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Lincoln Day Dinner, Venango County Republican Committee, Franklin, PA, February 6, 1971
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The original documents are located in Box D31, folder "Lincoln Day Dinner, Venango
County Republican Committee, Franklin, PA, February 6, 1971" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Distribution: 20 copies to Mr. Ford M Office Copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
REPUBLICAN LEADER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE A LINCOLN DAY DINNER
SPONSORED BY THE VENANGO COUNTY (PA.) REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE
AT FRANKLIN, PENNSYLVANIA
6:30 P.M. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1971
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
I am very happy to be here tonight, and I am happy to be able to tell you
that better times lie just ahead.
We have lived through a mighty rough period in this country in recent
years--a time of assassination and anarchy, of riots and burnings, of snipings
and bombings, of campus disruptions and violent disorders.
Remember the good old days, when youthful protest was just a girl who
insisted on saying "no?"
Instead we have experienced wild demonstrations and attempts to tear our
country apart, violent revolution, mindless revolt.
I have just figured out why they call it the Far Left. That's because it's
so far from being right.
I believe violence in this country has clearly subsided. And I feel certain
this is far more than mere circumstance. This is a direct result of positions
taken by our Republican Administration--refusal to compromise with the forces of
violence and a determination to deal firmly with those who seek change through
destructive means.
We have, in a word, a responsible administration. During the last
administration, nobody wanted to be responsible for anything.
I don't intend to be particularly partisan tonight, but I'll just bet that
if President Nixon ends the Vietnam War, reduces crime and brings inflation under
control the Democrats will say it's a trick to make them look bad.
We do have many problems that deeply concern us, and inflation is one of
them. Things are quiet in Washington right now, but inflation hasn't slowed up my
wife. She just keeps charging ahead.
It is quiet along the Potomac, but a fever is burning beneath the surface
of the political scene. It is the fever of change.
More than a century ago the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln,
told a nation torn in two by war:
(more)
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D31 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The
occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. As our
case is new, so we must think and act anew."
On Jan. 22 last, President Richard M. Nixon addressed the Congress and the
American people, declaring:
"In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long
nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply, we have
gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is
ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. The people of this nation are
eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they
are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that
will set free again the real greatness of this nation--the genius of the American
people."
Will the Democratic-controlled Congress meet that challenge? Will the
Congress ride the winds of change with the Republican Party? Or will the masters
of political power on Capitol Hill seek to stifle change and push it back into the
bottle?
The times change, and political parties and governments must change with
them.
I find that change has swept through the Republican Party, ripping away the
cobwebs of reaction and the resistance to reform.
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party
would be championing the first major overhaul of the welfare system in four decades?
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party
would be advocating a massive sharing of Federal income tax revenue with the cities
and states?
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party
would be proposing to reshape the entire Federal Government by cutting the number
of Federal cabinet departments from 11 to seven?
The Republican Party has become the party of daring and imagination--the
party of boldness and reform-the party of the future-the party of hope for
America.
The Republican Party is alive with new ideas and programs for meeting the
needs of the people, for restoring our environment, for bringing the best possible
health care to the people, for improving the quality of life in America.
(more)
-3-
The Democratic Party has become the party of the status quo, merely seeking
to graft new growth onto old programs. The New Deal and the Fair Deal have become
the American people's ordeal.
Despite Democratic Party roadblocks to change, the Republican Party has
brought great progress to the American people in the past two years.
Despite the fact that Richard Nixon was the first President since Zachary
Taylor to enter office with Congress firmly in control of the opposition party, the
wheels of progress have been steadily turning and the record is there to prove it.
It was a Republican Administration that reversed the course of the war in
Vietnam and wound it down.
It was a Republican Administration that developed a new strategy for peace
in the world centered on the Nixon Doctrine of helping those nations which help
themselves.
It was a Republican Administration that brought about ratification of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It was a Republican Administration that entered into serious negotiations
with the Soviet Union on the limitation of strategic arms.
It was a Republican Administration that renounced biological weapons and
the first use of chemical warfare.
It was a Republican Administration that achieved a draft treaty prohibiting
the emplacement of nuclear weapons in the seabed.
It was a Republican Administration that reordered our national priorities
to devote a greater part of the Federal budget to human needs than to defense
spending.
