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"Trunk ‘N Tusk" Republican Dinner, Phoenix, AZ, March 18, 1967
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"Trunk ‘N Tusk" Republican Dinner, Phoenix, AZ, March 18, 1967
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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Central Intelligence Agency. 12/4/1981-
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The original documents are located in Box D22, folder "Trunk 'N Tusk" Republican
Dinner, Phoenix, AZ, March 18, 1967" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
SPEECH AT "TRUNK 'N TUSK" REPUBLICAN DINNER, MARCH 18, 1967
CAMELBACK INN, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
IT'S GREAT TO BE HERE IN ARIZONA-WONDERFUL TO BE ABLE
TO BREATHE AGAIN. RIGHT NOW, I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU PEOPLE
FAIR WARNING. YOU MAY SOON HAVE A REFUGEE PROBLEM. YOU
MAY BE FLOODED WITH PEOPLE FLEEING FROM THE NATION'S
CAPITAL. WE WHO INHABIT THAT MECCA FOR THE MAN WITH THE
BUREAUCRATIC MIND RECENTLY LEARNED THAT WASHINGTON, D.C.,
IS THE FOURTH DIRTIEST METROPOLITAN AREA IN THE COUNTRY.
YOU MAY HAVE WONDERED WHY IT'S SOMETIMES SO HARD TO
UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON IN WASHINGTON. WELL, IT'S THE
AIR. IT'S SO DIRTY IN WASHINGTON THERE ARE TIMES WHEN
WE CAN'T SEE WHERE WE'RE GOING. THIS IS THE AIR WE
BREATHE, TOO. so, OF COURSE, SOMETIMES WE DON'T THINK SORD
CLEARLY.
GERALD LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D22 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
THERE'S AN AREA IN WASH INGTON CALLED FOGGY BOTTOM.
APPROPRIATELY, THIS IS WHERE THE STATE DEPARTMENT IS
LOCATED.
THE TRUTH IS THAT EVER SINCE LYNDON JOHNSON ENTERED
THE WHITE HOUSE, THE ENTIRE CITY OF WASHINGTON HAS BEEN
ENVELOPED IN FOG--FISCAL FOG AND THE FOG THAT IS GENERATED
WHEN PEOPLE TELL LESS THAN THE TRUTH.
THIS JOHNSON FOG HAS SEEPED FROM WASHINGTON INTO ALL
PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. IT IS OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE
CREDIBILITY GAP. LYNDON JOHNSON IS RECOGNIZED AS THE
SYMBOL OF IT, AND THE PRESIDENTIAL POPULARITY POLLS
REFLECT THIS.
OF COURSE, LYNDON IS GENEROUS. HE SHARES THE HONORS
FORD
WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF HIS ADMINISTRATION, INCLUDING THAT
GERAL
LIBRARY
-3-
MOST VOLUBLE GENTLEMAN, VICE PRESIDENT HUBERT HUMPHREY.
RECENTLY THE COUNTRY WAS SHAKEN BY THE REVELATION THAT
THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY HAD BEEN COVERTLY FINANCING
OVERSEAS ACTIVITIES OF STUDENT AND LABOR GROUPS. HUBERT
HORATIO HUMPHREY, NEVER FAR FROM HIS GUARD POST NEAR
CREDIBILITY GAP, IMMEDIATELY TOLD AN AUDIENCE IN PALO ALTO,
CALIF., THAT THIS REPRESENTED "ONE OF THE SADDEST TIMES,
IN REFERENCE TO PUBLIC POLICY, OUR GOVERNMENT HASHAD." HE
SAID HE WAS "NOT AT ALL HAPPY ABOUT WHAT THE CIA HAS BEEN
DOING." THAT WAS ON FEBRUARY 21.
TWO DAYS LATER THE PRESIDENT UPHELD THE CIA'S CONDUCT.
ON FEBRUARY 27, HAPPY HUBERT UNHAPPILY TOLD THE AFL-CIO
IN CONVENTION AT MIAMI THE CIA HAD "DONE NOTHING BUT FOLLOW
THE POLICIES OF HIGHER AUTHORITY."
HE VIGOROUSLY DEFENDED
-4-
THE CIA, WHERE ONLY SIX DAYS EARLIER HE HAD CONDEMNED ITS
TIES TO STUDENT AND LABOR ORGANIZATIONS.
IT IS EXACTLY THIS KIND OF CONTRADICTION, BACKPEDALLING,
FAILURE TO LIVE UP TO STATEMENTS THAT HAS CREATED THE
CREDIBILITY GAP. IT HAS COST THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION
THE CONFIDENCE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. OUR PEOPLE ARE UN-
EASY ABOUT THEIR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON.
THIS CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE ERODES THE STRENGTH OF THE
NATION. IT WEAKENS OUR MORAL FIBER JUST AS SURELY AS DOES
THE SOARING CRIME RATE WHICH HAS JUMPED MOST ALARMINGLY
EVEN AS THE GREAT SOCIETY WAS SUPPOSED TO ENHANCE THE
QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL AMERICANS.
THE CREDIBILITY GAP IS WIDENING.
FORD & LIBRARY
-5-
ON JANUARY 30 THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION
ADMITTED IT HAS BEEN CONCEALING ROUGHLY HALF OF OUR
AIRCRAFT LOSSES IN VIETNAM. OFFICIALS SAID THEY DID THIS
BY REPORTING ONLY THE LOSSES THROUGH COMBAT AND KEEPING
QUIET ABOUT DESTRUCTION OF U.S. PLANES DUE TO OTHER CAUSES.
