S2 Ep 4 - Medicine Man
Nixon at War
PRX
4.8 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2020
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
FDR, Harry Truman, and JFK all attempted to pass some form of universal health care — but no one had gotten even close. Johnson believed he might succeed where his predecessors had failed, at least for the country’s elderly, but to do so he would have to overcome the opposition of the same influential interest group that had derailed all earlier attempts — the American Medical Association.
To prevail in this fight, LBJ would have to win over one key legislator — Congressman Wilbur Mills, the powerful head of the House Ways and Means Committee. Johnson's skillful and tireless courtship of Congressman Mills, and the alliance ultimately forged between them, is the central story of this episode.
With analysis from historian Julian Zelizer, author of “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society.” Learn more at LBJsGreatSociety.org.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Yes? |
| 0:01.0 | Congressman Mills. |
| 0:02.0 | Good morning. |
| 0:03.0 | You're doing all right? |
| 0:04.0 | Yes, sir. |
| 0:05.0 | You're still busy? |
| 0:06.0 | It's June, 1964, and Lyndon Johnson is on the phone with Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, the |
| 0:15.0 | powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. |
| 0:17.0 | This week with our debt and our taxes, |
| 0:21.1 | and do you feel reasonably comfortable about them? |
| 0:23.3 | I do about the debt ceiling, |
| 0:24.9 | but I'm a little concerned about this motion. |
| 0:27.1 | Mills and the President go way back, |
| 0:29.2 | to Johnson's days on the hill. |
| 0:31.2 | Both are Southerners from hard-scrabble rural backgrounds. |
| 0:34.5 | More often than not, they found common ground. |
| 0:37.4 | Now, though, a struggle is brewing |
| 0:40.3 | over a central piece of LBJ's Great Society agenda, a bill that would for the first time |
| 0:45.3 | provide government subsidized health insurance for every American over 65. In other words, Medicare. |
| 0:52.3 | How you're doing on your mills bill? |
| 0:56.0 | I don't know. |
| 0:57.0 | It looks like we're getting right to vote. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PRX, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of PRX and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.