Barry Goldwater Quotes
I’ve got my own Medicare plan. I’ve got an intern for a son-in-law.
Barry Goldwater, 1909-1998, U. S. Senator (Republican, AZ), Republican Nominee for President, Interview, Atlanta Constitution. January 26, 1963, Quotation Contributed by Bernard Benjamin Yamron from his Brown University 1995 PhD Dissertation, From Whistle-Stops to Polispots: Political Advertising and Presidential Politics in the United States, 1948-1980
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This is one of the rare occasions where the person appointed to lead a major governmental program, publicy trashed the program and told citizens that they would never receive the benefits that they had already paid for. She was a partisan political appointment who had no real credentials, preparation or previous experience and her statement was so overtly political that few took the statement seriously although there were well known problems that Congress could fix as soon as they have the political will to do so. In the 15 years since this statement not a single worker has failed to obtain any benefits to which he/she was entitled. To see why such a statement can never be made with any certainty, see {619986} which explains the essence of Social Security.
A professional mature female actress spoke the words. The Majority of the Republicans voted against the Medicare law that had passed under Lyndon Johnson. They lost millions of votes over that for years. Then at the end of the 20th century, many Republicans tried to reduce or privatize Medicare which by then was second only to Social Security among all government programs. The Democrats then used many variants of this Schwartz ad to great effect.
Both of these programs have been amongst the most popular programs in American History. Yet for Republican conservatives at the beginning of the 21st century, these were programs that they wanted to either terminate of alter in such severe manners that they would not be anything like the original programs. When these programs were passed by Congress, most Republicans were opposed to the legislation but enough were supportive to have bipartisan support. However, by 2000, most liberal Republicans had been driven out of the party, and it was the Democrats who kept the programs alive and in force despite the Republican assaults. The Democrats had public opinion on their side on these battles and even most registered Republicans opposed President George W. Bush’s major attempt to privatize Social Security.
Barry Morris Goldwater was an American politician, statesman, businessman, United States Air Force officer, and author who was a five-term Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Despite his loss of the 1964 presidential election in a landslide, many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.
