776 Chapter 29 From Camelot to Watergate: 1961–1975
Quickly Johnson pressed ahead with his Great
Society program. In January 1965 he proposed a
compulsory hospital insurance system, known as
Medicare, for all persons over the age of sixty-five. As
amended by Congress, the Medicare Act consisted of
Part A, hospital insurance for the elderly (funded by
increased Social Security taxes), and a voluntary plan,
Part B, covering doctors’ bills (paid for in part by the
government). The law also provided for grants to the
states to help pay the medical expenses of poor peo-
ple, even those below the age of sixty-five. This part
of the system was called Medicaid. Before the passage
of the Medicare Act, about half of Americans over
sixty-five years old had no medical insurance.
Next, Congress passed the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act in 1965, which supplied
federal funds to school districts; the Higher
Education Act (1965), which provided financial aid
to college students; and Head Start, a program to
prepare poor preschoolers for elementary school. It
also incidentally improved the children’s health by
providing medical examinations and nutritious meals.
Still another important reform was the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, pressed through Congress by
President Johnson after more brutal repressions of civil
rights demonstrators in the South. This law provided
for federal intervention to protect black registration
and voting in six southern states. It applied to state and
local as well as federal elections.
Other laws passed at Johnson’s urging in 1965
and 1966 included the creation of the National
Endowment for the Arts and the National
Endowment for the Humanities and measures sup-
porting scientific research, highway safety, crime con-
trol, slum clearance, clean air, and the preservation of
historic sites. Of particular significance was the
Immigration Act of 1965, which did away with most
provisions of the national-origin system of admitting
newcomers. Instead, 290,000 persons a year were to
be admitted on the basis of such priorities as job skills
and need for political asylum. The law also placed a
limit of 120,000 immigrants a year from countries in
the Western Hemisphere. Previously, immigration
from these countries had been unrestricted.
The Great Society program was one of the most
remarkable outpourings of important legislation in
American history. The results, however, were
mixed. The 1965 Education Act proved a disap-
pointment. Too many local school districts found
ways of using the federal money to cover their ordi-
nary expenses, and the sums actually devoted to
programs for the poor failed to improve most stu-
dents’ performances significantly.
Medicare and Medicaid certainly provided med-
ical treatment for millions of people, but because the
patients no longer paid most of the bills, doctors, hos-
pitals, and drug companies were able to raise fees and
prices without fear of losing business. Medical costs
escalated far more rapidly than the rate of inflation.
The Job Corps, which was designed to help poor
people get better-paying jobs by providing them
with vocational training, was an almost total failure.
The cost of the training was high, relatively few
trainees completed the courses, and of those who
did, few found jobs in which they could make use of
their new skills.
On balance, the achievements of the Great
Society were far below what President Johnson had
promised and his supporters had envisioned. The
same, of course, can be said of most ambitious reform
programs—of Reconstruction; of the Progressive
movement; and certainly of the New Deal, to which
Johnson had contributed as a young man. Despite his
long political experience, Johnson tried to accomplish
too many things too quickly. He relied too heavily on
the techniques of political manipulation. Perhaps he
was carried away by his unexpected power—that he
would ever become president must have seemed to a
man of his political acumen most unlikely after he
failed to win the nomination in 1960. He seized too
avidly this opportunity to make history. Without the
crisis atmosphere that had appeared to justify hastyTable 29.1Making a “Great Society”Assisted Group Legislation and Provisions
African Americans Civil Rights Act (1964): Outlawed
discrimination in employment, pub-
lic accommodations, and federally-
funded programs
Voting Rights Act (1965): Federal
registrars sent to the South
Elderly Medicare (1965): Federally-funded
medical care for elderly
Low-income people Economic Opportunity Act (1964):
Federally-funded antipoverty pro-
grams and agencies
Medicaid (1965): Federally-funded
health care for welfare recipients
Housing and Urban Development
Act: Federally-funded housing pro-
jects and rent support
Students Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (1965): Federal sup-
port for public and parochial
schools for texts and materials, and
for Head Start
Higher Education Act (1965):
Federally-funded loans and schol-
arships for college students