Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
4525983
label
GOP Dinner for Representative Jonas, Lincolntown, NC, October 8, 1966
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
4525983
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
GOP Dinner for Representative Jonas, Lincolntown, NC, October 8, 1966
citationUrl
collections
Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
subjects
Inflation (Finance)
iiifBase
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
4525983
coverageEndDate
logicalDate
1966-10-31
month
10
year
1966
coverageStartDate
logicalDate
1966-10-01
month
10
year
1966
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
url
mediaId
bfdc1163a236f3a1
ocrText
The original documents are located in Box D21, folder "GOP Dinner for Representative
Jonas, Lincolntown, NC, October 8, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D21 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE AT 7 P.M.
SATURDAY, OCT. 8, 1966
EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH AT GOP DINNER FOR REP. JONAS, R-N.C., AT LINCOLNTON, N. C.
Inflation will be worse next year--not better--and you don't have to look
very far to find the reason.
Look at the White House and you see the spendingest President in American
history. Look at the 89th Congress and you see wild-spending Democrats who have
inflated the President's already-inflated budget.
No amount of Republican warning has been able to cool off these profligate
dispensers of the taxpayers' dollars.
That's why the American economy has become overheated. That's why it has
stayed over-charged. That's why all Americans are paying the high cost of
inflation, the high cost of Johnson, the high cost of a lopsided automatic Demo-
cratic Congress.
These Americans who buy the Johnson-Democrat philosophy that the federal
government can solve all our problems by spending more and more billions demand
a Republican answer to inflation.
The Republican answer is that we didn't have to get this way in the first
place. Inflation didn't have to happen and it wouldn't have happened if President
Johnson had made one or two politically painful decisions last January.
Another way of putting it is that inflation wouldn't have happened if the
Republican Party had been in power.
Let's look back to January, 1966. That's when Republicans told President
Johnson and the nation that this country could not fight a costly war halfway
around the world without cutting back on non-essential domestic spending. And
that's also when Mr. Johnson blithely told Congress and the nation that we could
eat cake despite the Vietnam War--and we could have it with frosting, too.
President Johnson failed to apply a combination of fiscal and monetary
restraints early this year when they would have been most timely and most
effective. He kept right on pumping more federal billions into the economy,
with plans to expand spending on Great Society programs by $3.2 billion in
fiscal 1967.
(MORE)
-2
SPEECH EXCERPTS
President Johnson still talks about cutting spending. He's been talking
about it for months until he's become like the shepherd boy who kept crying
"Wolf" until nobody believed him when the wolf attacked. didcome,
The President most recently pledged a $3 billion spending reduction, but
his wild-spending Democrat friends in Congress are adding anywhere from $2 to $8
billion to his budget. So, tell me, where does the country go from there?
What have Republicans done to fight the battle of inflation? House Repub-
licans have sought time after time not only to hold down the hopelessly irrespon-
sible spending plans of their Democratic colleagues but to cut a number of
presidential budget requests by 5 per cent. In all of these attempts, nearly
90 per cent of the Democrats have voted against economy.
The same day that House Democrats pushed through an elementary-secondary
school aid bill $328 million fatter than the President had asked for, the
President said: "Each vote to increase the budget is likely a vote for increased
revenue later."
I say each vote to increase the budget is a vote for inflation. I say that
in virtually every instance where Democrats in Congress have adhered to the
President's budget levels it has been pressure from the tiny Republican minority
which has accomplished it.
The most tragic aspect of the frightening inflation which is sweeping this
country is the hurt to our old people. Americans living on Social Security, all
those on fixed income, are driven deeper and deeper into a corner of poverty as
prices roll inexorably upward.
Republicans would do something about this--now. In addition to pressuring
the Democratic powerhouse to do something about inflation, Republicans in the
House and Senate have introduced bills to tie Social Security to the cost of
living. Whenever the consumer price index goes up at least 3 per cent, Social
Security benefits would go up correspondingly.
Consumer prices as measured across-the-board by the Labor Department have
climbed 3.5 per cent in just the past 12 months. But the Democrats refuse to do
anything about a Social Security cost-of-living provision. Could this be because
it is a Republican plan? Would it be embarrassing and damaging to the Democrats
politically?
