Medicaid

Also established was the Medicaid program, which was means-tested and offered medical care to poor children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Unlike Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly, Medicaid involved financial contributions from the states. These programs continued to exist into the twenty-first century, although many restrictions and time limitations had been added.

Societal Responses to Government Intitiatives

Due to the overwhelming prosperity during the 1960's, people had an overall positive response to the actions taken by the government. Over the decade, the various programs dedicated to eradicating poverty, improving education, and health conditions, showed the public the care that the government had for them. Programs such as medicade, welfare aid, showed the people that their needs were being focused on, and helped them to improve their living situations.

One major oppositions to government intitiatives, was the anti-war movement. Many people did not agree with the decision to enter Vietnam, and so the war caused much conroversy and caused people to speak out against the government in this situation.

Another opposition to government intitiaves was the various race riots that were a result of the government trying to end racial segregation. People felt that that their voices needed to be heard, and so they were willing to do anything to get their ideas across.

Initiatives - Towards the end of the decade

Military spending increased as American's presence in Vietnam grew. What had started as a small military action under Kennedy transfored into a major military initiative during Johnson's presidency.Ironically, spending on both wars-the war on poverty and the fighting war in Vietnam-contributed to prosperity in the short term. But by the end of the 1960s, the government's failure to raise taxes to pay for these efforts led to accelerating inflation, which eroded this prosperity, that had existed throughout the decade.

Great Society

Upon Johnson’s entrance into office, he proposed his plan that he entitled “Great Society.” It was his “War on Poverty,” in which he created two new cabinet offices: The Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. These programs put families on welfare, milking over 3 billion dollars from national funds to the Office of Economic Opportunity. Johnson signed four different bills concerning each of the following: education, medical care, immigration reform, and voting rights. Johnson’s plan would be responsible for most of the legislation to occur in the decade.

Latin America and the United States

In 1961, Kennedy presented the Alliance for Progress for Latin American Nations (Alianza para el Progreso). It was equated to the European Marshall Plan, and had the intent of closing the class gap in South America. The aid did little though, and most of it was absorbed into the pockets of Latin American leaders.

Trade Expansion Act

Passed in 1962, and heavily promoted by the young president, JFK, this act enabled tariff cuts of up to 50% for Common Market (also known as European Union) countries. This was started by massive western European economic recovery due to the Marshall Plan. The main opposition to this act, which bolstered trans-Atlantic ties, was by Charles De Gaulle, Prime minister of France. De Gaulle feared the growing international power of the U.S., and felt threatened by the strong ties between America and Britain.

Cuba and Communism

In 1959, Fidel Castro had finally garnered a victory in his rebellion against Fulgencio Batista, the former leader. Castro began seizing American held land and redistributing it. The U.S> then cut off heavy importation of Cuban sugar and other resources (cobalt, nickel, iron ore, chromium, copper, salt, timber, silica, petroleum, and arable land). This led to more seizure of land by Castro’s new dictatorship. The United States finally broke diplomatic relations in 1961 and in the same year, placed a lasting embargo on Cuban products. As Cuba backslid towards communism, building ties with other communist countries, tensions between the U.S. and Cuba grew, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis and continuing on to the present.
Find the present-day CIA dossier on Cuba by clicking here.

Government Programs - Agriculture

In the 60's, the government had a strong emphasis on improving nutritional/agricutlural needs, by implementing many food production-based programs:
1961, 1962
Agricultural Acts extend and enlarge earlier programs

1964
Food Stamp Act; Agricultural Act provides voluntary control program for cotton and wheat
The Food Stamp Act of the 1960s attempted to address the nation's problem of hunger by providing another means-tested program for the poor, the disabled, and single-parent households, in the form of food stamps.

