The Fair Deal was U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s catch-phrase for a series of social and economic reforms outlined in his 1949 State of the Union Address to Congress. The President stated that
“Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.”
Congress resisted most of Truman’s agenda, but the Fair Deal remains significant in establishing a call for universal health care as a rallying cry for the Democratic Party. Lyndon Johnson credited Truman’s unfulfilled program as influencing Great Society measures such as Medicare that were successfully enacted during the 1960s.