modern medicine itself host: president lyndon b. johnson signing into law medicare, here to discuss our two former administers of the program. gail lewinsky, is medicare working like explained there by president johnson? guest: in general yes. medicare was designed to meet a very particular meeting for the older population of america to make sure they would have access to insurance coverage or hospitals and physicians. a challenge to most seniors even those that were not low income had a great deal of trouble getting insurance. it changed a lot, the coverage has broadened, we have 55 million people on medicare now. almost 10 million of whom are disabled. and under 65. preventative services, many are covered. outpatient prescription drug coverage has been expanded. in 2003, through legislation. the financing has changed significantly, but the need that medicare was designed to respond to, making sure that seniors would have access to care has indeed been that. guest: i agree with her and i add a few more items. one is that health care delive

intact and impacts everybody today sfl you heard from two guests, kent germany, the editor of the lyndon b. johnson center at the university of virginia. also joining us is joe califano who worked with the president an also the author of the book "the triumph and tragedy of lyndon b. johnson." thank you very much. >>> now a look back to august 6, 1965. we go to the u.s. capital to hear president johnson speak at the rotunda and then we'll see him sign the act. >>> some live events to tell you about about the c-span networks. 8:00 a.m. eastern a discussion of the evolution of cloud, mobile and big data terminology and how it can be used by federal agencies to buy better service and increws productivity. that's being hosted by the online social network gov loop. later in the day, keith hall talks about the u.s. budget and economic outlook in an updated report from his agency. that's live at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >>> saturday august 29th marks the 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina, one of the five deadliest storms in u.s. history. tuesday night at 8:00, x span's tour of hurricane katri tof

he always spoke with presidents starting with lyndon b. johnsona opportunity for african-americans, young african-americans. job opportunities, educational opportunities, and then housing in the inner cities. for families to be able to live in. dad did some things that were way ahead of his time back in the late 1960's and the early 1970's in this town. he had a restaurant called the gold platter. it would be like a walmart today. you could go grocery shopping, but you could also have a meal there. you can also eat, there was a restaurant. you go to walmart for me can do just about anything can we get something to eat vegan shopping you can get your hair done. he was way ahead of his time. he created a system where people could have food stamps so that they could be able to purchase the film in the stores. -- food in the stores. he was so far end of his time and try to help has community. ♪ say it loud say it loud say it loud ♪ ♪ >> to make a three minute song i'm black and i'm proud, had so much power to generations to come and i do not think my

. >> in your estimation, did lyndon b. johnson impede or help facilitate civil rights? >> he helped it, push it forward. if it hadn't been for president johnson, wouldn't have the civil rights act, the voting rights act. just a succession of good things that happened when president johnson was president. true. >> what presidentses, aside from johnson, have had positive influences in recent history on civil rights? >> gee. it's hard to say because none of them have had an overwhelmingly positive effect on civil rights. if you take away president johnson, there is not a president who has been way up here in my estimation. johnson is way up here but none of the others are. >> is there someone who is surprisingly good that we don't think about too often who did good things? >> no. >> no? >> no. there is none. >> let's talk about president obama then. you know, president obama walked across the edmond pettus bridge, a bridge named for a confederate general, an original member of the ku klux plan in alabama. tell me what that felt like? >> i watched it on t.v. like most people

i remember lyndon b. johnson did the war on poverty with training.raining is one thing, but then having jobs. my question, with the kellogg foundation, would you be interested -- when we talk about jobs, most of the people coming home from prison have challenges finding employment. would the kellogg foundation be interested in teaching formerly incarcerated individuals how to be entrepreneurs and building those social skills? do you think that would be a good approach in new orleans to reduce unemployment in the african-american community? ms. tabron: absolutely, and we are doing that in new orleans and throughout the country. many of you may have heard the 100,000 jobs for community youth. the kellogg foundation has joined with businesses across the country to create over 100,000 jobs, and what we are doing in that work is to build support structures, work on issues of ban the box, etc., allowing those that have been incarcerated go back into employment opportunities. yes, we do that all of the time. jarvis: i wish our conversation could be longer.

lyndon b. johnson didn't make that excuse. ronald reagan didn't make that excuse both of them were pretty optimistic. so so that's what a dangerous phenomenon which is the opposition of pessimism pessimism in the division. you see the most pessimistic divisive republicans today kind of came from the obama air a in the reaction that means we need visionary is who declare their independence and cannot say it is a new day and we can have competing pessimism or optimism. >> host: what is the formula that you offer. what are the elements in the 215 or so pages of this book that you would pull out and focus that visionary on to begin that process because for me it's all about the process of evolution. how do you resolve from where you are to this new space and environment. to help you get there they be there are elements of that but what other aspects of the book that you had in mind for that visionary. if there's one thing that would help us to be optimists. on behalf of the people that don't currently have about their job. how he

he is a history professor at the university of south carolina but also the editor of the lyndon b. johnson project at the university of virginia. thanks for joining us. mr. germany: it is my pleasure. host: our next guest was the secretary of health, education and welfare, and he was the author of the triumph and tragedy of lyndon johnson. thank you for joining us. mr. califano: nice to be with you. host: before we starts, a little bit about your perspectives. mr. germany, the lbj project what is that? mr. germany: it is a gold-mining project. it is trying to get all of the recordings transcribed, edited annotated, anything you would need to know to understand what is going on in a conversation. the editors are there. we are trying to put everything out from the assassination. all the way through the end of 1969. so, it is lyndon johnson's vision of history with the bark off and you're talking about a lot of bark on with these telephone calls. host: what do the telephone calls reveal? mr. germany: lyndon johnson was extremely busy. the voting rights act was one thing that was going on in h