1965
Appalachian Regional Development Act; Food and Agriculture Act establishes voluntary 4-year price and adjustment program

1966
President's Committee on Rural Poverty appointed; Child Nutrition Act

1967
Wholesome Meat Act

1968
Wholesome Poultry "Products Act"; special food service program for children

1969
White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health

Standard of Living

Living Expenses
The price of owning a home greatly increased during the decade, and the cost of living also had an overall increase, with minute items such as milk going up in price. Products were in greater demand, and so prices increased; which benefited the economy as a result. For more on the standard of living click here.

Standard of Living and Depressions

From a general overview, the economy was doing well, and was experiencing its longest uninterrupted expansion, but for some states, the economy was not doing well. As a result to riots due to the ongoing civil rights movement, millions of dollars in damages were being accumulated and decreasing the standard of living. Homes and whole towns were destroyed in the social movement, causing much homelessness and the economy of certain states to be negatively effected.
~ The riots not only destroyed many homes and businesses, resulting in about $50 million in property damage in Detroit alone, but far more significantly, they also depressed inner-city incomes and property values for decades.
~ In cities with major riots, the median black family income dropped by about 9 percent from 1960 to 1970, compared with similar cities without severe riots. In cities with severe riots, the median value of black-owned homes dropped 14 percent to 20 percent, compared with cities that experienced little or no rioting, from 1960 to 1970. The median value of all central-city homes, regardless of owner, dropped 6 percent to 10 percent.

Government Programs -- Medicare

1965
President Lyndon B. Johnson had far-reaching legislation on health care, the backbone of which was the Medicare program. Medicare was enacted in a bill signed in 1965 that extended social-security insurance to cover medical expenses for all citizens over 65 years of age. The program, which went into effect on 1 July 1966, was voluntary, but estimates were that 85-95 percent of those eligible would participate. Funding came from increased payroll taxes.
~Medicare has had two different parts since its inception. Part A covers hospitalization, outpatient diagnostic services, home-nursing ser-vices, and nursing-home care. Part B can be added voluntarily to cover doctor's fees and drug costs as well as other incidentals; it cost three dollars per month in 1966.

Government Programs and Recessions

Recessions/Government Programs:
1960
As the 1960 presidential election campaign got under way, the 1960-1961 recession began. John F Kennedy’s 1960 campaign promise “ to get America moving again “ referred to the American economy. He wanted economic growth at an annual rate of 4-6 percent and unemployment at 4 percent.Kennedy knew that the economy was in big trouble so he sent congress an economic growth and recovery package consisting of twelve measures. They were an increase in the minimum wage from $1.00 to $1.25 per hour and an extension of the minimum wage to a larger pool of workers, an increase in unemployment compensation plus increased aid to children of unemployed workers, increase social security benefits to a larger pool of people, emergency relief for feed grain farmers, area redevelopment, vocational training for displaced workers, and federal funding for home building and slum eradication.

1964
President Johnson inherited a strong economy from president Kennedy. The growth during his presidency between 1964 and 1965 gave him an annual dividend of $4-5 billion in extra revenues to spend. For the first two years of Johnson’s presidency the inflation rate was just under 2 percent. In 1965 inflation began to pick up slightly, but the GNP (gross national product) grew by $9 billion and unemployment stood at 1.4 percent. The economy was looking better during the winter of 1966: real growth was 9 percent, and with unemployment at 3.8 percent the economy was robust. As it reached 1967 Johnson administration became concerned with inflation. On August 3 Johnson asked congress to impose a temporary 10 percent income tax surcharge. The surcharge became a law on June 28 1968 that was tied to a $6 billion budget reduction. In 1968, Johnson’s almost last month in office, the growth rate was 4 percent and the unemployment rate was only 3.3 percent, but the inflation rate had reached 4.7 percent.

1968
In January 1969, President Richard M. Nixon moved slowly on the economy. Nixon avoided to some advisers that were calling for wage and price controls and relied instead on some minor trimming of federal spending during his first year. By mid 1970 the inflation rate had reached 6.5 percent.