Dead cats

From the last man to get this far in enacting health care reform.

At one point, Wilbur Mills, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, expressed concern to Mr. Johnson about the cost of expanding the Medicare proposal. The president told him not to worry.

“I’ll take care of [the money]. I’ll do that ... We had an old judge in Texas one time ... we called him Al Caldy ... old Al Caldy Roberts, and he said, when they talked to him one time that he might’ve abused the Constitution and he said, ‘what’s the Constitution between friends?’ And I say..., that 400 million’s not going to separate us friends when it’s for health. ...

Master the Congressional Process

When Democratic House leaders called with the cheerful news that Medicare had passed in the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Johnson quickly reminded them that the Rules Committee might introduce fatal delays:

“For God sakes, don’t let dead cats stand on your porch, Mr. [Sam] Rayburn [the former House speaker] used to say, ‘They stunk and they stunk and they stunk.’ When you get one [of your bills] out of that committee, you call that son of a bitch up before they [the opposition] can get their letters written.”