It was a Republican Administration that pushed through major reforms in the
postal system, in the Executive Office of the President, and in many other areas
of the Federal bureaucracy.
It was a Republican Administration that achieved the most significant
improvements in the history of unemployment insurance.
It was a Republican Administration that acted to protect the environment by
creating a new Council on Environmental Quality and a new Environmental Protection
Agency.
It was a Republican Administration that brought about more school
desegregation in two years than in the entire period between 1954 and 1969.
It was a Republican Administration that won passage of legislation to
(more)
-4-
improve on-the-job safety for America's working men and women.
And it was a Republican Administration that got a reluctant Democratic
Congress to adopt legislation for a stepped-up fight against organized crime and
the drug menace.
Let's be honest about it. A Democratic Congress is not anxious to give a
Republican President anything that will make him and his party look good.
When a Republican President's proposals prevail with a Democratic Congress
it is because popular support for the legislation is so apparent it cannot be
ignored. The Democrats then try to steal the credit for the legislation--as they
did with tax reform in 1969--and seek to amend the legislation beyond all
recognition.
In spite of such tactics, Republicans can point to a formidable list of
accomplishments in the last Congress--among them postal reform, draft reform, the
Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Unemployment Compensation Amendments of
1970, the Organized Crime Control Act, and the Comprehensive Drug Control Act.
Now we look to the future. We look for more progress--progress toward
peace, and progress toward prosperity in peacetime.
In his State of the Union Message of Jan. 22 last, the President laid a
blueprint for progress before the Congress and the Nation.
He set forth six great goals--prosperity in peacetime, welfare reform,
the restoration of our environment, the best possible health care for all Americans,
putting the money where our problems are by sharing Federal revenue with the
cities and states, and complete reform of the Federal Government through an overhaul
of cabinet departments.
With one stroke, the President has challenged the Nation to scrap what has
failed and to turn instead toward meeting the needs of tomorrow in tomorrow's terms.
He has taken dramatic new initiatives on social legislation and on the
structure of government--and the response among the people makes it clear he has
captured the imagination of the nation.
What the President is asking for is a chance to prove that government can
work.
He is seeking to do this by moving to replace the present scandalous welfare
system, to establish work incentives and work requirements, to aid the working as
well as the non-working poor with an income floor, to bolster state and local
governments, to overhaul job training and job placement programs, to share Federal
(more)
GERALD
LIBRARY
-5-
income tax revenue with states and local communities.
Republicans want to reform government itself--so that instead of sliding
further into musclebound ineffectiveness it at last can deliver the services it
promises and bridge the gap between promise and performance.
As the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, said: "The legitimate
object of government is to do for people what needs to be done, but which they
cannot by individual effort do at all or do so well for themselves."
Through Federal revenue sharing, by putting the money where the problems
are, we will be returning government to the people. And, as Lincoln so well
expressed it: "We hold to the true Republican position. In leaving the people's
business in their hands, we cannot be wrong."
There will be great opposition to revenue sharing and to overhaul of the
Federal departments. We all know that old Federal programs never die; they don't
even fade away. Their supporters are legion, and lobbyists are a determined breed.
But the American people will be heard--and they should be heard, at all
levels of government. What man has made, man can change. And we must have the
courage to change what should be changed.
We must tear away the tangle of red tape. We must find our way out of the
bureaucratic maze. We must return government to the people.
The problems of Pennsylvania are not the same as those of Michigan. The
problems of Philadelphia are not identical with those of Grand Rapids. That is
why we need Federal revenue sharing.
Money is power. Moving money back to the states and cities means a flow
of power back to the people. This is where the power belongs.
If Republicans succeed in returning power to the people, the people will
turn to the Republican Party.
The people will turn to Republicanism because it is the Republican Party
which seeks to make the people--young, middle-aged and old--a part of participatory
democracy. It is the Republican Party which seeks to involve the people in building
through better government a better life for all of us on this planet.
That is why I say the party of Lincoln is on the threshold of once again
becoming the majority party in this nation.
Every individual wants to count for something. Under the Republican
philosophy of government, he can.
We must think in terms of people, not just programs. We must replace
computers with compassion.
(more)
-6-
Lincoln said: "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people
who inhabit it."
