War on Poverty
69Lyndon B. Johnson
War On Poverty
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed a legislation to deal with the poverty and other economic issues that were president during this time. President Johnson introduced the legislation called the War on Poverty on January 8, during his State of the Union address. At the time that the War on Poverty was introduced, the poverty rate in America was around nineteen percent. Afterwards, the national poverty rate dropped considerably in the next ten years, including to the lowest level at eleven percent.
The War on Poverty also brought about other economic changes and acts. One was the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. This act included several organizations that were made to help the poor with their heath, educational, and other social needs. The War on Poverty revolved around the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Another act that was passed was the Social Security Act of 1965. This act brought about Medicare and Medicaid and also gave health insurance to poor families and people over sixty-five.
Along with these acts, different projects were created to help the needy. For example in 1965, Project Head Start was put together. This project would help preschool children from poor families. It would provide the children with any help they needed in a variety of areas ranging from nutritional to emotional needs. Project Head Start was run by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) which was also founded in 1964 and became a major part of the War on Poverty. Project Head Start was followed by Project Follow Through in 1967. Project Follow Through was an educational experiment that was the biggest and most expensive ever. This project was designed to follow up with the children that were being assisted by Project Head Start along with disadvantaged children while they went through elementary school. Project Follow Through proved to be very effective and the kids who were involved in it showed great improvement in their schoolwork.
President Johnson made some great changes for America in the 1960s that provided great help for poor families that needed the assistance they received through various methods including federal funds.
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Jacob, I think you did a good thing here pointing out LBJ's contributions to help decrease poverty in America. At the time, may people were living in a manner that few Americans today realize.
And while there may have been mistakes, we need to make sure that Americans are healthy and not living in squalor. I'm sick and tired of hearing how the government is wasting taxpayers money on useless programs for the poor, the sick, the disabled, and the aged. Don't tell me that private business and corporations travel the high moral path when it's the mortgage bankers, insurance investment companies, and credit people who have got us into the mess we are in today.
thanks for appreciating my hub!
It is now estimated that we spend $27,000 on each man, woman and child in poverty, on Poverty Programs each year and we still have poverty. We also have a Hugh government bureaucracy. It seems like it is not working. Maybe we should make poverty uncomfortable so people would make the choice to escape it. Right now most are comfortable and not willing to change.
It appears that we both like Pres. Johnson, because he did a lot for the United States. I also wrote an article on his WAR ON POVERTY.
We still have poverty because we still have greedy corporations who beat the life out of workers, poison the environment, pay no taxes, cheat the consumer, and lie all the way to the bank.
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James A Watkins Level 8 Commenter 2 years ago
There is a lot more to this story. Free health care for the old and the poor sounds as if it must be a great idea. Originally, Americans were told this would cost $4B per year for Medicare and Medicaid. It now runs $600B per year. Why? Well, the short version is that when a government bureaucracy is the purchaser of the goods you can count on waste, fraud, wild overspending, wild overbilling. After all, it is run by people who do not care but are protected by their union. They estimate—themselves—that they have 15% fraud in these programs but they can't do anything about it. It is not their money. How come Master Card has only 1% fraud rate? Because it is run for profit and therefore they care about fraud.
If the government is paying, why not take Junior to the doctor every time his stomach is upset? If the government is paying, medical providers have no incentive to charge fair prices—they are not competing in a free marketplace. If the government is paying why not order up dozens of useless procedures and tests and perform every surgery you can—needed or not—since that is where the big bucks are.
These programs have ruined what was a fabulous system for health care that we had in place in 1964. Have YOU ever heard any family stories about somebody who couldn't get a doctor to help them in 1964 in America if they were ill and had no money?