THE SOCIAL POLICIES OF PRESIDENTS KENNEDY & JOHNSON

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  • THE SOCIAL POLICIES OF PRESIDENTS KENNEDY & JOHNSON
    • In 1960, when addressing the Democrat Party, Kennedy set out the idea of a new direction: a new frontier  
      • As part of this new frontier Kennedy got a large number of reforms approved by Congress. These included:
        • the extension of unemployment benefit
        • more aid to poor cities to improve housing & transportation
        •  increases in social security benefits
        • aid to economically distressed areas
        • the expansion of rural electrification programmes providing help to rural farming
    • Once Johnson became President in 1963, he called Kennedy’s ‘new frontier’ policy Johnson’s Great Society 
      • This Great Society aimed to tackle problems of unemployment, bad housing, inadequate medical care and civil rights
    • Johnson's Political Reforms to Establish his 'Great Society'
      • The Economic Opportunity Act 1964
        • Provided training to disadvantaged youths aged 16-21, and recruited volunteers to work and teach in low-income slum areas
      • Medicare and Medicaid, 1965
        • Provided medical insurance for the over-65s & hospital care for the poor (most Americans have private health insurance)
      • The Development Act, 1964
        • Money was provided for replacing inner-city slums with new homes
      • other initiatives  were:
        • There were schemes to help highway safety including compulsory safety measure for cars. 
        • There were also laws to ensure clean water supplies and better air quality with less pollution.
    • There was much criticism of the reforms from Republicans who hated the way in which they acted as a brake on people’s freedoms & poor African Americans who still lived in sub-standard housing 
      • The Vietnam war overshadowed Johnson’s Great Society reforms- opinions for the war were increasingly negative.
        • When LBJ decided not to stand for re-election in 1968 he was at the time remembered almost entirely as the President who was responsible for growing toll deaths and injuries of American troops in Vietnam

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