THERE IS A LONG LIST OF CREDIBILITY GAP INCIDENTS,
RANGING FROM OFFICIAL STATEMENTS SUBSEQUENTLY PROVED FALSE
TO FIGURE JUGGLING IN THE FEDERAL BUDGET, AND FROM EMPTY
PROMISES IN THE ANTI-POVERTY WAR TO MISLEADING MOVES IN
THE VIETNAM WAR.
IT IS IRONIC THAT SECRETARY OF LABOR WILLARD WIRTZ
RECENTLY ACCUSED THE PRESS OF DISTORTED REPORTING WHEN IT
WAS HE WHO DISTORTED GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT FIGURES TO MAKE
THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION LOOK GOOD DURING THE 1964
GERALD LIBRARY
-6-
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.
THE CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE EXTENDS TO THE CONGRESS, WHERE
THE ADAM CLAYTON POWELL CASE HAS AT LEAST TEMPORARILY
ECLIPSED THE NEED TO REVISE AND REVAMP THE GREAT SOCIETY
PROGRAMS ALREADY ENACTED INTO LAW. I FEAR THAT CRISIS OF
CONFIDENCE MAY NEVER BE RESOLVED UNLESS DEMOCRATS JOIN WITH
REPUBLICANS IN REATING A SELECT COMMITTEE ON ETHICS AND
CONDUCT TO POLICE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. I HOPE
THEY DON'T TRY TO SWEEP THE WHOLE MATTER OF CONGRESSIONAL
ETHICS UNDER THE RUG.
THE FISCAL FOG IN WASHINGTON IS GROWING THICKER BY
THE MINUTE. PRESIDENT JOHNSON POSES AS AN ECONOMICAL CHIEF
EXECUTIVE. THIS IS THE GREATEST MYTH THAT WAS EVER FLOATED
BEFORE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
GERALD LIBRARY
-7-
WHEN THE FIGURES ARE ADJUSTED TO TELL THE TRUTH, WE FIND
THAT THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION HAS SPENT $40-1/2
BILLION MORE THAN IT HAS TAKEN IN DURING THE YEARS 1964,
'65, '66 AND '67. THAT'S RED INK THAT'S FLOODING THE FEDERAL
LEDGERS AT THE RATE OF $10 BILLION A YEAR, $800 MILLION A
MONTH, OR $40 MILLION A DAY ON THE BASIS OF A FIVE-DAY
WORK WEEK.
THE TRUTH IS WE JUST CAN'T AFFORD THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRA-
TION.
REPUBLICANS AREN'T WEDDED TO A BALANCED BUDGET, CERTAINLY
NOT IN WARTIME EMERGENCIES. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN IT'S NOT
ONLY IMPOSSIBLE BUT EVEN INADVISABLE. BUT WE SHOULD BE
RUNNING A BUDGET SURPLUS IN TIMES OF PROSPERITY--AND THAT'S
SOMETHING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SEEMS INCAPABLE OF. IF
GERALD WE LIBRARY
-8-
CAN'T BALANCE THE BUDGET WHEN THE COUNTRY IS PROSPEROUS,
WHEN WILL WE EVER DO IT?
IN THE 112 YEARS SINCE THE PRESENT TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
CAME INTO EXISTENCE, DEMOCRATS HAVE CONTROLLED BOTH BRANCHES
OF CONGRESS FOR 42 YEARS; REPUBLICANS, FOR 48 YEARS.
CONGRESS WAS DIVIDED BETWEEN THE PARTIES IN 22 OF THE 112
YEARS.
DEMOCRATS PUT THIS COUNTRY IN THE RED IN 35 OF THE YEARS
THEY HELD POWER, AND BALANCED THE BUDGET ONLY SEVEN TIMES.
BY CONTRAST, REPUBLICANS PRODUCED SURPLUSES IN 31 YEARS
AND INCURRED DEFICITS IN ONLY 17.
THAT'S THE RECORD OF THE RESPONSIBLE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
I'LL LET YOU CATEGORIZE THE OTHER PARTY FOR YOURSELVES
FORD i LIBRARY 939
-9-
THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION SIMPLY IGNORES ITS
DEFICITS AND KEEPS PLUNGING BLINDLY AHEAD WITH AN UNPARALLELED
SURGE OF FEDERAL SPENDING. ALLTHIS TIME THE BUSINESS OF
PHONEY ECONOMY AND PHONEY BUDGETING CROWDS IN ON US.
IS ALL OF THIS EXCESSIVE SPENDING DUE TO THE VIETNAM
WAR? NOT AT ALL. FROM 1965 TO 1968 FEDERAL SPENDING ROSE
BY $17 BILLION A YEAR. IF WE SUBTRACT EVERY PENNY OF
VIETNAM SPENDING BETWEEN FISCAL 1965 AND 1968, WE STILL FIND
AN INCREASE OF $29 BILLION IN OVERALL FEDERAL EXPENDITURES--
OR AN ANNUAL INCREASE OF NEARLY $10 BILLION.
FEDERAL SPENDING UNDER THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION
CLEARLY IS GETTING OUT OF HAND. THE YEAR OF DEMOCRAT
DUPLICITY IS TAKING ITS TOLL.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
I REFER TO 1966 WHEN THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION PLOWED
-10-
AHEAD FULL TILT WITH GREAT SOCIETY SPENDING PROGRAMS AND
UNDERESTIMATED VIETNAM WAR SPENDING BY $10 BILLION TO COVER
UP THE TRUERATE OF FEDERAL SPENDING. AT THE SAME TIME,
PRICES SOARED BECAUSE FEDERAL SPENDING OVER-STIMULATED
THE ECONOMY.