Let's make this country belong to the people again. Let's give the
individual the feeling of determining his own destiny, of being able to make things
happen.
This is the image of the new Republicanism. This is the shape of things to
come. This is how the new Republican Party will build a new America.
###
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
REPUBLICAN LEADER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE A LINCOLN DAY DINNER
SPONSORED BY THE VENANGO COUNTY (PA.) REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE
AT FRANKLIN, PENNSYLVANIA
6:30 P.M. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1971
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
I am very happy to be here tonight, and I am happy to be able to tell you
that better times lie just ahead.
We have lived through a mighty rough period in this country in recent
years--a time of assassination and anarchy, of riots and burnings, of snipings
and bombings, of campus disruptions and violent disorders.
Remember the good old days, when youthful protest was just a girl who
insisted on saying "no?"
Instead we have experienced wild demonstrations and attempts to tear our
country apart, violent revolution, mindless revolt.
I have just figured out why they call it the Far Left. That's because it's
so far from being right.
I believe violence in this country has clearly subsided. And I feel certain
this is far more than mere circumstance. This is a direct result of positions
taken by our Republican Administration--refusal to compromise with the forces of
violence and a determination to deal firmly with those who seek change through
destructive means.
We have, in a word, a responsible administration. During the last
administration, nobody wanted to be responsible for anything.
I don't intend to be particularly partisan tonight, but I'll just bet that
if President Nixon ends the Vietnam War, reduces crime and brings inflation under
control the Democrats will say it's a trick to make them look bad.
We do have many problems that deeply concern us, and inflation is one of
them. Things are quiet in Washington right now, but inflation hasn't slowed up my
wife. She just keeps charging ahead.
It is quiet along the Potomac, but a fever is burning beneath the surface
of the political scene. It is the fever of change.
More than a century ago the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln,
told a nation torn in two by war:
(more)
-2-
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The
occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. As our
case is new, so we must think and act anew."
On Jan. 22 last, President Richard M. Nixon addressed the Congress and the
American people, declaring:
"In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long
nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply, we have
gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is
ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. The people of this nation are
eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they
are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that
will set free again the real greatness of this nation-the genius of the American
people. 11
Will the Democratic-controlled Congress meet that challenge? Will the
Congress ride the winds of change with the Republican Party? Or will the masters
of political power on Capitol Hill seek to stifle change and push it back into the
bottle?
The times change, and political parties and governments must change with
them.
I find that change has swept through the Republican Party, ripping away the
cobwebs of reaction and the resistance to reform.
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party
would be championing the first major overhaul of the welfare system in four decades?
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party
would be advocating a massive sharing of Federal income tax revenue with the cities
and states?
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party
would be proposing to reshape the entire Federal Government by cutting the number
of Federal cabinet departments from 11 to seven?
The Republican Party has become the party of daring and imagination--the
party of boldness and reform--the party of the future the party of hope for
America.
The Republican Party is alive with new ideas and programs for meeting the
needs of the people, for restoring our environment, for bringing the best possible
health care to the people, for improving the quality of life in America.
(more)
-3-
The Democratic Party has become the party of the status quo, merely seeking
to graft new growth onto old programs. The New Deal and the Fair Deal have become
the American people's ordeal.
Despite Democratic Party roadblocks to change, the Republican Party has
brought great progress to the American people in the past two years.
Despite the fact that Richard Nixon was the first President since Zachary
Taylor to enter office with Congress firmly in control of the opposition party, the
wheels of progress have been steadily turning and the record is there to prove it.
It was a Republican Administration that reversed the course of the war in
Vietnam and wound it down.
It was a Republican Administration that developed a new strategy for peace
in the world centered on the Nixon Doctrine of helping those nations which help
themselves.
It was a Republican Administration that brought about ratification of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It was a Republican Administration that entered into serious negotiations
with the Soviet Union on the limitation of strategic arms.
It was a Republican Administration that renounced biological weapons and
the first use of chemical warfare.
It was a Republican Administration that achieved a draft treaty prohibiting
the emplacement of nuclear weapons in the seabed.
It was a Republican Administration that reordered our national priorities
to devote a greater part of the Federal budget to human needs than to defense
spending.
It was a Republican Administration that pushed through major reforms in the
postal system, in the Executive Office of the President, and in many other areas
of the Federal bureaucracy.