Enactment of the Republican plan for a Social Security cost-of-living clause
would remove Social Security benefit increases from the political arena once and
for all. I see no reason why we haven't done it unless it is because the
Democrats want to keep using Social Security as a political football.
###
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE AT 7 P.M.
SATURDAY, OCT. 8, 1966
EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH AT GOP DINNER FOR REP. JONAS, R-N.C., AT LINCOLNTON, N. C.
Inflation will be worse next year--not better--and you don't have to look
very far to find the reason.
Look at the White House and you see the spendingest President in American
history. Look at the 89th Congress and you see wild-spending Democrats who have
inflated the President's already-inflated budget.
No amount of Republican warning has been able to cool off these profligate
dispensers of the taxpayers' dollars.
That's why the American economy has become overheated. That's why it has
stayed over-charged. That's why all Americans are paying the high cost of
inflation, the high cost of Johnson, the high cost of a lopsided automatic Demo-
cratic Congress.
These Americans who buy the Johnson-Democrat philosophy that the federal
government can solve all our problems by spending more and more billions demand
a Republican answer to inflation.
The Republican answer is that we didn't have to get this way in the first
place. Inflation didn't have to happen and it wouldn't have happened if President
Johnson had made one or two politically painful decisions last January.
Another way of putting it is that inflation wouldn't have happened if the
Republican Party had been in power.
Let's look back to January, 1966. That's when Republicans told President
Johnson and the nation that this country could not fight a costly war halfway
around the world without cutting back on non-essential domestic spending. And
that's also when Mr. Johnson blithely told Congress and the nation that we could
eat cake despite the Vietnam War--and we could have it with frosting, too.
President Johnson failed to apply a combination of fiscal and monetary
restraints early this year when they would have been most timely and most
effective. He kept right on pumping more faderal billions into the economy,
with plans to expand spending on Great Society programs by $3.2 billion in
fiscal 1967.
(MORE)
-2
SPEECH EXCERPTS
President Johnson still talks about cutting spending. He's been talking
about it for months until he's become like the shepherd boy who kept crying
"Wolf" until nobody believed him when the wolf attacked.
The President most recently pledged a $3 billion spending reduction, but
his wild-spending Democrat friends in Congress are adding anywhere from $2 to $8
billion to his budget. So, tell me, where does the country go from there?
What have Republicans done to fight the battle of inflation? House Repub-
licans have sought time after time not only to hold down the hopelessly irrespon-
sible spending plans of their Democratic colleagues but to cut a number of
presidential budget requests by 5 per cent. In all of these attempts, nearly
90 per cent of the Democrats have voted against economy.
The same day that House Democrats pushed through an elementary-secondary
school aid bill $328 million fatter than the President had asked for, the
President said: "Each vote to increase the budget is likely a vote for increased
revenue later."
I say each vote to increase the budget is a vote for inflation. I say that
in virtually every instance where Democrats in Congress have adhered to the
President's budget levels it has been pressure from the tiny Republican minority
which has accomplished it.
The most tragic aspect of the frightening inflation which is sweeping this
country is the hurt to our old people. Americans living on Social Security, all
those on fixed income, are driven deeper and deeper into a corner of poverty as
prices roll inexorably upward.
Republicans would do something about this--now. In addition to pressuring
the Democratic powerhouse to do something about inflation, Republicans in the
House and Senate have introduced bills to tie Social Security to the cost of
living. Whenever the consumer price index goes up at least 3 per cent, Social
Security benefits would go up correspondingly.
Consumer prices as measured across-the-board by the Labor Department have
climbed 3.5 per cent in just the past 12 months. But the Democrats refuse to do
anything about a Social Security cost-of-living provision. Could this be because
it is a Republican plan? Would it be embarrassing and damaging to the Democrats
politically?
Enactment of the Republican plan for a Social Security cost-of-living clause
would remove Social Security benefit increases from the political arena once and
for all. I see no reason why we haven't done it unless it is because the
Democrats want to keep using Social Security as a political football.
###