LBJ: The Great Society Ch 15.3

Thursday, May 17, 2012 Daily goal: Understand the main points of LBJ’s Great Society including: Medicare, Medicaid, HUD, Head Start and the War on Poverty.

LBJ replaces JFK The death of JFK made Vice President Lyndon Johnson the President, and he was better known as LBJ.

President Johnson LBJ’s agenda was called the Great Society – A more perfect and equal America. LBJ took over where JFK had left off and began his “war on poverty” which created many programs to help America’s poor.

VISTA Volunteers in Service to America was similar to the Peace Corps, but it sent people to aid the poor and within the US. VISTA is today known as AmeriCorps.

Medicare Social Security had protected the elderly from poverty, but less than half had Health Insurance. LBJ created Medicare which provided free government Health Insurance for people over 65.

Medicaid Medicare’s twin program was Medicaid. The program was created to provide Health insurance for the poor.

Head Start LBJ valued education and started the Head Start program to give disadvantaged kids an opportunity to attend preschool.

HUD Housing and Urban Development Administration created subsidies to help low income people afford housing.

Think About it… Which Great Society program do you think was the most important to America? Why?

Think About it… LBJ grew the government in size, expense and responsibility. How much help can the gov’t give its people before the lose the motivation to fight hardships themselves?