The Great Society

Lyndon Johnson’s Vision for

A Better America

Background on the Great Society The Great Society Program had its roots in the New Deal

(the original Society Security bill in 1935 had provisions for a national medical plan; in his “Fair Deal” platform in 1948, President Truman proposed a variation of “medicare.”

Lyndon Johnson’s ideas had their roots in the Great Depression of the 1930s, and especially in the 1930s study of economic conditions in the South.

The Great Society proposals would be implemented during the turbulent era of 1965-1974, an era where power in America was altered by generational changes, race issues, gender issues, and major social upheavals – as a result the program was part of a controversial time.

Controversial Social Issues

The 1960s and 1970s were a time when Americans were divided over many issues: race, taxes, foreign policy, and social questions. One of the most divisive issues was school prayer. In Engle vs. Vitale, the US Supreme ruled against school prayer in any public, tax-supported school. The issue has remained divisive since.

Generation Politics

With the Cold War it was inevitable that generation differences would enter. The Students for Democratic Society (SDS) was founded in 1962. In the SDS “Port Huron Statement,” the young authors proclaimed their issues, criticizing the older generation for tolerating racial and sexual intolerance, for supporting “brush fire wars” around the world, for permitting pollutions and a nuclear standoff that might “destroy the planet.”

Drugs

The increased use of marijuana and other narcotics as leisure drugs among the middle class was also a divisive issue. In 1965, possession of one joint of pot could result in a 10-15 year jail sentence in over half of the 50 states. The invention of LSD, and its widespread use in arts, entertainment, and eventually suburbia, led the Federal government to create the DEA.

Gender Wars?

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, expressed the frustrations of American women over the 1950s images of female domesticity. With others, she inspired a women's liberation movement.

Whose Bodies?

Perhaps no issue of this era has generated more division than Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision in 1973 that made abortions legal in all states.

From 1973 on, anti-abortion groups have tended to support the more conservative tenets of the Republican Party, the membership in which began to grow rapidly in the 1970s.

Economic challenges

By 1965, America was facing serious challenges in steel, automobile, and electronic production from other countries. Japan and Germany were among those who had cut production costs with the use of Unimate robotic arms (an American development).

Greater Militancy in civil rights

In 1966, 6 young men in California formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Dissatisfied with the gradual strategy gaining of civil rights through non-violence, the Panthers called for black neighborhoods to arm against “government suppression.” Johnson found the Panther’s revolutionary rhetoric dangerous and ordered FBI surveillance.

New Civil Rights Leaders

Johnson’s “new new deal” programs for fighting poverty did not impress a younger, more vocal group of civil rights leaders. Malcolm X, leader of a Nation of Islam splinter group, was challenging the King-era leadership, and gaining many followers. Long before Malcolm's murder (by rivals in the movement), the FBI was using wire-taps to gain information on the Nation of Islam.

Racial Tensions

The civil rights movement had created tensions in American cities. Clashes between police and citizens in black neighborhoods, like Watts (above, in 1965) and Detroit (in 1967), led to violence and social divisions.

Johnson’s Idea of a “Great Society”

In 1964, LBJ won the presidency in his own right. Choosing Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey as his running mate, he devised a program of economic reform that would build what he called a "Great Society."

Elements of the Great Society

•Carry out the unfinished goals of the New Deal – universal health care, civil rights protections, etc.

•Enhance American culture through Federal aid to the arts, sciences, and humanities.

•Show the world that the “American Way” was superior to the ideas of “world socialism” being offered by the “Soviet Bloc” of nations.

Key Actions of the Program

War on Poverty

In his first State of the Union address, on January 8, 1964, President Johnson announced that his administration "today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America, and I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort.“

His program called for a systematic effort in "chronically distressed areas" of the country, a youth employment ("job corps") plan, expansion of the food stamp and unemployment relief systems, and special aid to schools, libraries, hospitals, and nursing homes.

