THE GREAT SOCIETY

President Lyndon Johnson

GREAT SOCIETY – The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s.

Main goals of the Great Society: elimination of poverty and racial injustice, improve education, healthcare, environment, cultural centers, transportation, consumer protection, and public broadcasting

New major spending programs that addressed these areas were launched during this period

The Great Society was an extension of FDR’s New Deal

The New Deal was a response to the severe financial and economic crisis of the Great Depression focusing on what historians call the three Rs:

relief, recovery and reform

Relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system in hopes of preventing another great depression

FDR didn’t intended for the New Deal to be a permanent fix

JFK continued in the shadow of the New Deal with his New Frontier

JFK attempted to pass legislation dealing with health care, civil rights and poverty only to be cut down by Congress

He did pass legislation dealing with space race, labor practices, housing, and unemployment

President Johnson took it above and beyond with his Great Society

Johnson was able to pass much of the legislation JFK proposed, on topics like, healthcare, civil rights, immigration, ect.

Examples of programs started under the Great Society

Economic Opportunity Act – create the Job Corps to train young workers

Created VISTA – Volunteers in Service to America help the poor, poverty stricken

Stared Medicare – medical care for the aged 65 over

Also included Medicaid – provided medical services to the poor and disabled, not yet receiving Social Security

Immigration and Nationality Act 1965 – altered America’s quota system on immigration

1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act – aid schools in poor communities

Civil Rights Act of 1964 - forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing as well as ended unequal application of voter registration requirements an racil segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public

Created Head Start – pre-school for the poor

Johnson’s spending on these programs and several others, started our government on a skyrocketing deficit that continues out of control.