter that i appreciated most of that most about Lyndon Johnson. You are right, lynda, he had number one, this ability to know how much and how far he could take the country. Which is why he split the civil rights bill into two bills. He knew they could not swallow that much in one gulp. And so he divided it into two. But he had this great news judgment. Lbj would have been a great political reporter. He could always figure out what the lede was. He kept wire Service Machines going 24 hours a day in the oval office. He was the only president who did that. And when something happened, he knew, what can we get out of this . It was the same thing when the civil rights problems were happening in selma. He called Martin Luther king in. He had told him, find the worst place, find where the worst things are happening we will get all those reporters and cameras down there. He said, that will give me the leverage i need to push this legislation through. Larry, why did he decide to go after medicare . He obviously made the speech, it was part of his inaugural address in 1965. Larry this goes back to johnson and his relationship with fdr. It tells you the story of two very important people, as chairman conyers will note. Let me mention them now for a moment. Wilbur mills, we used to call him the one man veto on the ways and Means Committee. If you could not move him, you would never see medicare today. The question was, what would move wilbur mills, who came from a small town in rural arkansas 7500 folks. How were they going to get wilbur to move the bill . The second problem is, this cantankerous old guy from virginia, howard smith. He is on the rules committee. I cannot get anything through the rules committee. How am i going to break this logjam . Lbj had a daunting task. Overarching all of this was the ama, the ama would send leaflets to every doctor. You walk in and the first thing the doctor would say, i may not see you next week because of a socialized medicine bill. What am i going to do . The patient was quivering, i cannot see my doctor anymore. Some Senior Citizens got together and they said every time a patient walks into a doctor, lets give them something from the bible to quote back to the doctor. And so in a moment of concern , when the patient walked in trembling and the doctor presented him with socialized medicine the patient would squeak out. In the bible, it is said that , cast me not off in time of old age, forgetmenot when my strength fails. [laughter] that little epigram turned the doctors from red to blue. They said ok. A couple things happened. You had to move wilbur mills and get howard smith out of the way. And you had to get the ama pacified. A couple things happened. The elections of 1965 brought in a number of democrats into the house. There were now almost 300. Wilbur mills from arkansas said i think i can get this bill , through because i think it is going to pass 300 democrats and the house. Ive got 68 members of the senate, and a number of great Senate Leaders like harry byrd and others. The climate at that moment was right. The majority in the house. The pendulum had swung in favor of the bill. How do i deal with mr. Smith . He will boggle he will bottle the bill down in rules. Speaker mccormack came up with an ingenious solution, the 21 day rule. Which is if you do not get the , bill out of the rules committee in 21 days, it is passed. So, what lbj did, by the depth of his parliamentary knowledge to move away the legal and political obstacles to moving a bill through. Remember, you have to introduce a bill, have hearings, it has to be marked up and come out of the committee, then it has to go to the floor. Then the senate has to do the same thing. Lbj, by his mastery of the political machinery in the house , was able to remove the obstacles. And one final note, he wanted to put a signature around the medicare bill. He called it hr1 and s1 to show the priority of the bill. Bob i love hearing these stories. We are so used to now, washington just doesnt seem to work anymore. And it doesnt. One of the reasons it does not is because johnson said, had such an intimate knowledge of the senate. He knew every member. And not just the ones on his side. I have always thought that one of his great strength was he , could not only explain to someone why they should be with him, he could explain, in ways they understood why it was not a , good idea to be against him. I always remember the story that joe califano told about him. He said once, frank church was in the Foreign Relations committee and a big critic of president johnson, the he was always coming in and quoting Walter Lippman. He was the leading columnist of the day. Yes, mr. President , but walters says this, walter says that. Lbj said next time you need a dam on the snake river, why dont you call Walter Lippman . [laughter] he came around on that particular issue. Lynda what he also did, i think this is the other part, he knew what was important for that congressman or senator and their district. He cared about it. He knew when he could horse trade. He respected the congress. He knew that you had to treat them as important people. He insisted that all of his staff, larry will tell you, that you answer the phone call of senator dirksen or republican congressman the same day you did for democratic congressmen and senators. That was a very important thing, to know their pain. To know what was important to them. One time, you mentioned senator byrd, having virginia connections myself, i know a lot about senator byrd. There was some vote coming up, and nobody thought he would ever vote for this bill. And someone said, why did you vote for it . He said when my niece died, it was cold, ice was around. And senator johnson was the only member who came to the funeral. It was those personal relationships. That respect he had for congress. It was interesting, i cannot tell you enough good things about that congress. They also knew that this was a historic year. They were willing to risk their political lives. Last night i had dinner with , secretary