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Onondaga Council of GOP Organizations, Syracuse, NY, June 2, 1966
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Onondaga Council of GOP Organizations, Syracuse, NY, June 2, 1966
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D20, folder "Onondaga Council of GOP
Organizations, Syracuse, NY, June 2, 1966" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press
Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY AT 7 P.M.
JUNE 2, 1966
SPEECH EXCERPTS--ONONDAGA COUNCIL OF GOP ORGANIZATIONS, SYRACUSE, N. Y.
Bothered by inflation, just as the rest of us are, President Johnson recently
indulged in a neat little trick. He sought to minimize cost of living increases
in this country by averaging them out over a six-year period and comparing them
with inflationary increases in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Japan.
What Mr. Johnson should explain to the American people is how it helps them
if the people of five other countries have been even harder hit by inflation.
Mr. Johnson should also explain to the American people how this takes the
curse off a 1966 cost-of-living increase which is running at an annual rate of
3.9 per cent for the first four months of this year.
Mr. Johnson should also explain to the American people what satisfaction
there is in pointing to an average U.S. price increase of less than 11/2 per cent
a year since 1960 if price increases during the first four months of this year
have been the greatest for any four-month period since the Korean War.
Mr. Johnson also should explain to the American people just how they should
take satisfaction in his figures while considering that the dollar that was a
dollar eight years ago now is worth just 89 cents.
Mr. Johnson should also explain to the American people why they should take
comfort in his dissertation while realizing that it now takes $11.25 to buy the
same basket of goods and services that cost $10 in 1957-59.
Johnson-Humphrey Administration officials are pointing with pride to what they
call a near-leveling off of food prices. But they might well view with conster-
nation the fact that consumers are paying more for phone calls, mortgages, used
cars, shoes and a host of other items.
Mr. Johnson contended that wage increases are staying ahead of price
increases. It's true that more than one million workers will receive cost-of-living
pay increases because of clauses in their contracts. But what about the millions
of others who have no such insurance against inflation?
*
(MORE)
-2-
SPEECH EXCERFTS--INFLATION
Mr. Johnson's devious pooh-poohing of the inflation which is plaguing us may
satisfy some but I'm sure it provides no solace to the unorganized 38.9 million
Americans on fixed pensions.
The inflation we are now experiencing is especially serious to those people
living on fixed incomes.
Americans are deeply concerned about inflation. The President says he also
is concerned. But after asking everyone else to cut back on spending he has
failed to set a proper example, He in effect has said: Do as I say, not as I do.
I have talked with working people. They are willing to cooperate. But
they'd like the federal government to do the same, and they don't see that
happening. They want the federal government to tighten its belt if they are
called upon to do it.
Mr. Johnson is seeking increases of $3.2 billion in Great Society spending
in his fiscal 1967 budget. He has not tightened any kind of belts. He has
simply criticized the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress for approving spending
bills which indicate his budget will be exceeded by $3 billion.
***
Mr. Johnson's criticism of the heavily Democratic Congress for the spending
spree it has embarked on in this election year should weigh heavily on the
American people.
If the voters grasp the significance of it, they will realize that Mr.Johnson
would be better off with a Republican Congress.
Americans must recognize that there is great danger in a lopsided Congress,
a Congress which is so completely dominated by one of the two major parties that
there is no restraint on its actions except a veto by the President.
It is too much to expect a Democratic president to overturn the actions of
vote-hungry Democrats in Congress who are pursuing the Democratic Party's old
political formula of spend and spend, elect and elect.
In the midst of this fiscal madness, let Americans ask themselves if there
will not come a day of reckoning and whether it can be far off.
They can only conclude that the way to return to sound government is to
elect more Republicans in November and restore our two-party system to proper
balance.
# # #
RE: INFLATION
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY AT 7 P.M.
JUNE 2, 1966
SPEECH EXCERPTS--ONONDAGA COUNCIL OF GOP ORGANIZATIONS, SYRACUSE, N. Y.
Bothered by inflation, just as the rest of us are, President Johnson recently
indulged in a neat little trick. He sought to minimize cost of living increases
in this country by averaging them out over a six-year period and comparing them
with inflationary increases in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Japan.
What Mr. Johnson should explain to the American people is how it helps them
if the people of five other countries have been even harder hit by inflation.
Mr. Johnson should also explain to the American people how this takes the
curse off a 1966 cost-of-living increase which is running at an annual rate of
3.9 per cent for the first four months of this year.
Mr. Johnson should also explain to the American people what satisfaction
there is in pointing to an average U.S. price increase of less than 1½ per cent
a year since 1960 if price increases during the first four months of this year
have been the greatest for any four-month period since the Korean War.
Mr. Johnson also should explain to the American people just how they should
take satisfaction in his figures while considering that the dollar that was a
dollar eight years ago now is worth just 89 cents.
Mr. Johnson should also explain to the American people why they should take
comfort in his dissertation while realizing that it now takes $11.25 to buy the
same basket of goods and services that cost $10 in 1957-59.
Johnson-Humphrey Administration officials are pointing with pride to what they
call a near-leveling off of food prices. But they might well view with conster-
nation the fact that consumers are paying more for phone calls, mortgages, used
cars, shoes and a host of other items.
Mr. Johnson contended that wage increases are staying ahead of price
increases. It's true that more than one million workers will receive cost-of-living
pay increases because of clauses in their contracts. But what about the millions
of others who have no such insurance against inflation?
***
(MORE)
GERALD LIBRARY
-2-
SPEECH EXCERFTS--INFLATION
Mr. Johnson's devious pooh-poohing of the inflation which is plaguing us may
satisfy some but I'm sure it provides no solace to the unorganized 38.9 million
Americans on fixed pensions.
The inflation we are now experiencing is especially serious to those people
living on fixed incomes.
Americans are deeply concerned about inflation. The President says he also
is concerned. But after asking everyone else to cut back on spending he has
failed to set a proper example. He in effect has said: Do as I say, not as I do.
I have talked with working people. They are willing to cooperate. But
they'd like the federal government to do the same, and they don't see that
happening. They want the federal government to tighten its belt if they are
called upon to do it.
Mr. Johnson is seeking increases of $3.2 billion in Great Society spending
in his fiscal 1967 budget. He has not tightened any kind of belts. He has
simply criticized the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress for approving spending
bills which indicate his budget will be exceeded by $3 billion.
***
Mr. Johnson's criticism of the heavily Democratic Congress for the spending
spree it has embarked on in this election year should weigh heavily on the
American people.
If the voters grasp the significance of it, they will realize that Mr.Johnson
would be better off with a Republican Congress.
Americans must recognize that there is great danger in a lopsided Congress,
a Congress which is so completely dominated by one of the two major parties that
there is no restraint on its actions except a veto by the President.
It is too much to expect a Democratic president to overturn the actions of
vote-hungry Democrats in Congress who are pursuing the Democratic Party's old
political formula of spend and spend, elect and elect.
In the midst of this fiscal madness, let Americans ask themselves if there
will not come a day of reckoning and whether it can be far off.
They can only conclude that the way to return to sound government is to
elect more Republicans in November and restore our two-party system to proper
balance.
###