On Thursday’s Joy Behar Show on CNN Headline News, host Behar brought up a 1961 Ronald Reagan quote opposing socialized medicine being cited by conservatives, prompting guest Ron Reagan to argue that his father was wrong in opposing Medicare because some of the dire predictions have not happened yet. After Behar complained that "the GOP is always trotting out Ronald Reagan. I mean, can't they come up with something new? This was 50 years ago," she soon added, "He was the original fearmonger, too. I hate to say it."
Ron Reagan agreed: "Yeah, he was, but he was wrong, as we now see. And, you know, Rush Limbaugh can quote this all he wants, but he's just reminding people that my father in this instance was wrong. Maxine [Waters] is right, though, very sincere in his wrongs."
Earlier in the show, Ron Reagan had lamented that single payer socialized medicine is not currently considered an option for health care reform: "The most effective way to control costs and provide better health care for Americans was taken off the table from the get-go months and months ago – and that is universal single payer. That is what the rest of the world enjoys, but we can't have it here."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Thursday, February 25, Joy Behar Show on CNN Headline News:
JOY BEHAR: Okay, let's turn to another darling of the right, Miss Sarah Palin. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush made some interesting comments about the former Alaska Governor. Watch this.
FORMER GOVERNOR JEB BUSH (R-FL): My personal belief is that for Governor Palin to be a successful candidate for higher office, she needs to take this charisma she has and also add to it some depth of understanding of the complexity of life that we're living in today.
BEHAR: Well, he should know. His brother is George Bush.
LIZ WINSTEAD, COMEDIAN: And very complex.
BEHAR: Hello! Let me ask you, Maxine, is this a back handed compliment or a straightforward diss?
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Well, it's about what most people are saying about Sarah Palin. She's entertaining. She's rallying the crowds. She makes for good theater, all of that. But it's not going to translate into the presidency, simply because the consensus is that she does not run deeply enough, that she is not well prepared, that she simply is not ready to be the President of the United States. I think you will hear that kind of conversation going on about her all the time.
BEHAR: Right. And, Ron, let me ask you: Palin's spokeswoman quit. Do you know why she might have quit?
REAGAN: Well, you know, she said she wanted to spend more time with her family and perhaps she did. But maybe she thought that she was involved in a legitimate political movement or an incipient political campaign for the presidency. And maybe she came to the realizations the person she was backing, working for, really was totally unqualified and unsuited to that job, as Jeb Bush, you know, rather explicitly suggested.
BEHAR: What do you think?
WINSTEAD: Well, I think, when you sign on with Sarah Palin, after 10 seconds of being around her, you should know that. Like, why did it take this woman so long to quit? I mean, I look at, and listen to Jeb Bush, and basically what I hear him saying is wow, the thing about Sarah Palin is if we could just harness all that charisma and sort of thrust it onto a carcass with a brain, that would be awesome.
BEHAR: You know, sometimes I wonder if this kind of thing that we do about Sarah Palin helps her, you know, calling her dumb and implying that she has no-
WINSTEAD: I don't have to call her dumb.
BEHAR: I’m just wondering, I know. I wonder, though, because we are having so much fun on this woman. I don't know, I'm developing a stutter as a result of it. You know, Ron, the GOP loves to bring your father, Ronald Reagan, into any discussion whenever possible. So it's no surprise they dug up some of his comments from 1961 to support their opposition to health care reform. Let's listen.
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN AUDIO, DATED 1961: 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. From here it's a short step to all the rest of socialism.
BEHAR: Wasn't your father talking about Medicare?
RON REAGAN: Yes, he was, well, what would become Medicare eventually, and he went on to say that if you, you know, socialize the doctor, you'll socialize the patient, and he talked about, you know, the doctors being told where to live and all that. Well, guess what? We've had Medicare now for almost half a century, and none of those things have happened. My father happened to have been wrong in his assessment there.
BEHAR: Yeah.
RON REAGAN: But it's no secret that the Republicans like to quote from it anyway.
WINSTEAD: He was a ground breaker in the, pushing the socialism agenda, Ron.
RON REAGAN: Yes, it’s true, way ahead of Sarah Palin.
WINSTEAD: Way ahead of everybody, oh yeah.
RON REAGAN: He didn’t do death panels, though. He stayed away from the death panels.
WATERS: The interesting thing about Ronald Reagan was he really believed that. You know what I'm saying? He wasn't a phony. He wasn’t a fake about it. He really believed that, and I have the greatest respect for Ron, Jr., because he is philosophically different, and he’s not afraid to say so.BEHAR: And takes a lot of flack from the right wing because he doesn't go lock step with his father. It's as if a man isn't allowed to think for himself. It’s ridiculous. But, you know, the GOP is always trotting out Ronald Reagan. I mean, can't they come up with something new? This was 50 years ago.
RON REAGAN: Who would they come up with?
WATERS: They love him, and every building in this country is going to be named after him.
(EVERYONE LAUGHS)
RON REAGAN: Which means it will also be named after me, which I love.
WATERS: That’s right, that’s true.
BEHAR: That’s true. I forgot about that. But, I mean, in the recording, Reagan says doctors are going to be told where to live, where to practice. He was the original fearmonger, too. I hate to say it.RON REAGAN: Yeah, he was, but he was wrong, as we now see. And, you know, Rush Limbaugh can quote this all he wants, but he's just reminding people that my father in this instance was wrong. Maxine is right, though, very sincere in his wrongs.
MAXINE: Because Rush Limbaugh is no Ronald Reagan.
RON REAGAN: No, that's for sure.
BEHAR: All right, thanks, everybody. Very interesting.
