Concerning Domestic Policy - LBJ has been our greatest Modern President

'Lyndon Johnson was a very intelligent man' All politicians are intelligent, it's just a matter of whether they present themselves as that or not. For example, Bush II acted like he was a moron, but that was to discredit his critics when they said he was stupid. To be a politician, even one of Bill Maher's 'America's craziest congressmen', one must be intelligent, and any exhibitions of stupidity are largely facades.I think you are skirting around the elephant in the room a little here. The Vietnam War was not just a foreign policy blunder. It was a domestic policy blunder as wes..The War on Poverty, though noble in its intent, was crucially inefficient and underfunded; largely due to the Vietnam War sucking up government spending, and also due to the government's corporate allegiences.The Vietnam War was a disastrous waste of money. As a percentage of GDP, defense spending rose to 9.5%, the highest it has ever been (today's defense spending amounts to 4% of GDP. (1)Johnson also ran the highest deficit since 1946 in 1968, and never presided over a surplus (2).Although, as you said, Medicare and Medicaid helped to lift many Americans out of poverty, it always has been a fiscal black hole. It was a process designed to win votes through the introduction of a social programme while still appeasing the corporations that funded the Democratic Party.Universal Health Care would have been far more cost-effective, if a little illiberal. Nationalising hospitals would have kept costs under control by eliminating the middle man, therefore guaranteeing a healthy population in the long term. There was a large consensus for Universal Healthcare in the US at this time, as well as other social democratic policies and programmes, given the success of European social democracy under Wilson, de Gaulle and Erhardt at that time, which were experiencing economic booms in the mid-1960s.Medicare and Medicaid were concessions rather than reforms, and though they benefitted millions, they were not and still are not cost-effective, and will forever remain glorified PFIs.Let's compare the healthcare spending per capita of the United States, which has medicare and medicaid, to the country with the best quality healthcare in the world, France. In 2011, France spent $4,952 per capita, while the USA spent $8,606 per capita (3). In France, every citizen is covered, whereas in the USA, 48 million people were uncovered (4).The Social Security Act of 1965 was the last of a series of enlargening legislation, each one raising the coverage for social security.There was the original SSA of 1935, which created it for retirees, the unemployed and the recently deceased.Then there was the SSA of 1939, which expanded it to families.Then there was the SSA of 1950 for domestic workers, non-profit workers and self-employed workers.The SSA of 1954 expanded it to include all hotel, laundry and agricultural workers, and all state and local government employees.The SSA of 1956 raised taxes to 4% and included the disabled and lowered the retirement age for women to 62.The SSA of 1961 raised taxes to 6% and lowered the retirement age for men to 62.So by 1965, retirees, the unemployed, the families of the deceased, families of the non-deceased and all workers received social security. Johnson expanded it to include widows at younger ages and divorcees, as well as including Medicare and Medicaid.So if we grade them by number of Social Security Reforms passed under them, it works out as follows:Roosevelt - 2Truman - 1Eisenhower - 2Kennedy - 1Johnson - 1If we take expansion of spending as a percentage of GDP (5):Roosevelt - 0.2% (1935-1944)Truman - 0.3% (1944-1953)Eisenhower - 1.8% (1953-1961)Kennedy - 0.2% (1961-1963)Johnson - 0.5% (1963-1969)Real GDP Growth (6)Roosevelt - 10.08% (1933-1944) Average - 0.84%PATruman - 1.55% (1944-1953) Average - 0.17%PAEisenhower - 2.75% (1953-61) Average - 0.34%PAKennedy - 5.23% (1961-63) Average - 1.74%PAJohnson - 4.76% (1964-1969) Average - 0.79%PAOf the five presidents of the period 1933-69, America's Golden Age, Kennedy managed the best real GDP Growth per year of presidency. Johnson finishes third. After Johnson, neoliberalism takes hold, so GDP growth is not a good measure after 1969, since the economy largely grows based on financial transactions.LBJ is definitely up there among the best presidents, but he was not the best.1. http://www.heritage.org...2. http://federal-budget.findthedata.org...3. http://data.worldbank.org...4. http://www.census.gov...5. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com...6. http://www.measuringworth.com...