The breakthrough in welfare legislation occurred during the presidencies of Democrats John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Kennedy’s New Frontier was similar to Truman’s Fair Deal. Indeed, in many ways it did not go as far. Kennedy’s narrow victory over Vice President Richard Nixon, moreover, hardly seemed a mandate for radical change. The program called for federal medical insurance for the elderly, aid to education, and more federal money for housing and “urban renewal.” As in previous administrations, existing programs were expanded. Social Security benefits were increased, the minimum wage was raised from $1.00 to $1.25 (over a four-year period) and was made applicable to more workers, and, as promised, more money was made available for federal housing projects. There were also new initiatives. Legislation provided aid for medical education, college construction projects, and relief for areas adversely affected by federal projects. Kennedy’s proposals for medical care for the aged and federal aid for public schools, however, were defeated.
The civil rights movement, however, was drawing attention to the plight of African Americans and other disadvantaged groups. That movement reached a climax in August 1963 when the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” brought 250,000 Americans to the nation’s capital where they heard Martin Luther King, Jr. give his famous “I have a dream” speech. On college campuses, students were inspired by both King and Kennedy to support civil rights and liberal economic reform. For a time it seemed that Joseph Schumpeter’s prediction that capitalism would be undermined by the children of the bourgeoisie, who would lose faith in the system that had created the basis for their own high standard of living, had begun to come true (Schumpeter 1950, 415-424).
Lyndon Johnson signing the Medicare bill. Former President Harry S. Truman looks on.
When Lyndon B. Johnson took office in 1963 after the assassination of President Kennedy, he proclaimed his intention of fighting a “War on Poverty.” The result was the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which established training camps in rural and urban areas, provided grants for farmers and small businesses, and helped communities fund their own antipoverty programs. In 1964, President Johnson was reelected by a large majority; this mandate, and Johnson’s long experience in Washington, helped him in pushing programs through Congress that were going to be, according to Johnson, the basis for a “Great Society.”
A wide range of important legislation followed. Indeed, there had been nothing like it since the New Deal, and in some respects, it was even more radical. A Voting Rights Act enfranchised many African Americans in the South, who had been denied the right to vote through a variety of stratagems. A medical care program for those aged 65 or over (Medicare) was at last added to Social Security. Legislation was passed to fund $1 billion for improvements in Appalachian land and highways and to provide health centers. A housing act provided, among other things, rent subsidies for the poor—a new departure in welfare legislation. The minimum wage, a familiar part of liberal Democratic programs, was raised and extended to cover farm laborers, workers in small retail shops, and hospital workers. A mass transportation act provided money to improve rail transportation. Two new cabinet-level departments were created: the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Transportation. These and other reforms substantially expanded the role of government in American life.
World History