It was a Republican Administration that achieved the most significant
improvements in the history of unemployment insurance.
It was a Republican Administration that acted to protect the environment by
creating a new Council on Environmental Quality and a new Environmental Protection
Agency.
It was a Republican Administration that brought about more school
desegregation in two years than in the entire period between 1954 and 1969.
It was a Republican Administration that won passage of legislation to
(more)
-4-
improve on-the-job safety for America's working men and women.
And it was a Republican Administration that got a reluctant Democratic
Congress to adopt legislation for a stepped-up fight against organized crime and
the drug menace.
Let's be honest about it. A Democratic Congress is not anxious to give a
Republican President anything that will make him and his party look good.
When a Republican President's proposals prevail with a Democratic Congress
it is because popular support for the legislation is so apparent it cannot be
ignored. The Democrats then try to steal the credit for the legislation--as they
did with tax reform in 1969--and seek to amend the legislation beyond all
recognition.
In spite of such tactics, Republicans can point to a formidable list of
accomplishments in the last Congress--among them postal reform, draft reform, the
Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Unemployment Compensation Amendments of
1970, the Organized Crime Control Act, and the Comprehensive Drug Control Act.
Now we look to the future. We look for more progress--progress toward
peace, and progress toward prosperity in peacetime.
In his State of the Union Message of Jan. 22 last, the President laid a
blueprint for progress before the Congress and the Nation.
He set forth six great goals--prosperity in peacetime, welfare reform,
the restoration of our environment, the best possible health care for all Americans,
putting the money where our problems are by sharing Federal revenue with the
cities and states, and complete reform of the Federal Government through an overhaul
of cabinet departments.
With one stroke, the President has challenged the Nation to scrap what has
failed and to turn instead toward meeting the needs of tomorrow in tomorrow's terms.
He has taken dramatic new initiatives on social legislation and on the
structure of government--and the response among the people makes it clear he has
captured the imagination of the nation.
What the President is asking for is a chance to prove that government can
work.
He is seeking to do this by moving to replace the present scandalous welfare
system, to establish work incentives and work requirements, to aid the working as
well as the non-working poor with an income floor, to bolster state and local
governments, to overhaul job training and job placement programs, to share Federal
(more)
-5-
income tax revenue with states and local communities.
Republicans want to reform government itself--so that instead of sliding
further into musclebound ineffectiveness it at last can deliver the services it
promises and bridge the gap between promise and performance.
As the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, said: "The legitimate
object of government is to do for people what needs to be done, but which they
cannot by individual effort do at all or do so well for themselves."
Through Federal revenue sharing, by putting the money where the problems
are, we will be returning government to the people. And, as Lincoln so well
expressed it: "We hold to the true Republican position. In leaving the people's
business in their hands, we cannot be wrong."
There will be great opposition to revenue sharing and to overhaul of the
Federal departments. We all know that old Federal programs never die; they don't
even fade away. Their supporters are legion, and lobbyists are a determined breed.
But the American people will be heard--and they should be heard, at all
levels of government. What man has made, man can change. And we must have the
courage to change what should be changed.
We must tear away the tangle of red tape. We must find our way out of the
bureaucratic maze. We must return government to the people.
The problems of Pennsylvania are not the same as those of Michigan. The
problems of Philadelphia are not identical with those of Grand Rapids. That is
why we need Federal revenue sharing.
Money is power. Moving money back to the states and cities means a flow
of power back to the people. This is where the power belongs.
If Republicans succeed in returning power to the people, the people will
turn to the Republican Party.
The people will turn to Republicanism because it is the Republican Party
which seeks to make the people--young, middle-aged and old--a part of participatory
democracy. It is the Republican Party which seeks to involve the people in building
through better government a better life for all of us on this planet.
That is why I say the party of Lincoln is on the threshold of once again
becoming the majority party in this nation.
Every individual wants to count for something. Under the Republican
philosophy of government, he can.
We must think in terms of people, not just programs. We must replace
computers with compassion.
(more)
-6-
Lincoln said: "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people
who inhabit it."
Let's make this country belong to the people again. Let's give the
individual the feeling of determining his own destiny, of being able to make things
happen.
This is the image of the new Republicanism. This is the shape of things to
come. This is how the new Republican Party will build a new America.
