Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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A. Introduction

Question A-1

Was the phrase “The Great Society” coined by President Lyndon Johnson on 5/22/1964 in the University of Michigan’s football stadium on the occasion of Yours Truly’s graduation ceremony from college?

Answer A-1

Yes.

Question A-2

Although barely discussed during the 1964 election, were “Great Society” Programs enacted 1965-66 as the result of Democrat efforts to paint Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate for President, a racist and a warmonger -- giving Pres. Johnson 61% of the popular vote as he carried all but 6 states COUPLED WITH a 68% majority in the Senate and a 67.8% majority in the House of Representatives?

Answer A-2

Yes.

Question A-3

BTW, in order to appreciate what a landslide this was, have any other Democrat Presidents since FDR even received more than 50% of the popular vote?

Answer A-3

Of the FIVE other Democrat Presidents since FDR (Truman, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton and Obama), only Carter (50.1%) and Obama (52.9% and 51.1%) managed to squeeze over 50% of the popular vote.

The results for both Democrat and Republican Presidents 1948-2016 are (with notes re when there were significant third-party candidates) --

1948 – Harry S. Truman – 49.6%
1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower – 55.2%
1956 – Dwight D. Eisenhower – 57.4%
1960 – John F. Kennedy – 49.7%
1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson – 61.1%
1968 – Richard M. Nixon – 43.4% (Dixiecrat George Wallace received 13.5%)
1972 – Richard M. Nixon – 60.7%
1976 – James Earl Carter – 50.1% (“Jimmy” due to confusion with James Earl Ray, assassin of MLK)
1980 – Ronald W. Reagan – 50.7% (Republican John Anderson received 6.6%)
1984 – Ronald W. Reagan – 58.8%
1988 – George H.W. Bush – 53.4%
1992 – William J. Clinton – 43.0% (Conservative Ross Perot received 18.9%)
1996 – William J. Clinton – 49.2%
2000 – George W. Bush – 47.9%
2004 – George W. Bush – 50.7%
2008 – Barack H. Obama – 52.9%
2012 – Barack H. Obama – 51.1%
2016 – Donald J. Trump – 46.1%

Question A-4

With regard to welfare programs in particular, WOULD ANY CPA WORTH HER/HIS SALT evaluate their success in terms of STANDARD COST-ACCOUNTING (WITH AND WITHOUT) PRINCIPLES?

Answer A-4

Absolutelyt!!!

Question A-5

Is this even possible WITHOUT AN ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE in which the welfare programs were not provided?

Answer A-5

Of course not!!!

Question A-6

In other words, isn’t it fraudulent to claim, for example, that a welfare program was unsuccessful because we still have poor people when any CPA worth her/his salt would say that the true test of success is measuring/estimating how many poor people we would have had without the program?

Answer A-6

Of course any such claims would be fraudulent!!!

Question A-7

Taking K-12 public education as an example of a welfare program (since wealthy families can, and often do, pay for private schools), is it fraudulent to argue that K-12 public education as a welfare program is a failure because, as we have studied on numerous occasions, the federal government has continuously and consistently reported for the last 60 years that America has what we have called “America’s 30% Permanent Under-Caste” which is illiterate as defined by the ability to read the warning label on a can of rat poison?

Answer A-7

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question A-8

Wouldn’t it be more constructive to consider how large America’s “Permanent Under-Caste” would have been without K-12 public education? And what can be done to improve the K-12 public education system that we do have?

Answer A-8

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!


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B. “Welfare Queens” – NOT Part of “The Great Society” Programs

Question B-1

Was “Welfare Queens” a term popularized by Pres. Ronald Reagan during his first presidential campaign in 1976 (which, BTW, was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican nomination) as a derogatory term to describe women who allegedly misuse welfare or collect excessive welfare payments through fraud?

Answer B-1

Yes.

Question B-2

Was the term “Welfare Queens” targeted primarily at the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) Program which was designed to provide “cash welfare payments for needy children who had been deprived of parental support or care because their mother or father was absent from the home, incapacitated, deceased or unemployed”?

Answer B-2

Yes.

Question B-3

Was the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) Program ENACTED IN 1935 AS PART OF “THE NEW DEAL”?

Answer B-3

Yes.

Question B-4

Did Pres. Bill Clinton campaign in 1996 for, and sign in 1997, legislation to replace AFDC with a much more restrictive program that effectively ended federal welfare payments for needy children? Thereby eliminating the existence of "welfare queens"? Was Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign slogan “ending welfare as we know it”?

Answer B-4

Yes. Yes. And yes, Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign slogan was "ending welfare as we know it"!!!


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C. Civil Rights

Question C-1

Did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaw segregation in public accommodations and forbid job discrimination?

Answer C-1

Yes.

Question C-2

During the summer of 1966 before his third/last year of law school, was Yours Truly a member of the first U.S. governmental task force formed to eliminate the de jure dual K-12 school systems of the 11 states of the Old Confederacy PLUS THE 6 SLAVE STATES that had remained in the Union because of President Abraham Lincoln’s constant claims that the raison d’être for the Civil War was the “preservation of the Union” AND NOT the elimination slavery?

Answer C-2

Yes.

Question C-3

Though based in old CCC barracks on the Washington DC Mall (the only office space available on short notice and long since razed), was our group divided among those 17 states and did we make frequent field trips?

Answer C-3

Yes.

