On the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” speech, his eldest daughter returned to the U.S. Capitol in support of national anti-poverty programs.
Lynda Byrd Johnson Robb reminisced on her father’s legacy, recounted how “Daddy” aimed to “erase the barriers” that kept people in need.
“He made people recognize that there was poverty within this country,” she said after an event with current Democratic lawmakers. “He brought it to the front page of the newspapers and said, we have poverty in this country and it is a moral obligation for us to give them the opportunities to bring them out of poverty.”
During his 1964 State of the Union address, Johnson, a former Texas congressman and senator, declared a “war on poverty” that spurred action for programs including Head Start, Medicare and Medicaid. A half-century later, debate is stirring over their effectiveness. During a concurrent news conference, conservative Republicans in the House argued that that government-centered solutions have led to more Americans in poverty than at any time in history, even if the percentage in poverty has declined.
Two Texas Democrats appeared at the event featuring Johnson Robb: Dallas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Houston Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“Though the programs introduced by [Lyndon] Johnson helped to reduce the number of Americans living below the poverty line by 43 percent, as a nation we are far from eradicating poverty,” Rep. Johnson said during her remarks. She noted that 17.9 percent of Texans live in poverty, slightly above the national 15 percent rate. Both, she said, are “simply unacceptable.”
Source: Dallas Morning News / Ben Kamisar