WE'RE HURTING. THE UNITED STATES IS HURTING NOW. THE
CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON WANTS TO LOAD AN INCOME TAX INCREASE
ON AMERICANS HIT LAST YEAR BY THE SHARPEST RISE IN THE
COST OF LIVING SINCE THE KOREAN WAR. BUT HE HAS SO MIS-
MANAGED THE ECONOMY THAT IT'S DOUBTFUL THE ECONOMY CAN TAKE
IT. TODAY MOST ECONOMISTS ARE OPPOSED TO JOHNSON'S TAX
INCREASE BECAUSE IT MIGHT WELL TRIGGER A RECESSION.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
THE SAGGING STATE OF THE ECONOMY MEANS THAT THE FISCAL
-11-
1968 DEFICIT PROBABLY WILL RUN MORE THAN $15 BILLION, A
RECORD EXCEPT FOR THE YEARS DURING WORLD WAR 11.
THIS SITUATION IS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE FACT THAT
MR. JOHNSON LAST YEAR IGNORED REPUBLICAN DEMANDS THAT HE
CUT DOMESTIC SPENDING AND SPURNED THE ADVICE OF EMINENT
ECONOMISTS WHO SAID THAT WAS THE TIME TO RAISE INCOME TAXES
AND COOL OFF AN OVERHEATED ECONOMY.
LYNDON JOHNSON IS A MASTER POLITICIAN, BUT HIS POLITICS
GETS IN THE WAY OF THE GOOD OF THE NATION.
THE PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED--THE WORKER, THE FARMER.
WORKERS HAVE FOUND INFLATION BITING INTO THEIR REAL
SPENDABLE EARNINGS DESPITE SIZABLE WAGE INCREASES.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
FARMERS HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN A COST-PRICE SQUEEZE THAT
-12-
HAS LEFT THEM LOW MEN ON THE TOTEM POLE IN AN ERA OF SEEMING
PROSPERITY.
THERE IS TALK OF REVOLT IN THE FARM STATES--AND THIS
IS NOT SURPRISING. OVERALL, FARM PRICES HAVE DROPPED 7.4
PER CENT FROM THE 1966 PEAK REACHED LAST AUGUST. THE PRICE
OF ORANGES HAS PLUMMETED FROM $2.76 A BOX TO 76 CENTS;
CATTLE, FROM $24 A HUNDREDWEIGHT TO $21.60, AND SO ON DOWN
THE LINE.
FARMERS ARE BITTER BECAUSE THEIR PRICES ARE SAGGING,
THEIR COSTS ARE CLIMBING AND A TIDE OF FARM PRODUCTS IS
FLOODING IN FROM ABROAD.
IT WAS JUST ABOUT A YEAR AGO--IN MARCH, 1966--THAT
SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE ORVILLE FREEMAN SAID HE WAS
CRALD FORD LIBRARY
"DELIGHTED" TO SEE FARM PRICES DECLINING. HIS CUP NOW
-13-
RUNNETH OVER. PARITY-THE RATIO OF THE PRICES FARMERS
RECEIVE TO THE PRICES THEY PAY FOR WHAT THEY NEED--NOW
STANDS AT 74, THE LOWEST IN TWO YEARS, DOWN 8 POINTS FROM
LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS TIRED, DISPIRITED, DISORGANIZED,
WANDERING AIMLESSLY IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS TO MANY OF THE
NATION'S PROBLEMS.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS DIVIDED, DEEPLY SPLIT OVER THE
ISSUE THAT HAS PLUNGED THIS COUNTRY INTO PAINFUL SOUL-
SEARCHING--THE VIETNAM WAR. INSTEAD OF UNITED LEADERSHIP,
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FIND THEIR PRESIDENT AND ANOTHER LEADER
OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ENGAGED IN A BITTER FEUD OVER
VIETNAM POLICY AND INVOLVED IN A SHOCKING POWER STRUGGLE.
LIBRARY
THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT AN INTENSE STRUGGLE FOR POWER
-14-
NOW IS UNDER WAY IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. THIS IS A BATTLE
THAT BODES ILL FOR THE NATION BECAUSE IT ENCOURAGES THE
ENEMY TO KEEP ON FIGHTING AND THUS PROLONGS THE WAR. THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE THE LOSERS.
MR. JOHNSON HIMSELF HAS RECOGNIZED THE TRAGIC SITUATION
PRODUCED BY OTHER LEADERS IN HIS OWN PARTY, DEMOCRATIC
CRITICS OF HIS VIETNAM POLICY.
IN COMMENTS MARCH 9 TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE,
THE PRESIDENT SAID: "YOU CAN'T HAVE 25 SECRETARIES OF STATE
AND A HALF-DOZEN SECRETARIES OF DEFENSE AND ALL OF THEM
DREAMING DREAMS."
THE DEMOCRATS NOW ARE PLANNING LOVE FEAST FUND-RAISING
FORD
DINNERS AT WHICH THE PRESIDENT AND BOBBY ARE SUPPOSED RALO TO
KISS AND MAKE UP. BUT I'M SURE NOBODY IS NAIVE ENOUGH TO
LIBRARY
-15-
BELIEVE THAT THESE DINNER MEETINGS WILL ACTUALLY HEAL THE
BREACH BETWEEN THESE DEMOCRATIC LEADERS.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS IN SHARP CONTRAST TO THE
DEMOCRATS--A CONTRAST WHICH I AM SURE IS MOST WELCOME TO
inresisting
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. WE ARE UNITED ON VIETNAM, ALERT TO
NEW IDEAS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS PLAGUING AMERICA.
