Lyndon Johnson

  • after Kennedy was assassinated Lyndon Baines Johnson was president
  • Johnson was from the poor fellow country of the West Texas
  • Johnson leader of the U.S. Senate then the vice president to John F. Kennedy
  • between 1963 and 1966 impressive legislative record
  • Johnson’s proposals were called New Frontier Proposals he named his society the great society he was a good lobbyist in Congress and ineffective Majority Leader he was a coalition builder he wanted the support from everyone
  • he won the general election 61%

the assault on poverty

  • 1960s important new social welfare programs
  • Medicare provided federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses 1965
  • it wasn’t welfare because everybody that is old gets it just like Social Security
  • Doctors could have Medicare patient and practice privately and charge normal fees to
  • the government paid Medicare bills to doctors
  • Medicaid 1966 medical assistance to welfare people and the poor
  • war on poverty office of economic opportunity OTO created new educational employment housing healthcare programs
  • community action was part of the OTO and some people didn’t like it it involved members of the poor community Lanning and administering their own programs designed to help them it gave jobs to people in administrative and political work
  • OTO spent $3 billion in two years helped reduce poverty in some areas
  • there was an expensive war in South East Asia
 

cities schools and immigration

  • housing act of 1961 $4.9 billion in federal grants to cities to preserve open spaces, mass transit, middle-class housing
  • the Department of Housing and Urban Development had Robert Reaver the first black man to ever be and a cabinet position with the president
  • aid to the schools. People didn’t want too much aid because they did not want the federal government to control schools and Catholics wanted it to go to their schools to
  • immigration act of 1965 strict limit on the number of new people admitted to the country at hundred and 70,000 per year
  • it ended the national origins system established in the 1920s which gave Pref preferences to northern European immigrants
  • by the 1970s the character of immigration changed many new people Africa and Asia

legacies of the great society

  • the great society reforms meant a big increase in federal spending
  • taxes paid for most of the new spending 1964 $11.5 billion tax cut Kennedy proposed in 1962 was passed by Johnson
  • federal budget spending more than it took in 1961 spent $94.4 billion by 1970 they spent hundred $96.6 billion
  • by the 1980s people thought social problems could not be helped by government money
  • the great society was not a failure it reduced poverty, made medical care available to millions
  • the greatest reduction in poverty in American history 1959 21% of Americans lived in poverty 19 6912% were still in poverty

battle for racial equality

  • 1960s US wanted to provide justice and equality to African-Americans