sebelius. She said her father was elected in that 1964 election. He voted for medicare. He came from a town in ohio that had never elected a democrat. At least not in her lifetime. He voted for medicare and he was voted out the next election. There were a lot of people like that. In virginia there was a democratic, only one member of the virginia delegation had voted for the Voting Rights act. He was voted out the next year. There are a lot of courageous people in that congress who voted and changed this country and made more difference in their one term there that a lot of people who were there forever. What we have to realize is that this bill did change the way we look at it. And the way we live. As congressman conyers said, it was a civil rights bill, too, in that it integrated our hospitals. It made a big difference. I was looking back on some things that daddy said in vantage point, his book. He talked about a letter from a woman in washington. She wrote, i have never done anything as daring as writing to the top man of our wonderful country. But things are getting awful rough in our house. I am hoping you can get medicare real soon. You see my husband for almost 46 years, my husband has had several strokes. We had both worked and bought land and were doing well when my husband became ill. Now the bonds are gone. I cant borrow because we have no way to repay. We have very fine children, but both have families and homes to keep up too. We cannot expect any Financial Aid from them. Now, that is what we are talking about. What can we do for those people . How can we make it possible for them to get that help, that medical help before they had the strokes sometimes. And it was a wonderful time to live. We were lucky to do it. We could not have done it without that compromise in congress with republicans and democrats working together. The Congress Deserves a lot of credit. People like congressman conyers and former congressman dingell. He just stepped down. They were very active in getting this through when they were young men. Bob did you want to Say Something . Larry it was an ethical moment. You have to capture that moment. It took place sometime in march when the bill had gone up, hr1 had gone up and nothing was happening. Lbj would come in every day and look at every Committee Schedule and get on the phone with larry obrien, chief of staff on the hill. He would say larry, nothing is moving, what are you doing . Get cohen over and get something moving. There is nothing worse than a bill that sits and is not moving, it is like a dead cat on a porch in the summer. [laughter] move the bill. There came a time when sitting in the ways and Means Committee room, if you have been in the long war the longwirth building, it is still there. Mills and the general counsel and two or three people sat down and what became law was done in about 15 minutes. Mills got together and said , look, heres how we are going to do it. I am going to do hospitalization. Thatll will take care of the seniors. Mr. Byrnes, the republican, you want to include the doctors . We are going to do supplemental Medicare Part b. Over there, medically indigent lets do medicaid. Wilber cohen and wilbur mills, give people in this country have ever heard of wilber cohen. One of the great architects of medicare. That bill was put together in about 15 minutes. A three layer cake. Medicare, medicaid and the doctors hospitalization part b. Then they called lbj and said , mr. President , we have got it done. Wilbur mills began to explain it. Speaker mccormick got on, we pulled this out. The first thing lbj said was, i do not want any hypochondriacs in that bill. [laughter] wilbur cohen said let me explain why that will not happen. We are going to control costs. We will have the Insurance Companies in. Dont worry, no hypochondriacs. Lynda he knew that power of the press. For instance there was a time he , was meeting with the ama. They were really against it. So daddy said that we have had this war going on and we need some doctors in vietnam. Are you willing to talk to some of your doctors and see if we can get them rotate in and out . The head of the ama said yes mr. President , we are patriots. We will be willing to help. Daddy said call in the press. So he calls in the press. They all come in. The press said what about , medicare and medicaid . Daddy said i have just had mr. Such and such here. Hes been a great patriot and he said he going to get these doctors to go in and help us in southeast asia. We are going to help all these people. He said, you know they are , willing to go in there and risk their lives. Im sure if this is a law, they are going to obey the law. Oh, yes, of course we are going to obey the law. Bob that was the first endorsement of medicare by the american medical association. [laughter] larry certainly they would not deny health care to people in this country if they are willing to mark, lynda talks about the war. 1965, there was a lot more than just this piece of legislation. Give us, as a historian, what was happening in 1965 . In the midst of it, he was able to pass this legislation. Mark lbj knew the nature of political capital. He earned the presidency in 1964 with the greatest landslide election in american history. He realizes he sweeps in to , office along with a two thirds majority in the house and senate. He realizes he has this moment to get through all of this legislation that has been piling up for years and no one had been able to get through. Including medicare and medicaid. Lbj ultimately was a product of the new deal. He saw what government could do in leveling the Playing Field during the course of the new deal. He saw his presidency as a mean a means by which to finish the revolution which had been begun by franklin roosevelt. And as you enumerated, some remarkable things happened in 1965. Lbj never rested. In one year you get medicare and medicaid, elementary and higher education, and education, and and infusion of federal aid to education. The federal Clean Air Act and the highway beautification act which is