THE DEMOCRATS ARE STILL DRAWING ON THE THEORIES OF THE
NEW DEALERS, THE IDEAS BORN OF DEPRESSION.
REPUBLICANS ARE SURGING FORWARD WITH IMAGINATIVE NEW
PROPOSALS. WE ARE FASHIONING A BOLD PROGRAM TO LAY BEFORE
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE NEXT ELECTION--A PROGRAM ON
FORD
WHICH A REPUBLICAN WILL RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE AND WILL
LIBRARY
BE ELECTED.
HERE ARE THE ISSUES AS WE ARE DEVELOPING THEM:
-16-
WHERE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PILES ONE FEDERAL GRANT-IN-AID
PROGRAM ON ANOTHER IN A PYRAMID THAT IS COLLAPSING OF ITS
OWN WEIGHT, REPUBLICANS OFFER FEDERAL TAX-SHARING TO REBATE
A FIXED PERCENTAGE OF FEDERAL INCOME TAX REVENUE TO THE
STATES AND CITIES, HELP THEM SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS MORE
QUICKLY AND WITH THEIR OWN PRIORITIES, AND THUS REVITALIZE
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
WHERE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY RELIES ON GOVERNMENT-OPERATED
MANPOWER TRAINING PROGRAMS, REPUBLICANS WOULD TRIGGER A
LARGE-SCALE ON-THE-JOB TRAINING PROGRAM ACROSS THE NATION
BY GIVING EMPLOYERS A TAX CREDIT TO PAY PART OF THE TRAINING
COSTS AND TO MATCH MEN TO JOBS. THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO
ATTACK STRUCTURAL UNEMPLOYMENT AND TO LICK POVERTY.
WHERE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CLUBS INDUSTRY OVER THE HEAD
-17-
IN A WAR AGAINST AIR AND WATER POLLUTION, REPUBLICANS WOULD
COMBINE RESPONSIBLE ENFORCEMENT WITH THE INCENTIVE OF A TAX
CREDIT TO WIN WILLING COMPLIANCE AND MOVE MORE SWIFTLY TO
CLEAN UP THE COUNTRY'S AIR AND WATER.
WHERE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WOULD SPEND MILLIONS AND
ULTIMATELY BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON A DEMONSTRATION CITIES
PROGRAM, REPUBLICANS WOULD ENLIST INDUSTRY IN A PARTNERSHIP
THAT WOULD PUT BILLIONS IN PRIVATE CAPITAL INTO THE TASK
OF CLEARING AND REBUILDING OUR ASPHALT JUNGLES AND SOLVING
URBAN ILLS.
WHERE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ROBS THE LOW-INCOME AMERICAN
runs up a tax Gill of
OF INCENTIVE AND COSTS AND TAXPAYER MILLIONS AND ULTIMATELY
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WITH A RENT SUBSIDY PROGRAM, REPUBLICANS
OFFER A PLAN TO PROMOTE HOME OWNERSHIP BY SLUM DWELLERS
-18-
AND GIVE THEM A SENSE OF PRIDE.
WHERE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY RUNS AN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM
RIDDLED WITH POLITICS AND WASTE AND USES ANTI-POVERTY FUNDS
TO TRAIN PICKETS, REPUBLICANS WOULD REVAMP THE PROGRAM,
^ CUT OUT THE WASTE, TURN MOST OF the program IT OVER TO OLD-LINE FEDERAL
private enterprise,
AGENCIES THAT KNOW HOW TO HANDLE IT AND REMOVE IT FROM THE
INFLUENCE OF BIG CITY POLITICS.
THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE IN 1968 WILL HAVE A RECORD TO
RUN ON--POSITIVE GOP PROGRAMS THAT WILL GIVE NEW DIRECTION
TO OUR NATION.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE CRYING OUT FOR NEW LEADERSHIP,
A LEAN, EFFICIENT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, ANSWERS FOR THE PAINFUL
PROBLEMS THAT PERPLEX THEM AT HOME AND ABROAD, A NEW MORALITY
TO SHIELD THEM FROM THE CORROSIVE ATMOSPHERE OF THIS ERA.
-19-
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CAN PROVIDE THE LEADERSHIP THE
NATION SO SORELY NEEDS.
YOU ALL OF YOU HERE CAN BE A PART OF THAT EFFORT,
A MOVEMENT THAT WILL LEAD US TOWARD A GOOD SOCIETY WHERE
We offer
EVERY AMERICAN WILL LIVE IN PEACE AND FREEDOM WITH HIS
FELLOW MAN, FULFILL HIS CAPABILITIES AND RECEIVE A PROPER
REWARD FOR HIS ENDEAVORS.
A GREAT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ESTABLISHED
A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY WHEN HE SAID "THAT MEN
WHO ARE INDUSTRIOUS AND SOBER AND HONEST IN THE PURSUIT OF
THEIR OWN INTEREST SHOULD AFTER A WHILE ACCUMULATE PROPERTY
AND AFTER THAT SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO ENJOY IT IN PEACE IS
RIGHT."
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
THE REPUBLICAN IN SERVICE TO THE
PARTY OFFERS 1TSELF is -20-
AMERICAN PEOPLE - THAT WE MAY BUILD THAT GOOD SOCIETY FOR
WHICH ALL MEN YEARN. ----THANK YOU----
--END--
DERALT R.FORD LIBRARY
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY AT 7:30 P.M., PACIFIC TIME, SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1967.
