Word: cohen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...when Lyndon Johnson was a lowly aide to a lowly Texas Congressman, Wilbur Cohen was busy helping to draft the law that established Social Security, a keystone for both the New Deal and the Great Society. Down the years, Cohen co-authored many other major social measures, from the 1946 act that put federal money into the financing of new hospitals to Medicare in 1965. But even after he be came Under Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare three years ago, he remained a back-room man. Now, as President Johnson's nominee to replace John Gardner as Secretary...
Deferred Sandwich. Short (5 ft. 6 in.) and portly, Cohen has a keen sense of the possible. With an eye on the generation ahead, he has always been willing, if necessary, to sacrifice cherished legislative objectives so long as he gets at least a small piece of what he wants. This morsel, Cohen believes, can be fattened a little year by year until eventually the legislation resembles what he wanted in the first place. An aide calls his technique "salami slicing." One slice does not amount to much, but eventually there is enough for a sandwich...
Sometimes Cohen has to wait a long time. Medicare, which he suggested in 1935, was not enacted until 30 years later. But social advances in the U.S., Cohen believes, follow cycles, and can only be hastened slowly. The early part of the New Deal, he notes, marked a high point in modern social history, followed by a plateau until 1946. Modest advances were made in the Truman and Eisenhower years, and a big spurt took place in the first two years of the Johnson presidency. Now the curve is descending somewhat again. He foresees another spurt ahead, but fears that...
Steps & Shuffles. Perennially denounced as a socialist since the mid'30s, Cohen nonetheless is respected by most Congressmen, who are impressed by his knowledge of the American welfare system and appreciate his non-bureaucratic understanding of their own problems as legislators. Even Wilbur Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee-who is about as antisocialist as a Congressman and an Arkansan can get-concedes that Cohen has always been willing "to compromise when compromises have to be made." That is perhaps the highest compliment Mills could pay anyone...
...Cohen was John Gardner's choice to replace him as Secretary; but while they would probably agree on goals, the two men have markedly different ideas on how to achieve them. Gardner was convinced that the nation could not wait for the next upward cycle and resigned in disenchantment when he felt the President did not share his sense of urgency about the plight of the cities. Cohen is no less unhappy with the current negative mood in Congress and the nation, but he is willing to wait, moving ahead meanwhile in small steps and shuffles...