JFK DOMESTIC POLICY

I. ELECTION OF 1960

1. Hubert H. Humphrey
- a. Democrat
- b. Senator from Minnesota
- c. took a strong stand for the poor and in favor of civil rights
- d. strong stand defeated him
2. Lyndon B. Johnson
- a. Democrat
- b. Senate Majority Leader - strong politician
- c. liberal New Dealer from Texas
- d. Northerners disliked Southerners and visa versa - relationship with JFK?
- e. VP by JFK to get Southern votes
- f. Why give up powerful Senate position? Significance - becomes President after 1963
3. John F. Kennedy
- a. Democrat
- b. Massachusetts Senator (1953-60) and a former congressman (1947-53)
- c. Two handicaps
  - 1. Age - 43 - youngest ever elected - experience?
  - 2. Religion - Catholic - orders from Pope? not as big a factor as expected
- d. No civil rights supporter while in Congress
  - 1. MLK got 4 months hard labor in Alabama many thought he would die
  - 2. JFK called wife
  - 3. RFK got him out
- e. Surprisingly civil rights was not an issue in the 1960 election
4. Richard M. Nixon
- a. Republican
- b. VP under Ike - 47
- c. New Nixon - defended Ike record while supporting new ideas
- d. Old Nixon - Tricky Dick
  - 1. conservative - questionable finances in 1952
  - 2. untrusting communist hunter - McCarthyism
- e. Republican Party split
  - 1. Nelson Rockefeller - Ike critic
  - 2. Ike "joke" - Give me a week
  - f. VP - Henry Cabot Lodge

1. 1st ever - image was the key
Series of four televised debates that aided Kennedy's presidential candidacy
2. erased question of JFK experience - he did not lose
- a. lack of Ike leadership
- b. missile gap
3. No Tricky Dick
4. Image - JFK young, energetic, tailored suit, look at the camera, smiled, relaxed and confident
5. Image - Nixon sick, bad makeup job, normal suit, no practice with cameras, nervous, shifty
6. 70 million viewers watched

II. Camelot Image

1. King Arthur (JFK)
2. Knights (Cabinet)
- a. young intellectuals
- b. idealistic - wanted to change the world for the better
- c. liberals
3. Guinever (Jackie)

1. modest success - few accomplishments
- a. early death
- b. Vietnam - LBJ's fault killed other ideas
2. Promised much because of his spirit
- "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

1. Medicare
- a. Truman's idea
- b. insurance for the elderly
- c. AMA and conservatives defeated
2. Aid to Education
3. Aid to the Poor
4. Department of Urban Affairs and Housing
5. Mass Transit
6. New Economics - Keynes priming the pump - in times of prosperity
- a. unemployment - 1953 = 3% by 1961 = 6.1% by 1964 = 5.5%
- b. deficit - 1961 = $4 billion
- c. goals - improve GNP and keep inflation low
- d. unemployment too high (unemployment compensation increased)
- e. tried to get price and wage guidelines accepted to control inflation
- f. favored a tax cut to stimulate the economy - inherited recession from Ike defeated
  - 1/63 - proposed $13.5 billion tax cut to create jobs
  - 20% cut in income tax
  - 8% cut in corporate tax
  - blocked in 1963 passed after death
- h. unemployment dropped to 4.4% in 1965 and 3.7% in 1966
  - GNP rose - remained below 4% until 1970
- i. inflation rose after 1966
  - To control inflation, he pressured U.S. Steel to abandon its plans for price increases.
  - Although his effort was temporarily successful, several months later the steel companies raised prices.

1. Minimum Wage, Social Security
2. Housing Act of 1961
- Allotted federal grant money to cities for mass transit
- subsidization of middle-income housing
- preservation of open space.(city parks and mass transit)
3. Trade Expansion Act - 1962 - improve trade with Europe
- Kennedy initiated tariff negotiations to stimulate American exports.
4. Gemini Program - man in space to catch up with Russians
- a. Yuri Gagarin - USSR - 1st man in space - also orbited
- b. Alan Shepard - 1961 - up and down in space
- c. John Glenn - 1962 - 1st American to orbit
4. Apollo Program - both foreign and domestic policy
- a. LBJ role more important
- b. JFK announced the goal of putting a man on the moon before the decade was out
  - just made it
- c. Total cost $25 billion
- d. Ike and conservatives like Goldwater condemned it as a waste of money
- e. July 20, 1969 - Apollo 11 - Neil Armstrong - success
- f. 3200 new products - byproduct of space program

Thinking ahead to his reelection in 1964, Kennedy went to Houston and Dallas for a political appearance.
Riding in a motorcade, he was struck by two bullets and died a half-hour later.
Lee Harvey Oswald, accused killer of the president, was later shot by Jack Ruby.
For 4 days, Americans watched the events associated with the presidential funeral unfold.

Chief Justice Earl Warren directed an investigation of the killing
- Oswald killed Kennedy - no evidence of a conspiracy.
- 1976 Congression inquiry Oswald killed JFK - conspiracy likely

President Lyndon B. Johnson, implemented many of Kennedy's plans and all that Truman had outlined in 1946.

Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson
Barry Goldwater, an Arizona senator - Republican
- Johnson won 61 percent of the popular vote
- one of the great landslides in American history.

Great Society

Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964)
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Kennedy-Johnson tax cut (1964)
- The economy was stimulated by a tax cut proposed by Kennedy in 1962

Inspired by Michael Harrington's The Other America - 1962
The Economic Opportunity Act (1964) set up the Office of Economic Opportunity
- Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) (1964)
  - A domestic "Peace Corps"
- 1. Operation Head Start (aiding preschoolers from underprivileged homes)
- 2. Job Corps (for dropouts)
- 3. Neighborhood Youth Corps (for unemployed teens)
- 4. Upward Bound (assisting low-income teens to aspire to college)
- 5. Other programs targeting rural areas and encouraging urbanites to help themselves
  - (Model Cities Program).
Social Security raised and tied to the cost of living.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development - Robert Weaver
New environmental legislation sought to improve the quality of water and air.
Medicare (1965)
- Funded through Social Security payroll taxes
Medicaid (1965)
- Funded by taxes
- it is a health plan for welfare recipients.
National Endowment for the Arts (1965)
- Supports performing and creative arts
National Endowment for the Humanities (1965)
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)
- Allocated $ 1 billion in federal funds to Catholic schools.
Immigration Act (1965)
- Limited new immigrants to 170,000 per year.
- While immigration from some parts of Latin America was still restricted
- people from Asia, Europe, and Africa could enter the United States on an equal basis.