Anti-poverty

The United States

Anti-poverty sentiment in the United States was furthered greatly by president Lyndon B. Johnson's stated "War on Poverty." First declared in his 1964 State of the Union address, Johnson declared war on poverty "not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it." He launched programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and he enacted the expansion of housing subsidies, food stamps, and employment programs, as well as Social Security. The cornerstone of Johnson's "War on Poverty" was the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (EOA), which Congress passed shortly after his initial declaration. The Economic Opportunity Act defines its goals as the creation and furthering of policy that work towards the elimination of poverty in a nation with plenty. It did so by the establishment of programs for job education, small business loans, and migrant workers, such as Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the Job Corps, and Head Start. Through his work in the "War on Poverty," Johnson shifted poverty reduction from an individual problem to a federal goal.