The divergent social policies and programs of the Kennedy/Johnson era and the Reagan/Bush era demonstrate the different attitudes in which these administrations viewed the poor. Kennedy/Johnson policymakers regarded the poor as flawed and inexperienced, in need of government assistance to enter the mainstream and assimilate society's work ethic. Reagan/Bush policymakers regarded the poor as victims of government overindulgence, whose only hope for self-sufficiency was by weaning them from the government dole. Social policies and programs continue to come under severe attack as legislators seek means to control the country's spiraling federal deficit. An examination of the goals and social theories underlying the policies and programs of the Kennedy/Johnson and Reagan/Bush administrations demonstrates why the thorny issue of poverty persists in contemporary political debate.
Poverty was an important issue in John F. Kennedy's campaign for the presidency. When the Kennedy administration took office in 1961, the president set to work almost immediately to implement his social policies and programs. Not since the New Deal era of Franklin Roosevelt had such a major effort been expended to fight poverty.
Kennedy's strategy shifted emphasis from merely providing cash assistance to needy families to providing services that would prevent dependency in the first place. This was a significant new concept in the philosophy of public welfare: "During his address to Congress on February 1, 1962, the president argued that the answer to the welfare problem was not just greater financial support to the poor but also the provision of services to enable the poor to climb out of poverty" (Rank, 1991, p. 15).
Kennedy's philosophy on poverty marked a major intellectual change for policymakers. Previously, welfare had been reserved for that segment of the population that was too old, too young, or too physically incapcitated to work...