AN ADDRESS BY HOUSE MINORITY LEADER GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
AT "TRUNK 'N TUSK" REPUBLICAN DINNER
CAMELBACK INN, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
It's great to be here in Arizona--wonderful to be able to breathe again.
Right now, I'm going to give you people fair warning. You may soon have a refugee
problem. You may be flooded with people fleeing from the Nation's Capital. We who
inhabit that mecca for the man with the bureaucratic mind recently learned that
Washington, D. C., is the fourth dirtiest metropolitan area in the country.
You may have wondered why it's sometimes so hard to understand what's going on
in Washington. Well, it's the air. It's so dirty in Washington there are times when
we can't see where we're going. This is the air we breathe, too. So, of course,
sometimes we don't think so clearly,
There's an area in Washington called Foggy Bottom. Appropriately, this is
where the State Department is located.
The truth is that ever since Lyndon Johnson entered the White House, the
entire city of Washington has been enveloped in fog--fiscal fog and the fog that is
generated when people tell less than the truth,
This Johnson fog has seeped from Washington into all parts of the country. It
is otherwise known as the Credibility Gap. Lyndon Johnson is recognized as the symbol
of it, and the presidential popularity polls reflect this.
Of course, Lyndon is generous. He shares the honors with other members of his
Administration, including that most voluble gentleman, Vice President Hubert Humphrey,
Recently the country was shaken by the revelation that the Central Intelligence
Agency had been covertly financing overseas activities of student and labor groups.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, never far from his guard post near Credibility Gap, immedi-
ately told an audience in Palo Alto, Calif., that this represented "one of the saddest
times, in reference to public policy, our government has had." He said he was "not
at all happy about what the CIA has been doing." That was on February 21.
Two days later the President upheld the CIA's conduct.
On February 27, Happy Hubert unhappily told the AFL-CIO in convention at Miami
the CIA had "done nothing but follow the policies of higher authority," He vigorously
defended the CIA, where only six days earlier he had condemned its ties to student
and labor organizations,
It is exactly this kind of contradiction, backpedalling, failure to live up to
statements that has created the Credibility Gap. It has cost the Johnson Administra-
tion the confidence of the American people. Our people are uneasy about their leaders
in Washington.
(MORE)
-2-
This Crisis of Confidence erodes the strength of the Nation. It weakens our
moral fiber just as surely as does the soaring crime rate which has jumped most
alarmingly even as the Great Society was supposed to enhance the quality of life for
all Americans.
The Credibility Gap is widening.
On January 30 the Johnson-Humphrey Administration admitted it has been conceal-
ing roughly half of our aircraft losses in Vietnam. Officials said they did this by
reporting only the losses through combat and keeping quiet about destruction of U.S.
planes due to other causes.
There is a long list of Credibility Gap incidents, ranging from official state-
ments subsequently proved false to figure juggling in the federal budget, and from
empty promises in the anti-poverty war to misleading moves in the Vietnam War.
It is ironic that Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz recently accused the press
of distorted reporting when it was he who distorted government employment figures to
make the Johnson Administration look good during the 1964 presidential campaign.
The Crisis of Confidence extends to the Congress, where the Adam Clayton Powell
case has at least temporarily eclipsed the need to revise and revamp the Great Society
programs already enacted into law. I fear that crisis of confidence may never be
resolved unless Democrats join with Republicans in creating a Select Committee on
Ethics and Conduct to police the House of Representatives. I hope they don't try to
sweep the whole matter of congressional ethics under the rug.
The Fiscal Fog in Washington is growing thicker by the minute. President
Johnson poses as an economical chief executive. This is the greatest myth that was
ever floated before the American people.
When the figures are adjusted to tell the truth, we find that the Johnson-
Humphrey Administration has spent $401 billion more than it has taken in during the
years 1964, '65, '66 and '67. That's red ink that's flooding the federal ledgers at
the rate of $10 billion a year, $800 million a month, or $40 million a day on the
basis of a five-day work week.
The truth is we just can't afford the Johnson Administration.
Republicans aren't wedded to a balanced budget, certainly not in wartime
emergencies. There are times when it's not only impossible but even inadvisable.
But we should be running a budget surplus in times of prosperity--and that's something
the Democratic Party seems incapable of. If we can't balance the budget when the
country is prosperous, when will we ever do it?
In the 112 years since the present two-party system came into existence,
Democrats have controlled both branches of Congress for 42 years; Republicans, for
48 years. Congress was divided between the parties in 22 of the 112 years.
(MORE)
-3-
Democrats put this country in the red in 35 of the years they held power, and
balanced the budget only seven times.
By contrast, Republicans produced surpluses in 31 years and incurred deficits
in only 17.
That's the record of the Responsible Republican Party. I'll let you categorize
the other party for yourselves.
The Johnson-Humphrey Administration simply ignores its deficits and keeps
plunging blindly ahead with an unparalleled surge of federal spending. All this time
the business of phoney economy and phoney budgeting crowds in on us.
Is all of this excessive spending due to the Vietnam War? Not at all. From
1965 to 1968 federal spending rose by $17 billion a year. If we subtract every penny
of Vietnam spending between fiscal 1965 and 1968, we still find an increase of $29
billion in overall federal expenditures--or an annual increase of nearly $10 billion.
Federal spending under the Johnson Administration clearly is getting out of
hand. The year of Democrat duplicity is taking its toll.
I refer to 1966 when the Johnson Administration plowed ahead full tilt with
Great Society spending programs and underestimated Vietnam War spending by $10 billion
to cover up the true rate of federal spending. At the same time, prices soared
because federal spending over-stimulated the economy.
We're hurting. The United States is hurting now. The chickens have come home
to roost.
