James Norton: “I must say that it would be hard to find a greater domestic policy President than Lyndon Baines Johnson. The only one I…”

“I must say that it would be hard to find a greater domestic policy President than Lyndon Baines Johnson. The only one I could think of would be FDR himself, and of course, President Johnson updated the Roosevelt New Deal. In fact, we are naming the education building, the Department of Education building after President Johnson. We could as soon have named the HHS building. This is the Medicare President. This is the Medicaid President. On both sides of the aisle, the historic accomplishments of this great President have been embraced. He updated the New Deal. And as we consider what domestic legislation lies ahead for us, I think we would do well to remember that history gets made in one era; and the New Deal era with Social Security, unemployment insurance and the like, and then in another era, new issues come forward. President Johnson found those issues. None could have been more important than education and health care, and I appreciate the bipartisan nature of this bill. No building should be named in Washington that is not embraced on both sides of the aisle, and there is no more appropriate person to name this building after than President Lyndon Baines Johnson.”