transformative environmentally. You get the immigration act of 1965, the most sweeping Immigration Reform in the history of our nation and changes the heart and soul of america. And you get Voting Rights. The most important civil rights legislation ever to go on the books. Without which, you would not have barack obama as the 44th president of the United States. In addition, you get the establishment of the department of housing and urban development. The implementation of upward bound and head start. This is one single year. I would argue it is the most important year, legislatively, and the history of our country. Even more so than the first year of Franklin Delano roosevelts new deal. Lynda mentioned the encounter with the ama. I might offer as context, the ama stood in the way of medicare for so long. 95 opposed to the implementation of medicare. When does doctors came to the white house that day, the ama, they threatened to boycott to the tune of 95 of doctors refusing to do anything relating to medicare and medicaid. Within two weeks of that meeting lynda mentioned where the president of the ama was put on the spot, 95 of all doctors actually upheld medicare and medicaid. That was the power of lbj. One quick story. Wilbur mills, we talked about the very powerful chairman of the ways and Means Committee from arkansas. Sort of legendary here he stood in the way of medicare like the ama for so long. He made the bill stronger. Lbj had never seen this. When someone came to him and said, mr. President , chairman mills has strengthened the medicare bill. President johnson said im going to get my brother. The aide said why . He said there is an old joke about a fellow in my old city of johnson city, texas. He was interviewing for a job as a switch operator on the railroad. The fellow interviewing him sat what would happen if you saw two trains coming together, the threat of a collision was occurring. He said i would get my brother. The guy says what do you mean . He said my brother had never seen a train wreck before. [laughter] he said i have never seen a bill gets stronger after being in committee. Larry i just want to make a comment about that picture of president truman. There was a big argument at the white house. The question was if i signed the bill in the white house or i go to congress and signed it, all the advisors were saying you do not want to take a trip, do it here. Johnson says no, im going to see my old friend harry truman. Suddenly we all got galvanized. I got a call one day saying see if any of the roosevelt kids are still around. If you can find one, send them down there and we will work it out. We did find the grandson, james roosevelt. If you look at the attendance list, he showed up, along with Vice President humphries, as you can see. When johnson came down there everybody applauded. Truman was beaming. Just want you to hear this quote from harry truman, as the torch passed from fdr to truman to johnson. Im glad you like the president , i like him, too. Hes one of the finest man i ever ran across. There was this big applause. Lbj gave him a ceremonial pen. He pulls out and said mr. President , heres your first medicare card. You do not have to fill out the forms. [laughter] mark the great thing about johnson, johnson understood how to get things done. He understood that you got things done by giving credit a way to the other guy. This is a great example of recognizing Harry Trumans heroic efforts to pass medicare and failing. He goes down independence, again, against the wishes of his at pfizers signs that an Harry Trumans library. He said people did not love harry truman for giving them hell, people love harry truman for giving them hope. Johnson knew that the importance of giving credit away. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed, it was a bipartisan bill we forget that today. It was necessary to garner support of the northern republicans in order to get it through. Fundamentally important. He needed to enlist the support of Everett Dirksen, the republican minority leader and congress. He calls up dirksen and says, i was just in your home state of illinois. You are worthy of being the land of lincoln, 200 years from today, people will only know two fellows from illinois Abraham Lincoln and Everett Dirksen. [laughter] when he signed a Civil Rights Act into law, he did not give the first pen to Martin Luther king or john lewis, he gave the first pen to dirksen, ensuring that he received credit. Bob your sister told me she once asked him why did you get that pen to Everett Dirksen . She told me he replied without him, we would have had a piece of legislation. With him, we had a law. Lynda absolutely. He also said dr. King was already for this bill. Everett dirksen had to, we had to really talk him into it. It is not just the south where you had strong civil rights objections. Believe me, it was in illinois it was in lots of different places in the north. And in the west. Daddy knew that had made the difference. He knew that you wanted to have those republicans, just as you needed to have those republicans at sign on for medicare and medicaid. They are going to go back to their districts. You want to make sure that those states sign up for that medicaid. And that those governors do what they are supposed to do with that. Bob larry, what was it i have always enjoyed and i always ask this question. What was it like to work for him . Larry you want me to answer that question . [laughter] i was at the pentagon and then i was assigned to the white house. Johnson always said i have a small white house staff. Until you look around and see all these people. Where do they come from . There were not folksy brought from texas. These were folks he would get on the phone and say i want two or three of the smartest folks in hew, bring them here. Bob mcnamara, send your guys over here. I want my staff full of people who come from the government. When you were at the white house, you only would know that i 11 00 at night when you got home and you turn on the television, the most magical thing. I