President Johnson wants to load an income tax increase on Americans hit last
year by the sharpest rise in the cost of living since the Korean War. But he has
so mismanaged the economy that it's doubtful the economy can take it. Today most
economists are opposed to Johnson's tax increase because it might well trigger a
recession.
The sagging state of the economy means that the fiscal 1968 deficit probably
will run more than $15 billion, a record except for the years during World War II.
This situation is a direct result of the fact that Mr. Johnson last year
ignored Republican demands that he cut domestic spending and spurned the advice of
eminent economists who said that was the time to raise income taxes and cool off an
overheated economy.
Lyndon Johnson is a master politician, but his politics gets in the way of the
good of the Nation.
The people have suffered--the worker, the farmer.
Workers have found inflation biting into their real spendable earnings despite
sizable wage increases.
Farmers have been caught in a cost-price squeeze that has left them low men on
the totem pole in an era of seeming prosperity.
(MORE)
-4-
There is talk of revolt in the farm states--and this is not surprising.
Overall, farm prices have dropped 7.4 per cent from the 1966 peak reached last August.
The price of oranges has plummeted from $2.76 a box to 76 cents; cattle, from $24 a
hundredweight to $21.60, and so on down the line.
Farmers are bitter because their prices are sagging, their costs are climbing
and a tide of farm products is flooding in from abroad.
It was just about a year ago--in March, 1966--that Secretary of Agriculture
Orville Freeman said he was "delighted" to see farm prices declining. His cup now
runneth over. Parity--the ratio of the prices farmers receive to the prices they pay
for what they need--now stands at 74, the lowest in two years, down 8 points from
last year at this time.
The Democratic Party is tired, dispirited, disorganized, wandering aimlessly
in search of solutions to many of the Nation's problems.
The Democratic Party is divided, deeply split over the issue that has plunged
this country into painful soul-searching--the Vietnam War. Instead of united leader-
ship, the American people find their President and another leader of the Democratic
Party engaged in a bitter feud over Vietnam policy and involved in a shocking power
struggle.
There is no question that an intense struggle for power now is under way in the
Democratic Party. This is a battle that bodes ill for the Nation because it encourages
the enemy to keep on fighting and thus prolongs the war. The American people are the
losers.
Mr. Johnson himself has recognized the tragic situation produced by other
leaders in his own party, Democratic critics of his Vietnam policy.
In comments March 9 to the Democratic National Committee, the President said:
"You can't have 25 secretaries of state and a half-dozen secretaries of defense and
all of them dreaming dreams."
The Democrats now are planning love feast fund-raising dinners at which the
President and Bobby are supposed to kiss and make up. But I'm sure nobody is naive
enough to believe that these dinner meetings will actually heal the breach between
these Democratic leaders.
The Republican Party stands in sharp contrast to the Democrats--a contrast
which I am sure is most welcome to the American people. We are united on Vietnam,
alert to new ideas for solving the problems plaguing America.
The Democrats are still drawing on the theories of the New Dealers, the ideas
born of depression.
Republicans are surging forward with imaginative new proposals. We are
fashioning a bold program to lay before the American people in the next election--a
program on which a Republican will run for the White House and will be elected.
(MORE)
-5-
Where the Democratic Party piles one federal grant-in-aid program on another
in a pyramid that is collapsing of its own weight, Republicans offer federal tax-
sharing to rebate a fixed percentage of federal income tax revenue to the states and
cities, help them solve their own problems more quickly and with their own priorities,
and thus revitalize state and local government,
Where the Democratic Party relies on government-operated manpower training
programs, Republicans would trigger a large-scale on-the-job training program across
the Nation by giving employers a tax credit to pay part of the training costs and to
match men to jobs. This is the best way to attack structural unemployment and to lick
poverty.
Where the Democratic Party clubs industry over the head in a war against air
and water pollution, Republicans would combine responsible enforcement with the
incentive of a tax credit to win willing compliance and move more swiftly to clean up
the country's air and water.
Where the Democratic Party would spend millions and ultimately billions of
dollars on a Demonstration Cities program, Republicans would enlist industry in a
partnership that would put billions in private capital into the task of clearing and
rebuilding our asphalt jungles and solving urban ills.
Where the Democratic Party robs the low-income American of incentive and costs
the taxpayer millions and ultimately billions of dollars with a rent subsidy program,
Republicans offer a plan to promote home ownership by slum dwellers and give them a
sense of pride.
Where the Democratic Party runs an anti-poverty program riddled with politics
and waste and uses anti-poverty funds to train pickets, Republicans would revamp the
program, cut out the waste, turn most of it over to old-line federal agencies that
know how to handle it and remove it from the influence of big city politics.
The Republican candidate in 1968 will have a record to run on--positive GOP
programs that will give New Direction to our Nation.
The American people are crying out for new leadership, a lean, efficient
federal government, answers for the painful problems that perplex them at home and
abroad, a new morality to shield them from the corrosive atmosphere of this era.
The Republican Party can provide the leadership the Nation so sorely needs.
You--all of you here--can be a part of that effort, a movement that will lead
us toward a Good Society where every American will live in peace and freedom with his
fellow man, fulfill his capabilities and receive a proper reward for his endeavors,
A great Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, established a touchstone for
the Good Society when he said: "That men who are industrious and sober and honest in
the pursuit of their own interest should after a while accumulate property and after
that should be allowed to enjoy it in peace is right."
The Republican Party offers itself in service to the American people--that we
may build that Good Society for which all men yearn. Thank you.
# # #
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY AT 7:30 P.M., PACIFIC TIME, SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1967.