intact and impacts everybody today sfl you heard from two guests, kent germany, the editor of the lyndon b. johnson center at the university of virginia. also joining us is joe califano who worked with the president

lyndon b. johnson didn't make that excuse. ronald reagan didn't make that excuse and both of them by the way were pretty optimistic. so governing for the division of through the division of pessimism has led to a dangerous phenomenon which is the pessimism and division. you see the most divisive republicans today they kind of came from the obama air a into that means we need visionaries. we need conservative visionaries who declare their independence and we could have competing pessimism or optimism. >> host: what is the formula that you offer? with elements were the elements in the pages of the book that you would pull out and focus that visionary on to begin that process because to me it is all about the process of evolution how you evil from where you are to this new environment and whether or not you are willing to do it. but to help you get there. what are the aspects aspects in the? >> guest: the most important thing to remember is we are fighting for people. if it is a whole bunch of times. if there's one thing that wil

lyndon b. johnson didn't make that excuse. ronald reagan didn't make that excuse. both of those guys were pretty optimistic. pessimism has led to pessimism and division. they kind of came from the obama era. they were reaction from the obama era. we need visionaries per visionaries. we need conservative visionaries who declare their independence and come out as optimist to say it's a new day and we can have competing pessimism's or we can have competing optimism's. >> what is the formula you offer in the book for that conservative visionary? what are visionary? what are the elements in the 215 pages of this book that you would pull out and focus that visionary on to begin that process? it's all about the process of evolution and how you of all from where you are to this new space and new environment. whether or not you are willing to do it. to help you get there, what are some of the things that you would pull out. we talked about the seven lessons. maybe it's elements of that. what other aspects of this book that you had in mind for that vision? >> the most import

lyndon b. johnsondidn't make that excuse, ronald reagan didn't make that excuse, and both of those guys were optimistic people. so governing through pessimism has bred an atmosphere of pessimism. you see republicans today, they were in reaction to the obama era, and that means we need visionaries. we need conservative visionaries who say, who declare their independence and come out as optimists to say it's a new day, and we can have competing pessimisms, or we can have competing optimisms. >> host: so what is the formula that you offer in the book for that conservative visionary? i mean, what, what are the elements in the 215 or so pages of this book that you would pull out and focus that visionary on to begin that process? because for me it's all about the process of evolution, how you evolve from where you are to this new space, this new environment and whether or not you're willing to do it. but to help you get there, what are some of the things that you would pull out? we talked about the seven les

war, he became a science advisor to lyndon b. johnson.when i knew him, his assignment at los alamos was to design the ignition switches which operated , which in turn caused an implosion. , theu have switches igniters on top of the cones of the explosive lenses, and then you have the implosion. our job at the beginning was to build switches. the important thing to know is that the bomb consisted of a purpose of the whole the implosion was to compress that itsnium metal so density caused it to become a nuclearnd to cause chain reaction. in order to cause this explosion, implosion, you need to have the entire sphere compress at the same time. if the left side explodes before the right side, then it will abort. so you need to know that these at precisely the same time. there were 32 such lenses around -- on the sphere. had an explosive igniter on top, and then there were 32 switches is somewhere else. what iswitches, that was was supposed to help him with. atget the switches to ignite precisely the same time. well, that's not a trivial thing

king directly pressured president lyndon b. johnson to pass conference of voting rights legislation. however, president johnson initially denied the request, reminding dr. king that he had just passed the civil rights act, claiming that law sufficiently addressed african-american civil rights. of course, dr. king persisted, explaining a sentiment that withoutue today, that comprehensive, strong, and fully enforceable voting rights legislation, all the protections afforded in the civil rights act were done in vain. dr. king's persuasiveness eventually took hold and five days after the march, president johnson announced a joint session of congress -- announced to a joint session of congress that he would bring them an effective voting rights bill. johnson signed into law the manyg rights act hailed by as the most effective civil rights law ever enacted. of the most effective civil rights law was rightfully earned. the voting rights act of 1965 contained extraordinary measures -- section five, which required southern states with histories

king directly pressured president lyndon b. johnson to pass comprehensive voting rights legislation. however, president johnson initially denied the request reminding dr. king he had just passed the civil rights act claiming that law sufficiently addressed african-american civil rights. of course, dr. king persisted explaining a sentiment that rings true today. that without comprehensive strong, and fully enforceable voting rights registration, all of the protections in the civil rights act were done in vain. dr. king's persuasiveness eventually took hold. five days after the march resident johnson announced a joint session of congress -- announced to the joint session of congress that he would bring them an effective voting rights bill, and on march 6 1965, johnson signed into law a voting rights act held by many. the title was rightfully earned, the voting rights act of 1965 contained the extraordinary measure, section v, which required seven states with histories of black disenfranchisement to undergo free clearance. which means to

b. johnson. the war on poverty declined by lyndon johnson and of course the war for equality. all of that is consuming headline for notches 1965 but seemingly the entire decade. these are the times i set up for the 1960s because these were turbulent times. everything in selma, racism was ubiquitous across the nation. because of that discretion and of itself did not get the attention it deserves because it happened end quote and grow small town u.s.a. wichita kansas butte i arrived in 2003. i've never been to kansas before. i'd no idea what the history of kansas was. i knew the "wizard of oz" and todo and that was about it. you can imagine me take it in my surrounding and listening to instruct yours were there. there's something called the first-term airmen center and during this time it is and then briefing. i learned about the history of the city and all these things have happened and there's a short lawyer about this is where the first non-national disaster occurred and i asked a question about that and i didn't get the answers i wanted and i didn't get the answer i wanted t