worked on that during the day and there it is on Live Television at night. It was astounding what you did for those 10 hours that you would move legislation through. One last item. I want everyone to remember this. When the democrats got that big majority, as mark said, the problem with the ways and Means Committee was always 1510. Mills would sit there and say im not going to get this through. Lbj went to mccormack and said the more democrats that comment, youve got to change the composition of the ways and Means Committee. Mccormack said i dont think i can do that. 24 hours later, a bus arrived from massachusetts. Full of Senior Citizens who camped outside of mccormacks office and said change the alignment. Those are the small stories to it when you put them together, you understand how the bill became law. It was the 89th congress. Medicare was 8997. Six months, 97 bills. Bob how did Lyndon Johnson amass this encyclopedia of knowledge of the congress . He knew how the senate worked. As lynda said, he knew each member. He knew what they needed, what they did not want anybody to know. The part that i find wondrous, how in a day could he do what he did . How did he come to know some much about each and every member . Mark you now that you now that he had the encyclopedic knowledge of the website of process and people around him. Hubert humphrey described lbj as a psychiatrist. He could read you. He knew what motivated you. He knew what might motivate bob was different from what might motivate lynda or larry, he got that. And he used it, he exploited it. There is an expression, people are motivated by either love or fear. And you need to know the right combination to get them to act. Lbj got that. He used to apply something that was legendarily known in washington as the johnson treatment. Or just the treatment, there was no doubt as to who was applying it. Johnson was a master. He used a connotation of flattering, threatening or cajoling, whatever it took to get someone over to his side. The one thing i would take exception to, the adjective you hear associated with johnson is ruthless. I contest that appeared i do not think johnson was ruthless at all. I think he was too smart to be ruthless. In washington at that time, if you ran over someone, you would not be able to get them over to your side in the future. He needed those folks in the future. He only pushed them far enough in order not to alienate them. That was his mastery. That is what he got more than anybody. Larry i think that is very important. He was a master. One of the things he understood is todays opponent may be tomorrows colleague. And maybe the person you need tomorrow. I always, one of the great fruits of washington, i think one of the wisest things Lyndon Johnson ever said. He said to one of his aides one time, never tell a man to go to hell. Unless you know how to put him there. [laughter] ive always thought the advice i would give to any young person coming to washington, always remember that. It is a good life rule. Let me add one thing. You are taught me about the johnson treatment. What i think a lot of people do not understand is the johnson treatment was not just something that happened in the moment. It was something that had a background and a predicate to it. And it had something that came after it. Because you could say many things about Lyndon Johnson, if he told you something, that was the way it was. And it did not change. And i always go back to the story that one of my great friends in life, a man named bill stuckey. All of you have heard about the stuckey stores in the south. Bill was elected to congress when he was a young man. In those days, there was no Republican Party in georgia. He was from georgia. When he won the democratic primary, that night, one of the first cause that came into this kid from georgia who had just won the democratic primary was from the white house. It was one of president johnsons aides. It said the president would like to talk to you. And bill said he said, well, of course, i would love to talk to the president. He thought he was coming on the line. He said no, the president wants to talk to you in person. Were going to send an airplane to Warner Robins air force base tomorrow. The president wants to talk to you. Bill reported to Warner Robins air force base, a government plane was there. It flew him to Andrews Air Force base. He got out and the helicopter was waiting. He got into the helicopter and was flown to the south lawn of the white house. When it landed, a president ial aide who later became u. S. Attorney Harold Sanders greeted him on the south lawn. Come right here. He led him directly into the oval office, this kid from georgia. The first person he saw was the towering Lyndon Johnson. He put his arms around him and said son, i am really going to need your help. [laughter] bill stuckey told me he never voted against him once the entire time he was in office. [laughter] that is what the johnson treatment was about. Lynda let me tell you another story. Daddy remembered the republicans that he served with, too. There was this congressman, a republican congressman elected from houston. His name was george bush. So daddy called him and asked him to come to the white house. This new congressman, who was a republican. He had this one on one with george bush. Because he remembered serving with bushs father. So he wanted to honor him because of his father. And when daddy left in january of 1969, we were not as popular as we were in 1965. We all went out to Andrews Air Force base to get on the airplane to go back to texas. And who came to see us off but george h. W. Bush. Bob and he was the only republican who can that day. I always thought it spoke so well. Lynda it did. It spoke well of both of them. Bob we want to stay on the clock. One thing ive learned in television, i know how to get off. Thank you all very much. You have a great day coming up. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] , we continue with our look back 50
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