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you're on the air. Make me one tech 1 25. 59 matters. Okay, Call me. We present at this time an informal discussion with Senator George Smathers from the nation's capital. Now, here is the first question Senator matters. What about this situation with Senator full right now?

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Are you an agreement on his thinking on the Dominican Republic or just what is the situation? Of course I'm very much opposed to the conclusions which he arrived at with respect to the Dominican Republic. I think that we had to send our troops in the Dominican Republic.

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We were not only losing lives, ours and others. But there was a great loss of property chaos and revolution was rampant. And had we not sent our troops in, many more lives would have been lost and much more property damage would have been suffered. And most and worst of all, the Communists would have been in control.

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So I disagree with my good friend Bill Fulbright's conclusion that the president overreacted and that he acted on bad information and a few other assertions which he made. But I would like to state that this does not mean that I don't have the highest respect for my good friend Bill.

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Full bank to on whose committee I served and under whose chairmanship I served for some three years. Well, now, Senator Uhh! What about this bill that you and Senator Talmadge and others are on that would extend the insurance to our boys who were in combat? No, not only in South Vietnam, but elsewhere.

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Will you accept the house amendments that have come along? Yes. We're going to have to accept the House amendments. Senator Talmadge and I had that dreamed up this bill. We thought it was necessary to provide boys in combat with government insurance because they couldn't get private insurance once they're in combat.

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This was the same provision which was given to veterans of World War Two in the Korean War. However, when the House got the bill left, we've passed it here in the Senate, the Veterans Affairs Committee, headed by Congressman Teague of Texas. Uhh. And very friendly towards the veterans he is.

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They expanded the conditions of the bill so that now it applies to all servicemen, irrespective of whether they are in combat zones or not further than that, it reaches back from 1962 which was the effective date of our bill back to 1957. And it says that every man who goes into the service today his own active duty, that he's automatically covered by what we'll call group insurance and that there will be deducted from his pay $2 a month if he wants to be covered up to $10 in the event of a catastrophe or $1 a month if he wants to be covered to $5000.

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Then after he gets out of the service, he will be able to convert this government insurance and private insurance without the necessity of taking a private medical examination. This is good insurance. It's a totally satisfactory amendment made by the House their much more generous even than we were, and we're going to pass it uncertain.

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In the Senate, that is as amended unanimously this week. There's a piece of most legislation that has to do with changing the immigration laws. If they're changed, will that assist our friends? That is, the Cuban refugees at all very much. We're going to do this in this immigration bill, which is now being debated and will undoubtedly hopefully be passed.

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By the time that people see this particular telecast and hear the radio, what it does is say that any Cuban refugee to some 250 who are here, that they will be permitted under this law to apply for permanent residence and citizenship should they want to, without the necessity of having to go outside the country and establish a presence in Canada or in Mexico, and then get under a quota and come in, we now are going to give to the Cuban refugees the right to apply for the citizenship.

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Without the strong necessities and difficulties which they had to previously go through, I think that many of them will apply for it. Hopefully we'll be able to get here as citizens in the United States and doctors and lawyers and some of those talented Cubans who are with us and whom we very urgently need.

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Well, Senator, this in no way will injure our present citizens. In other words, will be no competition involved there. These people are good in their own right. So that's right, the regular. I'm glad you asked that question the regular examination, which the attorney general would run with respect to any, uh, applicant who seeks to become a resident will still be in effect.

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They'll have to be screened and meet all the other conditions. Thank you very much. Senator George Smathers. Senator Smathers again on this immigration matter Were you able to protect our Citrus growers and so forth so that we could possibly get migrant labor in to help in the crops and so forth?

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Yes. What we did was this, uh, unfortunately, there was Senator Javits of New York and Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts sought to shift the responsibility of bringing in actors and performers from the attorney General over to the secretary of Labor. Now we're in Florida and other crop producing states were suspect of the secretary of labor in his attitude towards bringing in migrant workers to help us pick our crops.

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So we didn't want to give him this additional authority in so far as it had to do with migrant workers. We were able therefore to have Senator Kennedy, who was the manager of the bill, to accept a statement from me and later on Senator Holland to the effect that in no way was the law changed that the attorney general of the United States will still have the final authority with respect to bringing in migrant labor to help pick crops in Florida.

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Another matter relative to foreign affairs, so to speak, the house acted on. I believe it was a resolution relative to the Dominican Republic this past week. How do you look at that? I thought it was an excellent resolution. The essence of it was that the Congress, it's the sense of the Congress that the United States or any country be permitted and be authorized to take such action as they may deem necessary in order to stop the intrusion of the Communist government in any country in this hemisphere.

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This very similar to the resolution which the Senate passed about 18 months ago, and actually it's very similar to provisions adopted at the Punta del Este Conference of the OS when all the Latin American states agreed that any one of the countries or a group of the countries that could be called in to stop the intrusion of the Communist er if they put a foreign ideology and even to the extent of arms.

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And I think that the reason this resolution was time at this particular point and the reason it was brought up was because to make clear, contrary to Senator Fulbright's contention, that the Latin American people were chagrined and disappointed at the action that we took in the Dominican Republic, that on the contrary they were very much relieved because the Latin's know for certain we don't want to occupy any additional land.

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It costs us money. It costs us lives. We're not looking for additional territory. What we're trying to do is to help peoples have a government of their own selection and to help them move towards constitutional rights and democratic government. And they understand that well, Senator, getting back to domestic problems I recall it on one of these reports.

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You indicated that there would be certain safeguards for elderly in regard to Medicare. Now we find some con artists trying to get at these people what is being done to protect them. Well, first, I'll say this as you know, I'm the chairman of the Committee on Aging, and this matter has been called our attention very forcefully because we do find it Regrettably, there are those insurance salesman who are now going to elderly people and saying that if you don't hurry and buy this insurance program, which I've got, Wow, why first, you won't be able to get any.

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You won't be able to come under the voluntary part of the medical care program. And then secondly, they imply that the federal government will pick up their particular part of the program, their particular type of insurance, I meant to say, both of which are not exactly accurate.

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Now what we're And then there are other frauds that are being perpetrated on the elderly people by virtue of the adoption of the Medicare program. Our Committee on Aging is immediately. Our staff is already busy looking into these frauds and alleged frauds, and we're going to start holding hearings for the express purpose of stopping those deceptions and malpractices with respect to elderly people, at the same time giving publicity to the program and what rights really exists in so far as the elderly people are concerned and two at the same time, advise them and inform them as to what steps and practices they should follow in qualifying themselves for the benefits of the Medicare program.

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One quick answer. Senator, What about 14 b? Is that going to come up for a vote? Do you think? Well, it's going to be brought to the floor. I'm one of those who expects to work and speak and vote against it. Let's repeal just what the outcome will be.

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Will have to remain open. Because if the Senator Mansfield decides that it cannot be voted up or down this year, why he may decide to take it over January of next year. Thank you very much. Senator George Smathers, I return you now to your station announcer.

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Mhm.