Domestic Policy Flashcards
election
He commanded the American Forces during WWII in Europe, after his victory he became so popular that many politicians felt he could be the next president but he did not like politics and had no interest in it and declined the offer to be the Republican 1948 candidate. He came the head of NATO in 1950. He was persuaded by his friends to run in 1952 he was worried about US foreign policy in the hands of either isolationist Republican Taft who wanted to withdraw all troops from Europe or Truman and his budget with a $14B deficit, he concluded that it was his duty to run
why did he win the presidential election
- He choose Nixon as his running mate, who was young and dynamic. Nixon was anti-communist and this appealed to the Old Guard who was able to hit the Democrats hard while Ike maintained a more dignified stance
- Voters like his opposition to state bureaucracy, high taxes and federal budget deficits. A bankrupt America is a defenceless America. They agreed with his support for states right
- He was a war hero who could be trusted with the nation’s security - his background
- Korea - Ike promised to go to Korea and end the war
- Attack on Democrats - He attacked their failures ar Yalta said that Truman lost china and was soft on communism, he criticised containment and called it ‘negative, futile and immoral’. He attacked Truman as part of the formula K1C2 korea, communism and corruption. He won 55% of the votes and his democrat opponent Stevenson won 45% and managed to take 5 southern states
what was Ike domestic policy called
dynamic conservatism
dynamic conservatism
Ike disapproved of the new deal because he believed in self-sufficiency, but felt it would be political suicide to try to dismantle it. He described himself as conservative when it comes to money, liberal when it comes to people. His key aim was to maintain the legacy of the new deal through government involvement while allowing people to be economically free
conservative when it comes to money
Eisenhower was horrified that the defence expenditure had rocketed by 300% in Truman’s final 30 months. He controlled defence expenditure in order to balance the budget, he gave responsibility to states and local governments, he felt that excessive expenditure on defence was money that could be spent on social improvements.
Ended the Korean war
new look defence policy
liberal when it comes to the people
Ike established the Department of Health, Education and Welfare which in 1955 oversaw the distribution of the new polio vaccine
Area development act 1956 added 500,000 acres to the national park system along with visitor centres
The expansion of social security benefits to over 10M Americans which showed that Ike was conscious of those at the bottom of society, a policy that broke away from traditional republican ideas
Increased minimum wage by 25% in 1955
Made $500M available for low-income public housing. This showed Ikes willingness to involved the federal government in addressing the problems of the poor
education
There was a shortage if school buildings and teachers in the 1950s. In 1955 he proposed legislation to help finance school constructions in poorer states but this was rejected because it would have benefitted the segregated south. Congress passed the National Defence Education Act in 1958 and gave low-cost loans to college students and federal funds to the state in order to improve courses in Science, Maths and Foreign Languages, subjects considered important in the Cold War struggle, this law was revolutionary as it introduced the principle of direct aid to education. He also continued the free lunch programme that Truman had introduced for poor schoolchildren
what public works act did Ike pass
Interstate highways Act
interstate highways Act
Ike revolutionised American roads for several reasons. In 1919, Ike led a military convoy across the nation and saw that the poor quality of American Roads. The number of cars on American roads was increasing, so more and better roads were needed. The economy faced trouble after the Korean war and defence expenditures increased. Road construction would create employment and help economic growth. He felt it was federal’s government’s job too undertake the changes as they were in such a bad state because of federal-state disagreements over funding. The 1956 Federal Aid highways act became the first peace time public works scheme project in American history. 41,000 miles of Interstate highways were built over a 20 year period
evaluating Ike
He was proactive in dealing with problems in housing education health and benefits and was far more willing to intervene in federal government than later Republican presidents. He did have domestic issues such as three recessions because of his popularity this protected him from the usual criticism of politicians and he had approval ratings of over 70%. He had criticised big governments programmes of Truman but did not want to go as far as some Republicans who believed big governments should be rolled back to allow the private sector to take a bigger role. Ike’s plan was to lead the US down a middle path between big government intervention and rampant capitalism and this enabled him to work with congress despite it being dominated by the Democrats for six of his eight years. In that time only ten of the 83 bills he sent to congress were rejected - relatively successful
Ike and Domestic Spending
He struggled to reduce domestic spending as it rose from 31% in 1953 to 49% in 1961. One in every four was living in poverty and did not benefit from the growth of the economy or the increase of the minimum wage and social security. The South was home to almost half of the country’s poor and in the North, the black population and Native Americans suffered in poverty
