What would LBJ do to pass health care reform? [View all]

[ehrnst]

Since Bernie Sanders invoked LBJ's passage of Medicare and Medicaid in his OpEd, lets take a closer look at LBJ.

One of his aides put together this list in 2009, when the ACA was being developed:

He would have a willingness to horse-trade with every member.

He would keep a list of people who support each member financially. A call to each to tell them to get the vote of that representative.

He would have Billy Graham calling Baptists, Cardinal Cushing calling Catholics, Dr. Martin Luther King calling blacks, Henry Gonzales calling Hispanics, Henry Ford and David Rockefeller calling Republicans.

He would get Jack Valenti to call the Pope if it would help.

He would have speeches written for members for the Congressional Record and hometown newspapers.

He would use up White House liquor having nightcaps with the leaders and key members of BOTH parties.

Each of them would take home cufflinks, watches, signed photos, and perhaps even a pledge to come raise money for their next election.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/24/johnson.lbj.health.care/index.html

Note - he worked with people - he didn't alienate those who disagreed with him. He didn't just dismiss anyone who wasn't on board, or had questions as corrupt. He didn't assume people were not on board with the plan "hated him."

He got it done because "compromise" wasn't a dirty word to him.



He did, however lie about what it would cost, because he knew it wouldn't pass if he was upfront about it. That can't be done today, now that we have the CBO.

Johnson maneuvered every step of the way getting this bill through Congress, and one of the things he did — and this is a little dicey in today's climate — was suppress the costs. So this young kid gets elected from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, in 1962, and Johnson is explaining to him [over the phone] how you get a health bill through. And what he tells him is don't let them get the costs projected too far out because it will scare other people:

"A health program yesterday runs $300 million, but the fools had to go to projecting it down the road five or six years, and when you project it the first year, it runs $900 million. Now I don't know whether I would approve $900 million second year or not. I might approve 450 or 500. But the first thing Dick Russell comes running in saying, 'My God, you've got a billion-dollar program for next year on health, therefore I'm against any of it now.' Do you follow me?"

We believe, after looking at the evidence, my co-author [David Blumenthal] and I, that if the true cost of Medicare had been known — if Johnson hadn't basically hidden them — the program would never have passed. America's second-most beloved program would never have happened, if we had had genuine cost estimates.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112234240