1. TRUMAN DOMESTIC POLICY After WWII, the Truman administration set out to help the nation adjust to peacetime.

2. RETURN TO A PEACETIME ECONOMY The Servicemen ’ s Readjustment Act, also called the GI Bill, helped the economy by providing loans to veterans to attend college, set up businesses, and buy homes. Inflation (high prices)  strikes (for higher wages)  Truman ends strikes  Republican Congress elected & passes Taft-Hartley Act to limit power of organized labor despite Truman veto

3. Baby Boom BACKGROUND: When WWII ended in 1945, millions of veterans returned home. To help the soldiers settle into America again, Congress passed a series of bills that aided and encouraged home ownership and higher education. As a result, returning soldiers were getting married, starting families, pursuing higher education and buying their first homes. Marriage rate rose sharply in the 1940s and reached all-time highs. The “Baby Boom” period refers to the post-WWII dramatic increase in birth rates from1945–1961. There are an estimated 78.3 million Americans who were born during this period. – WWII over  couples reunited – GI benefits – TV & magazines promoting large families

4. Taft-Hartley Act Outlawed the closed shop, or the practice of forcing business owners to hire only union members. States could pass right-to-work laws outlawing union shops, or shops where new workers were required to join the union. Prohibited featherbedding, the limiting of work output in order to create more jobs. Although Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, Congress passed it in 1947. (Congress Republican).

5. ELECTION 1948 Truman ’ s many proposals to Congress included the expansion of Social Security benefits, raising the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents/hour, & a broad civil rights bill protecting African Americans. – His proposals met with little success with Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats. 1948 election: Truman made speeches that criticized a “ Do-Nothing Congress, ” because it had not enacted any of his legislative proposals  Truman wins & Congress democratic Truman ’ s domestic agenda was coined the Fair Deal.

7. TRUMAN’S FAIR DEAL = Truman’s Fair Deal: “Every segment of our population and every individual has a right to expect from…government a fair deal.” Sought to further Roosevelt’s New Deal Congress did not support all of Truman ’ s ideas. While the minimum wage was increased & the Social Security system expanded, Congress refused to pass national health insurance or to enact civil rights legislation.