Posted on 01/08/2024 8:14:05 AM PST by TigerClaws
On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”
“Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support,” Johnson told the members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. “But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the state and the local level and must be supported and directed by state and local efforts.
Poverty in the United States stood at 19% in 1964, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Democratic former Texas U.S. senator and U.S. vice president became president after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Among the Michigan congressional delegation hearing Johnson’s message were U.S. Sen Philip Hart (D-Birmingham), U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford (R-Grand Rapids) and U.S. Rep. Charles Diggs Jr. (D-Detroit).
“For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the courthouse to the White House,” Johnson added. “The program I shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to help that one-fifth of all American families with incomes too small to even meet their basic needs.”
Over the next couple of years, Congress approved elements of Johnson’s proposal. For example, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 allowed the federal government to establish a number of social efforts to facilitate education, health, employment and welfare for poor Americans as part of Johnson’s Great Society agenda. He also signed Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act legislation in 1965.
“These programs are obviously not for the poor or the underprivileged alone,” Johnson said. “Every American will benefit by the extension of social security to cover the hospital costs of their aged parents. Every American community will benefit from the construction or modernization of schools, libraries, hospitals and nursing homes, from the training of more nurses and from the improvement of urban renewal in public transit. And every individual American taxpayer and every corporate taxpayer will benefit from the earliest possible passage of the pending tax bill from both the new investment it will bring and the new jobs that it will create.”
Johnson was elected to a full term as president in November 1964. In March 1968, he announced that he would not seek reelection amid criticism of his handling of the Vietnam War. He died in 1973 at age 64.
The other big, expensive war he lost.
Awesome progress. So awesome we need to let in more poor people. According to democommies anyway.
Poverty won.
REPEAL THE UTTERLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT!!!!
He didn’t lose poverty, he CREATED it!!!!
60 years later we're still supposedly fighting this war. Clearly we lost.
LBJ was, by far, our worst president.
If I had to make a choice, I’d say his 55,000 dead soldiers in Vietnam is worse than than his Great Society legacy that still effs up America today. But it’s a close call.
It’s a tie between LBJ and Woodrow Wilson.
Poverty won....................
Now we have the Democrats importing it.
Yeah, my uncle got arrested acting as a soldier in the “War on Poverty”.
For some reason the police frowned on him throwing hand grenades at bums...
I’ll see myself out.
It’s a tie between LBJ and Woodrow Wilson.
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And Biden is closing the gap on both of them.
The War on Poverty gave us more poverty, the War on Drugs gave us more drugs. If I were single I might be okay with a War on Women.
Biden is just piling on.
Yep. We spent $20+ Trillion on this ‘war’ and the poverty rate is still about the same. We also have untold thousands of homeless sleeping on sidewalks and in parks, and countless millions streaming across our border and dispersing into the homeland. What a country we’re becoming. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Let the Revolution continue!
And (excluding WW II), we know how all DemocRAT run wars have turned out.
Approximately 30 TRILLION dollars has been spent, and according to alot of people, we are worse off now than before.
What a waste.
And 34 trillion dollars in the hole later...
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