Similarities Between Kennedy And Lyndon B Johnson

In his speech Richard Nixon insist on the fact that his predecessors at the House White had been incompetent and had led the country on the brink of chaos: “America is in trouble today not because her people have failed but because her leaders have failed” (l. 27-28). Nixon also insist on the fact that, according to him, “the richest nation in the world can’t manage its own economy” (l. 34-35). John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson both had major projects for their domestic management of the country, i.e., the New Frontier and the Great Society programs. In his New Frontier JFK increased unemployment benefits, social security benefits and the minimum wage, and also decreased the retirement age threshold. He also passed tax cuts for both businesses and personal income.
Lyndon B. Johnson carried on Kennedy’s program with his Great Society. It included the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and of 1968, and also the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but the main goal of Johnson’s program was to eradicate poverty completely. He passed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, a piece of legislation that saw the creation of a dozen of programs to fight against hardship. The Great Society program also included the creation of a medicare and medicaid, several measures to strengthen education and many environment protection acts. Altogether the eight years of Democrat leadership led to the decrease of the unemployment rate (from roughly 5.5% in 1960 to roughly 3.5% in 1968) and a median GDP growth of 4.6% during the eight-year