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.

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.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Johnson’s new policies were the ultimate invasion of private rights. After his landslide election in 1964, which he won mostly because of the aftermath of Kennedy’s fame, Johnson became the butt-end of many political critics and voters. The passing of the Civil Rights act of 1964 banned racial discrimination in privately owned public places. This placed more power in Federal hands to instill the act, while limiting free speech and rights of owners. It also paved way for the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which had the effect of limiting discrimination in job hiring through the tactic of Affirmative action. In 1965, Johnson made an executive order enforcing affirmative action in all federal contracting—meeting quotas became mandatory.

Although in the election of 1964 Lyndon won a landslide (mostly due to a warmongering portrayal of opposition Goldwater), Johnson himself ended up to be a butcher of young American boys, prompting anti-war cries of “LBJ, LBJ, how many boys did you kill today?” Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin incident to send air raids over the North Vietnamese and promote further deployment of troops to Vietnam. Johnson’s political ideals could easily be summed up in the following: Limiting State rights and promoting the growth of Federal government, Great Society, Civil Rights, and greater military involvement. By the next election in 1968, Johnson had managed to decimate all political support he had—Johnson was not even in the running for the Democratic primary.

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.