QOD 5/6 Why do you think President Kennedy called his domestic program the “New Frontier”?

QOD 5/6

• Why do you think President Kennedy called his domestic program the “New Frontier”?

Kennedy’s New Frontier

New Frontier

• Name of Kennedy’s domestic program

• Why given this name?

• Wanted to improve:– Economy -Start Space program– Education– Healthcare– Civil Rights

Poverty

• After reading book,

The Other America,

Kennedy wanted to focus

on poverty in USA

Poverty

• To help with poverty, he:– Increased minimum wage– Extended Social Security benefits– Improved the welfare system– Helped to pass the Equal Pay Act (1963),

equal pay for equal work between men and women

Fixing the Economy

• Wanted to fix American’s sluggish economy of high unemployment of early 60s:– Tax credits to businesses– Increased military spending = new jobs– Deficit spending- gov’t borrows money to

spend more than receives in taxes to boost economy - leads to tax cuts for lower and middle classes (put $ in people’s pockets)

Civil Rights

• Pursued civil rights cautiously

• 1963 (violence in Birmingham) influenced Kennedy to pursue Civil Rights Bill

• Passed in 1964 by LBJ after Kennedy’s assassination

Space Race

• Race between Soviets and USA to land on the moon

• Kennedy wanted US to land a man on the moon by 1970

• July, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first American astronaut to step on the moon

Kennedy Assassinated

• November, 1963- Traveled to Dallas to campaign for ’64 election

• Killed by Lee Harvey Oswald

• Warren Commission: Did Oswald work alone? Official investigation found that Oswald was the “lone killer”