The LBJ Myth

As much as liberals hated George W. Bush for his moonfaced dick-swinging, many want to see Obama give members of Congress The Johnson Treatment. But that conveniently ignores the fact that the rules have changed:

It's worth remembering too that LBJ passed Medicare in part because he concealed the out-year budgetary impact (there was no CBO in those days).

There's a phone recording of Johnson telling House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills that if Dick Russell, the conservative Democratic senator from Georgia, ever knew the truth about the out-year numbers, he'd kill the bill.

You can't conceal that kind of information today, and indeed, as we've seen, these CBO scores (Harry Reid awaits a crucial one now that he hopes will validate his final bill) have a talismanic importance.

And any Decider nonsense Obama tried to pull would still fall short in compelling Senate Republicans to match the support conservatives gave LBJ when half of the GOP caucus voted in favor of Medicare. Today the opposition party simply isn't interested in governing. We've gotten this far by letting the legislative process play out. Yes, that process, hamstrung by a 60 vote requirement, is arguably broken. But it's not something Obama can fix through LBJ-levels of persuasion.