AN ADDRESS BY HOUSE MINORITY LEADER GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
AT "TRUNK 'N TUSK" REPUBLICAN DINNER
CAMELBACK INN, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
It's great to be here in Arizona--wonderful to be able to breathe again.
Right now, I'm going to give you people fair warning. You may soon have a refugee
problem. You may be flooded with people fleeing from the Nation's Capital. We who
inhabit that mecca for the man with the bureaucratic mind recently learned that
Washington, D. C., is the fourth dirtiest metropolitan area in the country.
You may have wondered why it's sometimes so hard to understand what's going on
in Washington. Well, it's the air. It's so dirty in Washington there are times when
we can't see where we're going. This is the air we breathe, too. So, of course,
sometimes we don't think so clearly,
There's an area in Washington called Foggy Bottom. Appropriately, this is
where the State Department is located.
The truth is that ever since Lyndon Johnson entered the White House, the
entire city of Washington has been enveloped in fog--fiscal fog and the fog that is
generated when people tell less than the truth.
This Johnson fog has seeped from Washington into all parts of the country. It
is otherwise known as the Credibility Gap. Lyndon Johnson is recognized as the symbol
of it, and the presidential popularity polls reflect this.
Of course, Lyndon is generous. He shares the honors with other members of his
Administration, including that most voluble gentleman, Vice President Hubert Humphrey,
Recently the country was shaken by the revelation that the Central Intelligence
Agency had been covertly financing overseas activities of student and labor groups.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, never far from his guard post near Credibility Gap, immedi-
ately told an audience in Palo Alto, Calif., that this represented "one of the saddest
times, in reference to public policy, our government has had." He said he was "not
at all happy about what the CIA has been doing." That was on February 21.
Two days later the President upheld the CIA's conduct.
On February 27, Happy Hubert unhappily told the AFL-CIO in convention at Miami
the CIA had "done nothing but follow the policies of higher authority," He vigorously
defended the CIA, where only six days earlier he had condemned its ties to student
and labor organizations,
It is exactly this kind of contradiction, backpedalling, failure to live up to
statements that has created the Credibility Gap. It has cost the Johnson Administra-
tion the confidence of the American people. Our people are uneasy about their leaders
in Washington.
(MORE)
-2-
This Crisis of Confidence erodes the strength of the Nation. It weakens our
moral fiber just as surely as does the soaring crime rate which has jumped most
alarmingly even as the Great Society was supposed to enhance the quality of life for
all Americans.
The Credibility Gap is widening.
On January 30 the Johnson-Humphrey Administration admitted it has been conceal-
ing roughly half of our aircraft losses in Vietnam. Officials said they did this by
reporting only the losses through combat and keeping quiet about destruction of U.S.
planes due to other causes.
There is a long list of Credibility Gap incidents, ranging from official state-
ments subsequently proved false to figure juggling in the federal budget, and from
empty promises in the anti-poverty war to misleading moves in the Vietnam War.
It is ironic that Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz recently accused the press
of distorted reporting when it was he who distorted government employment figures to
make the Johnson Administration look good during the 1964 presidential campaign.
The Crisis of Confidence extends to the Congress, where the Adam Clayton Powell
case has at least temporarily eclipsed the need to revise and revamp the Great Society
programs already enacted into law. I fear that crisis of confidence may never be
resolved unless Democrats join with Republicans in creating a Select Committee on
Echics and Conduct to police the House of Representatives. I hope they don't try to
sweep the whole matter of congressional ethics under the rug.
The Fiscal Fog in Washington is growing thicker by the minute. President
Johnson poses as an economical chief executive. This is the greatest myth that was
ever floated before the American people.
When the figures are adjusted to tell the truth, we find that the Johnson-
Humphrey Administration has spent $401 billion more than it has taken in during the
years 1964, '65, '66 and '67. That's red ink that's flooding the federal ledgers at
the rate of $10 billion a year, $800 million a month, or $40 million a day on the
basis of a five-day work week.
The truth is we just can't afford the Johnson Administration.
Republicans aren't wedded to a balanced budget, certainly not in wartime
emergencies. There are times when it's not only impossible but even inadvisable.
But we should be running a budget surplus in times of prosperity--and that's something
the Democratic Party seems incapable of. If we can't balance the budget when the
country is prosperous, when will we ever do it?
In the 112 years since the present two-party system came into existence,
Democrats have controlled both branches of Congress for 42 years; Republicans, for
48 years. Congress was divided between the parties in 22 of the 112 years.
(MORE)
-3-
Democrats put this country in the red in 35 of the years they held power, and
balanced the budget only seven times.
By contrast, Republicans produced surpluses in 31 years and incurred deficits
in only 17.
That's the record of the Responsible Republican Party. I'll let you categorize
the other party for yourselves.
The Johnson-Humphrey Administration simply ignores its deficits and keeps
plunging blindly ahead with an unparalleled surge of federal spending. All this time
the business of phoney economy and phoney budgeting crowds in on us.
Is all of this excessive spending due to the Vietnam War? Not at all. From
1965 to 1968 federal spending rose by $17 billion a year. If we subtract every penny
of Vietnam spending between fiscal 1965 and 1968, we still find an increase of $29
billion in overall federal expenditures--or an annual increase of nearly $10 billion.
Federal spending under the Johnson Administration clearly is getting out of
hand. The year of Democrat duplicity is taking its toll.
I refer to 1966 when the Johnson Administration plowed ahead full tilt with
Great Society spending programs and underestimated Vietnam War spending by $10 billion
to cover up the true rate of federal spending. At the same time, prices soared
because federal spending over-stimulated the economy.