###
REPUBLICAN
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMITTEE
SPEECH OF THE WEEK
From the
PUBLIC RELATIONS DIVISION
312 CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL
SUBJECT: The New Republicanism
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20003
Lincoln 4-3010
Ext. 12
Remarks of Rep. Gerald R. Ford, House GOP Leader
Before Lincoln Day Dinner of the Venango County Republican Committee
Franklin, Pa., Feb. 6, 1971
I AM VERY HAPPY to be here tonight and I am happy to be able to tell you that
better times lie just ahead.
We have lived through a mighty rough period in this country in recent years -- a
time of assassination and anarchy, of riots and burnings, of snipings and bombings, of
campus disruptions and violent disorders.
Remember the good old days, when youthful protest was just a girl who insisted on
saying "no"?
Instead, we have experienced wild demonstrations and attempts to tear our country
apart, violent revolution, mindless revolt.
I have just figured out why they call it the For Loft. That's because it's so far from
being right.
I believe violence in the country has clearly subsided. And I feel certain this is
far more than mere circumstances. This is a direct result of positions taken by our Republican
Administration refusal to compromise with the forces of violence and a determination to
deal firmly with those who seek change through destructive means.
We have, in a word, a responsible administration. During the last administration,
nobody wanted to be responsible for anything.
I DON'T INTEND to be particularly partisan tonight, but I'll just bet that if Presi-
dent Nixon ends the Vietnam War, reduces crime and brings inflation under control the
Democrats will say it's a trick to make them look bad.
We do have many problems that deeply concern us, and inflation is one of them.
Things are quiet in Washington now, but inflation hasn't slowed up my wife. She just
keeps charging ahead.
It is quiet along the Potomac, but a fever is burning beneath the surface of the political
scene. It is the fever of change.
More than a century ago, the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, told
a nation torn in two by war:
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion
is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we
must think and act anew."
On January 22 last, President Nixon addressed the Congress and the American
people declaring:
"In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare
of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply, we have gone through a
long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must let
our spirits soar again. The people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for new
greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for
US here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this nation the
ADDREIT
genius of the American people."
-more-
-2-
WILL THE Democratic-controlled Congress meet that challenge? Will the Congress
ride the winds of change with the Republican Party? Or will the masters of political power
on Capitol Hill seek to stifle change and push it back into the bottle?
The times change -- and political parties and governments must change with them.
I find that change has swept through the Republican Party, ripping away the cobwebs of
reaction and the resistance to reform.
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party would
be championing the first major overhaul of the welfare system in four decades?
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican Party would
be advocating a massive sharing of Federal income tax revenue with the cities and states?
Who would have thought just a few short years ago that the Republican party would
be proposing to reshape the entire Federal Government by cutting the number of Federal
Cabinet departments from 12 to eight?
The Republican Party has become the party of daring and imagination -- the party
of boldness and reform -- the party of the future -- the party of hope for America.
The Republican Party is alive with new ideas and programs for meeting the needs
of the people, for restoring our environment, for bringing the best possible health care
to the people, for improving the quality of life in America.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY has become the party of the status quo, seeking merely
to graft new growth onto old programs. The New Deal and the Fair Deal have have become
the American people's ordeal.
Despite Democratic Party roadblocks to change, the Republican Party has brought
great progress to the American people in the past two years.
Despite the fact that Richard Nixon was the first President since Zachary Taylor to
enter office with Congress firmly in control of the opposition party, the wheels of progress
have been steadily turning and the record is there to prove it.
It was a Republican Administration that reversed the course of the war in Vietnam
and wound It down.
It was a Republican Administration that developed a new strategy for peace in the
world centered on the Nixon Doctrine of helping those nations which help themselves.
It was a Republican Administration that brought about ratification of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It was a Republican Administration that entered into serious negotiations with the
Soviet Union on the Imitations of strategic arms.
It was a Republican Administration that renounced biological weapons and the first
use of chemical warfare.
It was a Republican Administration that achieved a draft treaty prohibiting the
emplacement of nuclear weapons in the seabed.
It was a Republican Administration that reordered our national priorities to devote
a greater part of the Federal budget to human needs than to defense spending.
It was a Republican Administration that pushed through major reforms in the postal
system, in the Executive Office of the President, and in many other areas of the Federal
bureaucracy.
