The SixtiesThe LBJ Years[1963-1969]

20th Century Liberalism at High Tide

• Liberalism: Government can and should solve social problems.

• What social problems?1. Poverty2. Unemployment3. Racism4. Sexism5. Ignorance6. Ethnic bigotry7. Poor health care

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973)36th President of the United States.

• Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908 – 1973), often referred to as LBJ, served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963.

LBJ in the Senate

• An extremely effective senator, Johnson moderated his New Deal liberalism without giving up his belief that the federal government should aid the less fortunate.

• He staunchly backed Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower in waging the Cold War, making sure that Texas benefited from heavy defense spending.

The “Johnson Treatment”

LBJ as VP under JFK

• LBJ, in a 1960 presidential bid, was outmaneuvered and outspent by John F. Kennedy

• Johnson finally agreed to become Kennedy's running mate in order to carry the South.

• When Kennedy won, LBJ virtually disappeared from sight as vice president.

LBJ is President

• After Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, however, Johnson displayed both sensitivity and statesmanship by stressing the theme of continuity in carrying out the programs of the fallen leader.

LBJ and the “Great Society”

• President Johnson's greatest success in domestic policy came with the enactment of his Great Society program.

• Building on FDR's New Deal and Truman's Fair Deal proposals, LBJ persuaded Congress to enact more than sixty separate reform measures in 1965.

The three most important Great Society achievements were

• greatly increased federal aid to education• the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid to

provide health care for the elderly and the indigent

• a voting rights act that gave previously ‐disenfranchised African Americans in the South the political power to protect and advance their interests.

The Great Society

Johnson had a lifelong commitment to the belief that education was the cure for both ignorance and poverty, and was an essential component of the American Dream.

He made education a top priority of the Great Society, with an emphasis on helping poor children. For the first time, large amounts of federal money went to public schools.

The Great Society: Medicare

• Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria.

• The program also funds residency training programs for the vast majority of physicians in the United States.

• Medicare operates as a single-payer health care system.

The Great Society: Medicaid

• Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources.

• It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states.

The “Other America” • Michael Harrington’s book The

Other America was an influential study of poverty in the United States, published in 1962 and it was a driving force behind the "war on poverty."

• The Boston Globe editorialized that Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps and expanded social security benefits were traceable to Harrington’s ideas.

• Harrington became the pre-eminent spokesman for Democratic socialism in America.

America’s Socialist Senator: Sen. Bernie Sanders

• Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is the junior United States Senator from Vermont, elected on November 7, 2006.

• Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist, but because he does not belong to a formal political party, he appears as an independent on the ballot.

• He is the first person elected to the U.S. Senate to identify as a socialist.

Poverty in America

War on Poverty

• The War on Poverty is the name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964.

• This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent.

Economic Opportunity Act [1964]

• As part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was signed into law on August 20, 1964.

• Through the Office of Economic Opportunity, Community Action Programs and Community Action Agencies were created.

• These agencies were to become the means of conducting the War on Poverty.

The Act established 11 new programs that the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) would operate or

supervise.

• The Job Corps, which provides work, basic education, and training in separate residential centers for young men and young women, ages sixteen to twenty-one.

• Neighborhood Youth Corps, which provides work and training for young men and women, ages sixteen to twenty-one, from impoverished families and neighborhoods;

• Work Study, which provides grants to colleges and universities for part-time employment of students from low-income families who need to earn money to pursue their education;

• Urban and Rural Community Action, which provides financial and technical assistance to public and private nonprofit agencies for community action programs developed with "maximum feasible participation" of the poor and giving "promise of progress toward elimination of poverty"

The Act established 11 new programs that the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) would operate or

supervise.• Adult Basic Education, which provides grants to state educational

agencies for programs of instruction for persons eighteen years and older whose inability to read and write English is an impediment to employment.

• Voluntary Assistance for Needy Children, which establishes an information and coordination center to encourage voluntary assistance for deserving and needy children.

• Loans to Rural Families, which provides loans not exceeding $2,500 that will assist low income rural families in permanently increasing their income.

• Assistance for Migrant Agricultural Employees, which provides assistance to state and local governments, public and private nonprofit agencies or individuals in operating programs to assist migratory workers and their families with housing, sanitation, education, and day care of children.

The Act established 11 new programs that the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) would operate or

supervise.• Work Experience, which provides payments for

experimental, pilot, and demonstration projects to expand opportunities for work experience and needed training of persons who are unable to support or care for themselves or their families, including persons receiving public assistance.

• Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), which recruits, selects, trains, and refers volunteers to state or local agencies or private nonprofit organizations to perform duties in combating poverty.

AFDC: Aid to Families with Dependent Children

• Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was a federal assistance program in effect from 1935 to 1996, which was administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

• This program provided financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income.

• By 1996 spending was $24 billion per year.

1996: Welfare Reform• In 1996, President Bill Clinton

negotiated with the Republican-controlled Congress to pass the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act which drastically remade the program.

• Among other changes, a lifetime limit of five years was imposed for the receipt of benefits, and the newly-limited nature of the replacement program was reinforced by calling AFDC's successor Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

Food Stamps/Part of the War on Poverty

• The United States Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), historically and commonly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal-assistance program that provides assistance to low- and no-income people and families living in the U.S.

• Though the program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, benefits are distributed by the individual U.S. states.

Criticism from the Right

• President Johnson's "War on Poverty" speech was delivered at a time of recovery (the poverty level had fallen from 22.4% in 1959 to 19% in 1964 when the War on Poverty was announced) and it was viewed by critics as an effort to get the United States Congress to authorize social welfare programs.

• Some economists, including Milton Friedman, have argued that Johnson's policies actually had a negative impact on the economy because of their interventionist nature.

• Adherents of this school of thought recommend that the best way to fight poverty is not through government spending but through economic growth, though other economists argue that increased government spending and economic growth may not be mutually exclusive.

Results and Legacy

• In the decade following the 1964 introduction of the war on poverty, poverty rates in the U.S. dropped to their lowest level to date: 11.1% .

• They have remained between 11 and 15.2% ever since.

• Since 1973 poverty has remained well below the historical U.S. averages in the range of 20-25%.

Results and Legacy• Poverty among Americans

between ages 18-64 has fallen only marginally since 1966, from 10.5% then to 10.1% today.

• Poverty has significantly fallen among Americans under 18 years old from 23% in 1964 to 16.3% today.

• The most dramatic decrease in poverty was among Americans over 65, which fell from 28.5% in 1966 to 10.1% today.

Results and Legacy

• War on Poverty: Historical Evaluation by Professor Robert Dalleck [7]