If you read the liberal reaction to the Ryan plan, one of the most common complaints is something or other about America reneging on its promises. We have a social contract, a covenant, a holy bond with seniors that must never be abridged, amended or renegotiated. Here, for example, is Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic:

“No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine,” Johnson said at the signing ceremony. “No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years.”
Read those quotes carefully, because they spell out the covenant that Johnson made with the American people on that day: A promise that the elderly and (certain groups) of the poor would get comprehensive medical insurance, no matter what.

Now, I don’t know what Cohn himself believes about the U.S. Constitution, but his magazine has been churning out highbrow bilge for decades about the “living constitution,” specifically the need to for the Constitution to constantly grow, change, adapt and evolve with the changing times and the new realities that come every generation. To deny this view of the Constitution is to declare yourself a right wing crank of some sort. After all, “everyone knows” the Constitution is a “living document” And “everyone knows” that times change.

Which brings us to LBJ’s verbal press release at a signing ceremony. For liberals, LBJ’s self-serving hot air is an adamantine oath, a “covenant,” and unbreakable social contract.