Comparing The Domestic Policies Of Lyndon B. Johnson And Ronald Regan

The domestic policy of the Cold War era truly went on to shape the country we see to this day. Two of the presidents that had the greatest impacts on the modern United States were Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Regan. The administrations under these two men would, through their policies on the environment, poverty, and civil/ human rights, make lasting changes to how the government would handle these issues. Lyndon B. Johnson was the president when some of the first claims of global warming and acid rain reached the White House. Johnson’s administration began a wave of new environmentalism with new policies branded under his Great Society plan. Policies like the Water Quality Act of 1965, the Clean Air Act of 1963, the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, and the Wilderness Act of 1964 were all done under the Great Society plan. Johnson’s environmental focus led to the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) under Richard Nixon and the subsequent creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

One notable example of this was Regan’s appointment of Colorado congresswoman Anne Gorsuch to the head of the EPA. Under Gorsuch, the EPA’s budget was cut by over half and a third of the employees were dismissed. Gorsuch also appointed executives from Exxon and General Motors to lead the agency. As a result of the corruption at the EPA and the mishandling of the Times Beach soil study, Gorsuch was forced out of the EPA and Regan was forced to deal with the years of mishandling of the