Eisenhower Domestic policy Flashcards
Dynamic Conservatism
“Conservative when it comes to money, liberal when it comes to human beings”.
Eisenhower emphasised the need for a balanced budget, which is why he gave responsibility to States and local governments and limited military spending in favour of expanding welfare.
Eisenhower managed to cut the budget by reducing spending following the New Deal, giving State’s more authority on issue such as energy generation. Despite this, gov. spending still grew under Ike by 11% as he had to compete with the Russians in the space race.
Domestic Successes
- The creation of the dept. of Health, Education and Welfare
- Expansion of social security benefit to cover 10 million Americans
- An increase in the min. wage from 75 cents to 1 dollar
- $500 million made available for public housing
- the federal highway act of 1956, 41,000 miles of Interstate Highways built over 20 years.
- 2 civil rights acts of 1957 and 1960.
Domestic Failures
USA suffered 3 recessions during his Presidency, in 1953, 1958 and 1960, due to mismanagement of the economy. Despite this, inflation always remained low (at 2%) as did unemployment ( a peak of 5% in 1957).
Blue Congress
Congress was controlled by Democrats for 6 of his 8 years as President. The Republicans did briefly control Congress after the 1954 midterms. But because he largely was fairly moderate in choosing policies that neither advocated for big-government or entirely free-market politics, only 10 of the 83 bills he sent to Congress were rejected.
Some economic criticism leads to Republican failure in the 1958 midterms.
Eisenhower was blamed for a second recession and a perceived failure in the Space Race with both Sputnik and Laika preceding any American achievement in the area.
Poverty under Eisenhower
Perception of Eisenhower remained high as his approval rating often remained above 70%, but even so 25% of America was still suffering in poverty.
The end of McCarthyism
In 1954, McCarthy claimed to have knowledge on communist influence in the army. This largely turned public opinion on McCarthy, as it was seen as poor to attack the army. By the end of 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy for unbecoming conduct. McCarthy died by 1957 of alcoholism.
Economic Growth
In 1950 GDP was $355 billion, by the end of Eisenhower’s Presidency it stood at $488 billion. The average American family had 30% more purchasing power by the end of the decade.
Credit
Low-interest loans were commonly offered to buy new houses fueling a building boom with large suburbs such as Levittown being built. The first credit cards were launched such as the Diner’s Club, resulting in private debt more than doubling from $105 billion to $260 billion by 1960 as consumers became more likely to borrow. The debt did however further stimulate manufacturing.
Levittown
A massive suburb that mastered mass production of homes, at its peak of construction one house was built every 16 minutes. Some sections of American society found entrance to the scheme impossible. For decades, Levittown’s population was 100% white – at first because of covenants that restricted any minorities from buying in, and thus supposedly sending the surrounding home values into free-fall. “The community has an almost antiseptic air,” - even today its demographic profile still reads 94.15% white.
By 1950, 80% of Levittown’s men commuted to jobs in Manhattan, demonstrating the increasing importance of the automobile. Levittown acts as an example of the perfect nuclear neighborhood, with often identical rows of houses.
Consumer society
By 1960 90% of households had a tv, as suburbs grew due to the growth in cars. Eisenhower’s interstate highway act of 1956 further stimulated the economy. $26 billion was dedicated to highway construction.
Art and Music
Most was fairly tame, non-threatening, however there were artists breaking through forming the backdrop of the youth rebellion of the 1960s. Musicians like Bob Dylan were coming to wider attention.
Chief Justice Earl Warren appointment
“Biggest damfool mistake I ever made”
