Johnson endorsed Cold War liberals’ assumption that the American economy did not require structural change, and thus dismissed the idea of federal job creation programs. Johnson possessed an unshakeable faith in the nation’s free enterprise system and believed that the $11 billion tax cut his administration passed in February 1964 would stimulate economic growth, in turn creating more private-sector jobs. The War on Poverty would complement the tax cut by preparing the poor, through skills training, to take up those jobs.
