Aime Forand
Aime Forand was a congressman from Rhode Island for 22 years (in 2 stints) in the 1930s and 1940s through the 1960s.
Speech Relevance[edit]
From 'Encroaching Control':
To that end, the last session of Congress adopted a program known as the Kerr-Mills bill. To make funds available through the states to provide medical care for that ten percent. Now, without even waiting to see if that program will work, we find that the proponents of this other program, the once defeated Forand Bill, are pleading that the only you can meet the problem of these ten percent is an overall compulsory program forcing all people into compulsory government insurance above age 65 whether they need it or not. We're justified, I believe, in accepting that this federal aid to medical...to a medical program actually is simply an excuse to bring about socialized medicine. As a matter of fact, ex-Congressman Forand by his own words says, "If we can only break through and get our foot inside the door then we can expand the program after that."
This "once defeated" Forand Bill was put forward in 1957 and it was defeated. It was a rehash of the earlier Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill which was defeated 4 times by Congress. It was given to Forand by the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA). Forand introduced the bill at the urging of Nelson Cruikshank of the AFL-CIO and Andrew Biemiller, congressman from Wisconsin.
Forand claimed he never even read the bill.
Aime Forand lost a re-election bid in 1960 and a new bill appeared, known as the King bill.