We're hurting. The United States is hurting now. The chickens have come home
to roost.
President Johnson wants to load an income tax increase on Americans hit last
year by the sharpest rise in the cost of living since the Korean War. But he has
so mismanaged the economy that it's doubtful the economy can take it. Today most
economists are opposed to Johnson's tax increase because it might well trigger a
recession.
The sagging state of the economy means that the fiscal 1968 deficit probably
will run more than $15 billion, a record except for the years during World War II.
This situation is a direct result of the fact that Mr. Johnson last year
ignored Republican demands that he cut domestic spending and spurned the advice of
eminent economists who said that was the time to raise income taxes and cool off an
overheated economy.
Lyndon Johnson is a master politician, but his politics gets in the way of the
good of the Nation.
The people have suffered--the worker, the farmer.
Workers have found inflation biting into their real spendable earnings despite
sizable wage increases.
Farmers have been caught in a cost-price squeeze that has left them low men on
the totem pole in an era of seeming prosperity.
(MORE)
-4-
There is talk of revolt in the farm states--and this is not surprising.
Overall, farm prices have dropped 7.4 per cent from the 1966 peak reached last August.
The price of oranges has plummeted from $2.76 a box to 76 cents; cattle, from $24 a
hundredweight to $21.60, and so on down the line.
Farmers are bitter because their prices are sagging, their costs are climbing
and a tide of farm products is flooding in from abroad.
It was just about a year ago--in March, 1966--that Secretary of Agriculture
Orville Freeman said he was "delighted" to see farm prices declining. His cup now
runneth over. Parity--the ratio of the prices farmers receive to the prices they pay
for what they need--now stands at 74, the lowest in two years, down 8 points from
last year at this time.
The Democratic Party is tired, dispirited, disorganized, wandering aimlessly
in search of solutions to many of the Nation's problems.
The Democratic Party is divided, deeply split over the issue that has plunged
this country into painful soul-searching--the Vietnam War. Instead of united leader-
ship, the American people find their President and another leader of the Democratic
Party engaged in a bitter feud over Vietnam policy and involved in a shocking power
struggle.
There is no question that an intense struggle for power now is under way in the
Democratic Party. This is a battle that bodes ill for the Nation because it encourages
the enemy to keep on fighting and thus prolongs the war. The American people are the
losers.
Mr. Johnson himself has recognized the tragic situation produced by other
leaders in his own party, Democratic critics of his Vietnam policy.
In comments March 9 to the Democratic National Committee, the President said:
"You can't have 25 secretaries of state and a half-dozen secretaries of defense and
all of them dreaming dreams."
The Democrats now are planning love feast fund-raising dinners at which the
President and Bobby are supposed to kiss and make up. But I'm sure nobody is naive
enough to believe that these dinner meetings will actually heal the breach between
these Democratic leaders.
The Republican Party stands in sharp contrast to the Democrats--a contrast
which I am sure is most welcome to the American people. We are united on Vietnam,
alert to new ideas for solving the problems plaguing America.
The Democrats are still drawing on the theories of the New Dealers, the ideas
born of depression.
FORD
Republicans are surging forward with imaginative new proposals. We are
LIBRARY
:
fashioning a bold program to lay before the American people in the next election--a
program on which a Republican will run for the White House and will be elected.
(MORE)
-5-
Where the Democratic Party piles one federal grant-in-aid program on another
in a pyramid that is collapsing of its own weight, Republicans offer federal tax-
sharing to rebate a fixed percentage of federal income tax revenue to the states and
cities, help them solve their own problems more quickly and with their own priorities,
and thus revitalize state and local government,
Where the Democratic Party relies on government-operated manpower training
programs, Republicans would trigger a large-scale on-the-job training program across
the Nation by giving employers a tax credit to pay part of the training costs and to
match men to jobs. This is the best way to attack structural unemployment and to lick
poverty.
Where the Democratic Party clubs industry over the head in a war against air
and water pollution, Republicans would combine responsible enforcement with the
incentive of a tax credit to win willing compliance and move more swiftly to clean up
the country's air and water.
Where the Democratic Party would spend millions and ultimately billions of
dollars on a Demonstration Cities program, Republicans would enlist industry in a
partnership that would put billions in private capital into the task of clearing and
rebuilding our asphalt jungles and solving urban ills.
Where the Democratic Party robs the low-income American of incentive and costs
the taxpayer millions and ultimately billions of dollars with a rent subsidy program,
Republicans offer a plan to promote home ownership by slum dwellers and give them a
sense of pride.
Where the Democratic Party runs an anti-poverty program riddled with politics
and waste and uses anti-poverty funds to train pickets, Republicans would revamp the
program, cut out the waste, turn most of it over to old-line federal agencies that
know how to handle it and remove it from the influence of big city politics.
The Republican candidate in 1968 will have a record to run on--positive GOP
programs that will give New Direction to our Nation.
The American people are crying out for new leadership, a lean, efficient
federal government, answers for the painful problems that perplex them at home and
abroad, a new morality to shield them from the corrosive atmosphere of this era.
The Republican Party can provide the leadership the Nation so sorely needs.
You--all of you here--can be a part of that effort, a movement that will lead
us toward a Good Society where every American will live in peace and freedom with his
fellow man, fulfill his capabilities and receive a proper reward for his endeavors,
A great Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, established a touchstone for
the Good Society when he said: "That men who are industrious and sober and honest in
the pursuit of their own interest should after a while accumulate property and after
that should be allowed to enjoy it in peace is right."
The Republican Party offers itself in service to the American people--that we
may build that Good Society for which all men yearn. Thank you.
# # #