It was a Republican Administration that achieved the most significant improvements
in the history of unemployment insurance.
It was a Republican Administration that acted to protect the environment by creating
a new Council on Environmental Quality and a new Environmental Protection Agency.
-more-
-3-
It was a Republican Administration that brought about more school desegregation
in two years than in the entire period between 1954 and 1969.
It was a Republican Administration that won passage of legislation to improve on-the-
job safety for America's working men and women.
And it was a Republican Administration that got a reluctant Democratic Congress
to adopt legislation for a stepped-up fight against organized crime and the drug menace.
LET'S BE HONEST about it. A Democratic Congress is not anxious to give a
Republican President anything that will make him and his party look good.
When a Republican President's proposals prevail with a Democratic Congress, it is
because popular support for the legislation is so apparent it cannot be ignored. The
Democrats then try to steal the credit for the legislation -- as they did with tax reform in
1969 -- and seek to amend the legislation beyond all recognition.
In spite of such tactics, Republicans can point to a formidable list of accomplishments
in the last Congress -- among them postal reform, draft reform, the Occupational Health
and Safety Act, the Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 1970, the Organized Crime
Control Act, and the Comprehensive Drug Control Act.
Now we look to the future. We look for more progress -- progress toward peace,
and progress toward prosperity in peacetime.
In his State of the Union Message of January 22 last, the President laid a blueprint
for progress before the Congress and the Nation.
He set forth six great goals -- prosperity in peacetime, welfare reform, the restoration
of our environment, the best possible health care for all Americans, putting the money where
our problems are -- by sharing Federal revenue with the cities and states -- and complete
reform of the Federal Government through an overhaul of Cabinet departments.
With one stroke, the President has challanged the Nation to scrap what has failed
and to turn instead toward meeting the needs of tomorrow in tomorrow's terms.
HE HAS TAKEN dramatic new initiatives on social legislation and on the structure
of government and the response among the people makes it clear he has captured the
imagination of the nation.
What the President is asking for is a chance to prove that government can work.
He is seeking to do this by moving to replace the present scandalous welfare system,
to establish work incentives and work requirements, to aid the working as well as the non-
working poor with an income floor, to bolster state and local governments, to overhaul job
training and job placement programs, to share Federal income tax revenue.. with states and
local communities.
Republicans want to reform government itself so that instead of sliding further
into musclebound ineffectiveness it at last can deliver the services it promises and bridge
the gap between promise and performance.
As the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, said: "The legitimate object
of government is to do for people what needs to be done, but which they cannot by individual
effort do at all or do so well for themselves."
Through Federal revenue sharing, by putting the money where the problems are, we
will be returning government to the people. And, as Lincoln so well expressed it: "We
hold to the true Republican position. In leaving the people's business in their hands, we
cannot be wrong."
THERE WILL be great opposition to revenue sharing and to overhaul of the Federal
departments. We all know that old Federal programs never die; they don't even fade away.
Their supporters are legion, and lobbyists are a determined breed.
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But the American people will be heard -- and they should be heard, at all levels
of government. What man has made, man can change. And we must have the courage to
change what should be changed.
We must tear away the tangle of red tape. We must find our way out of the bureau-
cratic maze. We must return government to the people.
The problems of one State are not the same as those of another. The problems of
Philadelphia are not identical with those of Grand Rapids. That is why we need Federal
revenue sharing.
Money is power. Moving money back to the States and cities means a flow of power
back to the people. This is where the power belongs.
If Republicans succeed in returning power to the people, the people will turn to
the Republican Party. The people will turn to Republicanism because it is the Republican
Party which seeks to make the people -- young, middle-aged and old -- a part of participatory
democracy. It is the Republican which seeks to involve the people in building through
better government a better life for all of US on this planet.
That is why I say the party of Lincoln is on the threshold of once again becoming the
majority party in this nation. Every individual wants to count for something. Under the
Republican philosophy of government, he can. We must think in terms of people -- not just
programs. We must replace computers with compassion.
Lincoln said: "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
it. 11
Let's make this country belong to the people again. Let's give the individual the
feeling of determining his own destiny, of being able to make things happen.
This is the image of the new Republicanism. This is the shape of things to come.
This is how the new Republican Party will build a new America.
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