War on Poverty:President Johnson and Mrs. Johnson in Kentucky

1965: Title XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act

Medicare (Title XVIII) established to provide health insurance coverage to persons over age 65

Medicaid (Title XIX) established to provide health insurance coverage to low income women and children (also, aged, blind and disabled)

1965: Title V Amended, P.L. 89-97

The 1965 amendments (P.L. Law 89-97) amended Title

V of the Social Security Act by providing

comprehensive health care for children and youth. A primary directive was to make these services

accessible, available and appropriate to the identified low-income neighborhoods

The intent was to provide comprehensive health care to children and youth including health supervision, screening, medical care, nutrition, and social services.

1966: Highway Safety Act and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle

Safety Act Authorized the federal government to set and regulate standards for motor vehicles and highways

Vehicles were built with new safety features, including head rests, energy-absorbing steering wheels, shatter-resistant windshields, and safety belts

By 1970, motor-vehicle-related death rates were decreasing

1968: School Lunch and Child Nutrition Act Expanded

In 1968, Congress expanded the School Lunch and Child Nutrition Act.

A program was created to provide food for school-age

children during the summer. Additionally, a year-round program was initiated to

provide food to low-income children, as well as children in day-care centers and Head Start programs.

MEDICARE

Medicare is a government service that helps provide health care for senior citizens and disabled U.S. citizens.

Medicare part A: helps with hospital costs Medicare part B: requires a monthly fee and helps

pay for medical costs Medicare part D: pays for prescription drugs

Medicare covers most hospital and medical costs for people age 65 and older, and also disabled Social Security recipients.

Once a person Qualifies for Medicare, they have four different plans to choose from.

Original Medicare Plan

This plan covers many health care services. A person can go to any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare and are taking new Medicare patients. This plan is managed by the Federal government. With this plan a person also pays a deductible and a co-payment/coinsurance.

If a person has a health insurance policy, that coverage plan might cover the deductibles, coinsurance, and other costs.

Medicare Prescription Drug Plans These plans add prescription drug coverage to the

Original Medicare plan. This plan is offered by insurance companies and other private companies approved by Medicare.

With a Prescription drug plan a person will pay less for their prescriptions. A person will get a membership card which they use when they go to the pharmacy.

A person will have to pay the co-payment, coinsurance, and/or deductible if there is any.

Applying for Medicare

To receive any Medicare benefits, you must apply at a local Social Security office. You will not receive benefits unless you apply for them. If you do not enroll within one year of reaching age 65, the premium will be increased by 10 percent and you may only sign up during the first quarter of each subsequent year.

Medicare Part A: Hospital Insurance Medicare Part A helps pay for covered

services received in a hospital or skilled nursing facility following a hospital stay, or from a home health agency or hospice program. There is no monthly premium for Part A. It helps pay for a skilled nursing facility stay to a maximum of 100 days in each benefit period. For days 21 through 100, it pays for all covered service except $95 a day (1997). You are responsible for all charges beginning with the 101st day.

Medicare Part B:

Medicare Part B pays for many medical services and supplies but most importantly it provides coverage for your doctor’s bills. The full range of benefits includes:

Physician’s services Outpatient hospital services X-rays and laboratory tests Certain ambulance services Durable medical equipment Services of certain specially qualified practitioners

who are not physicians

Expanding Voting Rights

In August 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, a measure he had pushed through Congress. The act outlawed literacy tests as a way of limiting the right to vote. It also provided Federal resources to investigate actions to prevent people from voting

Money for Culture

Johnson also supported bills to establish the National Endowment for Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Both the NEA and the NEH, created in 1965, would be the focus of controversy for the Federal money given to support projects that some found offensive.

Impact of the Great Society•Most of the Great Society programs remain intact in some way. Funding for each program, however, has varied according to holds power in the Federal government and in each of the state governments.

•Because the Great Society was part of a controversial era, the programs have always been part of the ongoing debates over “American values.”

•Great society programs vastly enlarged the social work profession – with Medicare issues, social workers entered into more hospitals, with “mainstreaming,” more went into schools, etc.

•With the key factor of government funding for so many programs, bureaucracy has grown within the profession.