Thirty years ago Wednesday– a little more than two months after he proclaimed in his inaugural address that “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem”– President Ronald Reagan was shot and almost killed as he left a hotel in Washington, DC, after addressing a meeting of building trades union leaders. (This was back in the era when leading Republicans thought it important to communicate with trade unionists.)
The president was rushed to George Washington University Hospital (where I came into the world some years previously) and received emergency treatment from the trauma team headed by Dr. Joseph Giordano.
Before he went into surgery, Reagan joked with the doctors: “I hope you’re all Republicans.”
Dr. Giordano, a Democrat, replied: “We’re all Republicans today, Mr. President.”
Reagan, of course, recovered from his wounds and went on to serve two full terms as president.
In 1984 Reagan addressed a meeting of the National Italian-American Foundation. He told the story of a hard-working Italian immigrant to America, one of whose sons became a milkman.
“And the milkman raised his children as he had been raised. They were taught to respect honesty, decency and hard work. They struggled to make ends meet. All of their money went to the education of their children. They put one son through college, and when he wanted to be a doctor, they put him through medical school. Because of their diligence, the son became a prominent surgeon in a great hospital.
“One day that surgeon– that son of a milkman– saved the life of a President of the United States who had been shot.
“I know this story because I was the patient…”
A moving story, and a true one. And as Dr. Giordano wrote in the September 18, 1984, Los Angeles Times (not freely available online), he and his family are proud of Reagan’s comments. But, he added, there is another part of the story:
The government social programs enacted over the last 50 years– and so frequently criticized by this President and his Administration– have played a vital role in making this success possible. Although my father bore the brunt of the expense, I received low-interest government loans to help finance part of my medical school education. Many colleagues of mine received even greater government assistance in their education.
And my profession, stimulated by generous federal funding for biomedical research, has made unprecedented progress in diagnosis and treatment of disease in the last 30 years.
In contrast to the President, who feels that government programs make people so dependent that they lose initiative, I feel that these programs have enabled people with little resources to reach their full potential.
…My parents enjoy a deserved retirement helped by Social Security, and my father has more than once benefited from the Medicare program.
When it came to saving Ronald Reagan’s life on March 30, 1981, government was more a part of the solution than a part of the problem.
