President Johnson outlined the Great Society agenda in a May 1964 commencement speech at the University of Michigan, pledging to end poverty and racial injustice.
Between 1964 and 1968, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Social Security Amendments of 1965 creating Medicare and Medicaid, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports the official poverty rate fell from 19.0 percent in 1964 to 12.1 percent in 1969, then largely plateaued in the following decades, ranging between roughly 11 and 15 percent.
Supporters point to Medicare and Medicaid, which together cover more than 140 million Americans as of 2023, as enduring expansions of the federal social safety net.
Critics argue that federal anti-poverty spending exceeded 25 trillion dollars from 1965 through the 2010s, according to Heritage Foundation and Congressional Research Service estimates, while deep poverty and family structure indicators worsened in some communities.