Lyndon B. Johnson submitting the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to Congress

Because it is right, because it is wise, and because, for the first time in our history, it is possible to conquer poverty, I submit, for the consideration of the Congress and the country, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.  The Act does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done.  It charts a new course.  It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty.  It can be a milestone in our one-hundred eighty year search for a better life for our people. 

~ President Lyndon B. Johnson, "Special Message to Congress Proposing a Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty," March 16, 1964