Question C-4

Was Yours Truly assigned to North Carolina and did my partner (per policy, we had integrated teams) during a trip to Bertie County NC suggest one evening after he swam his laps in the motel pool (which always caused an evacuation by the other guests – after all, the motel and its pool had been “White Only” a mere two years earlier) that we visit the Tastee Freez across the highway?

Answer C-4

Yes.

Question C-5

Did the Tastee Freez also function as a “drive in” with the result that more than a dozen angry men piled into the Tastee Freez behind us from their cars in which they had been eating?

Answer C-5

Yes.

Question C-6

Did we therefore decide to leave? Did I fall in behind my partner so that he would have the best chance of escaping? Did all of the angry men begin sticking out their feet in an attempt to trip us (presumably so that they could claim that if we had stumbled into one of them, we had been guilty of assault)?

Answer C-6

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Question C-7

Did the last person just before the door look about my size (5’ 11” & 180 pounds) so that I purposely tripped over his foot, spilling my milkshake all over him? Did I smile apologetically while saying “I’m sorry, I tripped” and was out the door before he could react?

Answer C-7

Yes. Yes.

Question C-8

Did we run across the highway where we were greeted by several State Trooper Squad Cars with sirens blaring and lights flashing?

Answer C-8

Yes.

Question C-9

Had the State Troopers been called by the proprietor of the Tastee Freez who had feared that his premises would be destroyed while we were assassinated? Were the State Troopers disgusted over saving us as a by-product of protecting the Tastee Freez?

Answer C-9

Yes, the Tastee Freez proprietor had thought his premises would be destroyed while my partner and I were assassinated.

Yes, the North Carolina State Troopers were disgusted over saving my partner and myself as a by-product of protecting the Tastee Freez.

Question C-10

Did my partner and I know that we risked our lives by entering the formerly “All White” Tastee Freez, just like we risked our lives by staying in the formerly “All White” motel and swimming in its pool? And if we had been assassinated, did we know full well the reason – that we were using public facilities that had been “All White” a mere two years earlier?

Answer C-10

Of course!!!

Even though 1966 was 3 years BEFORE the assassinations of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.

After all, 1966 was 2 years AFTER the assassinations in Mississippi of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner who had been working on the “Freedom Summer” campaign of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to register African-Americans to vote.

My partner and I both thought that being assassinated would crown “lives well lived”!!!


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D. The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Question D-1

Did the Act outlaw literacy and other voter-qualification criteria that had been used to keep African-Americans from registering to vote?

Answer D-1

Yes.

Question D-2

Did the Act also eliminate poll taxes that had been used to keep poor African-Americans from registering to vote?

Answer D-2

Yes.


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E. Medicare and Medicaid

Question E-1

Did President Johnson sign Medicare and Medicaid into law on 7/30/1965?

Answer E-1

Yes.

Question E-2

How many of us use Medicare? Or for those of us who are young, how many of us have parents who use Medicare?

Answer E-2

Let’s discuss!!!

Question E-3

How many of us have elderly parents who depend on Medicaid to finance living in assisted-care facilities?

Answer E-3

Let’s discuss!!!

Question E-4

How many of us would favor eliminating our Medicare benefits? How many of us would favor eliminating the use of Medicaid to finance assisted-care facilities for elderly parents?

Answer E-4

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!


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F. Public Education

Question F-1

Did the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 provide, for the first time, federal assistance for K-12 education? Was it targeted at schools with high concentrations of low-income children?

Answer F-1

Yes. Yes.

Question F-2

Had K-12 education in America been financed primarily with property taxes? Do low-income areas typically have paltry property tax bases for financing K-12 education?

Answer F-2

Yes. Yes.

Question F-3

Did ESEA of 1965 also establish the Head Start Program?

Answer F-3

Yes.

Question F-4

BTW, was the School Lunch Program for poor children a “Great Society” Program or was it signed into law in 1946 by President Harry Truman as a result of heavy lobbying by the farm lobby to deal with agricultural surpluses?

Answer F-4

The School Lunch Program for poor children was signed into law in 1946 by President Harry Truman as a result of heavy lobbying by the farm lobby to deal with agricultural surpluses.


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G. Welfare Programs That, UNLIKE Aid to Families with Dependent Children, WERE “Great Society” Programs –

What do you think of --

G-1. Food Stamp Act of 1964, established with strong support from the farm lobby to deal with agricultural surpluses?

G-2. Social Security Amendments of 1965 – various improvements (both coverage and level of benefits) TO A NEW-DEAL PROGRAM ENACTED IN 1935?

G-3. Social Security Amendments of 1967 – additional improvements in coverage and benefits PLUS changes in eligibility for disability-insurance benefits?

G-4. The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 – rent subsidies for low-income families and rehab grants for low-income homeowners?

G-5. The Demonstration Cities Act of 1965 – urban renewal (housing renovation, neighborhood facilities, job creation, etc.)?

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Answers G-1 thru G-5

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!


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H. Miscellaneous “Great Society” Programs –

What do you think of --

H-1. National endowments for the arts & humanities?

H-2. Public broadcasting?

H-3. Transportation?

H-4. Consumer protection?

H-5. NUMEROUS environmental acts (e.g., water, air, wilderness, endangered species, solid-waste disposal)?

H-5. Rural development?

H-6. The pet project of President Johnson’s wife (Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson) – the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 to get rid of billboards on federally-financed highways?

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Answers H-1 thru H-5

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!