Obama should study how LBJ got Medicare passed.

I'm just saying.

I agree that lowering to age 55 would help immensely, immediately and cover the worst.

he said he would rather have NO BILL than a compromise. He won by a landslide (like Obama) in 64, and was pissed that Medicare wasn't on the agenda on day 1.

LBJ scared the hell out of the doctors and the Democratic Chairman on Ways and Means about getting elected the next go around. He wasn't afraid to look at a powerful Dem in Congress and let him know that his job was at stake.

Their job is not at stake if the voters in their districts are going to vote for them. Those voters don't need the President's OK. The President has no say in their "jobs."

during his presidency (depending on the year). He was also privileged enough to not have to deal with ritual reconciliation on all bills. This meant he only needed 50 votes + the vice president. LBJ could comfortably lose the support of 25% of his own party in the senate and still pass legislation. If Obama loses even 1 senator, his legislative agenda is stalled.

after all - why can't he raise the dead and replace the congress and senate - it all depends on the president right?

and he fucking pushed Democratic Congressmen and Senators into a fucking corner. He did NOT back down from a "voluntary medical insurance (public option)" for those drawing Social Security. He let medicare die in 1964, and after the landslide election, he got medicare passed by EASTER. He got everything he wanted, because he fucking knew how to negotiate, manipulate, and maneuver.

As I replied above, the senate majority was so overwhelming at the time of LBJ and reconciliation was not routinely abuse as it now that LBJ could lose 25% of his own party's Senators and still pass legislation. It was like getting a majority of 3rd graders to choose chocolate ice cream over spinach.

and the lemonade tasted so much better back then. Whatever happened to the good old days? :eyes:

and LBJ didn't have to deal with the different media outlets. Particularly a network that is dedicated to lying and distorting facts.

Obama and the Dem leadership is giving too much away for the sake of any kind of bill to sign. Obama has power to use against the spineless Democrats. What good is having the power if you won't use it?

Obama are from states that hate him. I don't think the leverage is as good as you think

President Obama is new to the Federal Government (compared to LBJ), so he needs to take a somewhat different approach than the smoke filled back room deal.

Our President has the force of the people on his side, the argument for Health Care Reform should be driven by the voice of the people, not trading of political capital between the powerful in Washington

Seems like LBJ had the memory of a beloved young president to invoke. Maybe that means nothing when you read about it on Wikipedia. But it sure meant something at the time.

He had the skills to get anything he wanted out of Congress, but chose not to provide universal healthcare, something that had been on the agenda for some Democrats for a couple of decades already.

It's called the separation of powers.

nevertheless. Letting it be known that the party will not assist in the next election of the congressperson or that they will fund an opponent. Certain bills will be a no sign by the Prez if the congressperson does not play ball on an issue. I think it is done all the time.

Southern bloc of Senators and Representatives, power base of overt racism. Federal troops still enforcing desegregation. Barely dry Voting Act. Cold war hysteria, with nuclear weapons. Anticommunism rampant. Three years out from the missile crisis.

Yet he still rammed it through.

What is this? Teabaggers and Glenn Beck?

There is no excuse for this pitiful performance.

LBJ had a 26 to 36 seat majority during a time when procedural filibuster (reconciliation) was not routinely used. He could lose 25% of his own party's Senators and still easily pass legislation. 25% of our current Senate delegation is 15 senators, approximately the number of Blue Dogs we keep complaining about. With the current make up of the Senate and the hurdle of reconciliation, that's enough to stall any legislation that doesn't pander to conservative Democrats.

JFK/LBJ campaigned on it in 1960, JFK demanded that it get passed this year in 1962 in his State of the Union speech, and legislative work began under President Kennedy, and continued, though it remained bogged down even after LBJ took office in 1963. LBJ signed a bill in 1965. So, are you saying that President Obama is rushing?

Here is a link to a thread discussing this chronology.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8605027

since 1992. If we don't get a health care bill that gives health care to all this year, it won't happen in the next 20 years. And, without a robust public option, it won't happen---and a "public option" is a COMPROMISE.

If Obama signs a bill with a "trigger" or "co-ops," I predict he'll be a one-termer.

I know I won't vote for him if that happens.

Congress has changed a lot since then. The times have changed too.

with the Dixiecrats in his own party. And he was a lot clearer about what he wanted and what would happen to those who helped and those who stood in the way.

He was a master at cracking heads-- you absolutely did not cross LBJ if you knew what was good for you. Talk about bipartisanship is fine for the public, but big carrots and bigger sticks are what work.

This head-cracking is now the job for Rahm Immanuel, but it doesn't work if the President doesn't, or can't, back up the threats or promises. Right now Obama is hated in some quarters, really, really, hated, and it's not just racial-- Clnton and Shrub had this sort of visceral hate aimed at them and it's now the basis of American politics. Programs and issues don't really count-- it's all about personality and fear. And blind hatred.

Unfortunately, nobody in Congress seems to fear Obama enough. And that might be the key problem-- nobody has to like him, just be shit in your pants scared of him and things will get done.

"If Obama would just be more like LBJ he could get whatever he wanted". I can't believe you all really think it's that fucking simple.

...the insurers and big pharma ~ you can't protect them and still do what's best for Americans.

page from LBJ's playbook and personally calling Congressmen and twisting arms.

I agree with you that he should have studied what LBJ did and how he did it, but it's far too late now to be doing homework.

Obama, at this point, will be lucky if the corporations let him have any type of "victory" to claim. They whipped him. He can't even get 51 votes. Unbelievable.

He should have studied LBJ. It's too late for homework now.

Is your point that Health Care reform is being rushed?

Stupid comparison.

If someone offered me a deal and said you can have Medicare for all in 2014 I'd jump at it.

I know, I know - I'm just sayin...

If the point one is trying ultimately to get across is that Obama should be up in every legislator's face, demanding universal health care or else, this analogy is completely messed up.

Medicare was, itself, a compromise proposal, an extremely watered down offshoot of a universal health care proposal first submitted to Congress in 1945 with Truman's backing. These proposals went nowhere, so what happened? Well, what happened is that Kennedy/LBJ settled for something less and pushed *that* through Congress ten years after those original proposals.

Of course, those original proposals actually go back even further, but there's a direct lineage between Truman's desires and what eventually did get passed.

And, if you really want to push this sort of criticism, you might add to the mix that Obama should somehow manage to take over from an assassinated President whose legacy he could use to make a sentimental appeal that doesn't exist otherwise. I fear Obama is short on that particular god-like power.

I'm just saying.