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
7342551
label
Remarks of the President at Williams Park [Ford Speech or Statement]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
7342551
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Remarks of the President at Williams Park [Ford Speech or Statement]
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
7342551
levelOfDescription
item
productionDates
day
14
logicalDate
1976-02-14
month
2
year
1976
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
38fc79f6445ab95e
ocrText
Digitized from Box 21 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 14, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(St. Petersburg, Florida)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT
WILLIAMS PARK
11:00 A.M. EST
Thank you very, very much, Bill Young, a very
dear friend of mine. I am most grateful for that really
warm welcome and very, very kind words.
Congressman Lou Frey, Congressman Skip Bafalis,
Mayor Schuh, Senator Ware, honored guests, ladies and
gentlemen:
Happy Valentine.
I hope you have many, many,
many more happy Valentines.
In 1952 Winston Churchill, then a mere 77 years
old, had been called into the service of a country for a
second term as Prime Minister of Great Britain. Smiling
implshly, he told the British House of Commons, and I
quote, "Everycne has his day, and some days last longer
than others."
I am happy to be here today with so many people who
are enjoying a long and sunny day in the Sunshine City of
St. Petersburg in the Sunshine State of Florida.
The careers of Winston Churchill and others who
rose to prominence in their later years reminds us all, if
we need to be reminded, that advancing years need not mean
a retreat from an active,, eventful and enjoyable life, and
all of you represent the best of that.
Nor should advancing years be the certain bearer
of poor health, meager income or social isolation. The
ancient philosophers taught us that the measure of civili-
zation's advancement can be found in the treatment of its
elderly.
For more than 40 years, through the vehicle of
Social Security and other programs, America has made a firm
commitment of support for older citizens of our society.
MORE
Page 2
I pledge to you this morning that I will continue
to uphold that commitment. In recent years, there has been
dramatic progress in our efforts to meet the continuing
needs of America's older generation. But, I want to do
better, and with your help and with the help of the Congress,
I will, and I am sure we will.
As President, I intend to do everything in my
power to help our Nation demonstrate its deep concern for
the dignity and the well being of our older generations.
For those who need our help we have already a number of
Federal programs providing assistance in a variety of
ways.
The Social Security program, the largest of its
kind in this world, will pay almost $83 billion to more than
32 million Americans in fiscal year 1977. That is more than
a $10 billion increase over the current year.
Here in Florida the Social Security. Trust Fund
will pay an estimated $4 billion 400 million to participants
in the next fiscal year. In my budget for fiscal year 1977,
I am recommending that the full cost of living increase in
Social Security benefits be paid during the coming year.
Now, let me assure you of one thing very emphatically.
My Administration fully intends to preserve the integrity
and the solvency of the Social Security system for your
benefit and that of all working Americans, men and women,
now as well as in the future.
I think that is good news, but now let's have some
bad news.
This year it is projected that the Social Security
Trust Fund will run a deficit of about $3 billion. Next
year, unless my reforms are adopted, we will run a deficit
of $3.5 billion. If this trend continues, there will be no
Social Security for old or young.
As long as I am President, we are going to keep
Social Security protection and every other retirement program
strong, sound and certain, and we will do it.
Yesterday, the Department of Labor announced that
wholesale prices were unchanged in January. In fact, whole-
sale prices have shown no appreciable change since October
of last year.
This is more good news in our fight against
inflation, and we are going to keep the pressure on.
MORE
Page 3
In addition to the Social Security program, we
are continuing our strong commitment to benefit programs
for more than three million railroad, military and Federal
Government employees. Of course, that means we will do the
same job for the veterans who live here and live elsewhere
in 49 other States.
After many, many years of sacrifice and hard
work, you have contributed to America. You have earned
the respect, and you have earned more than the prospect
of poverty in your retirement years.
In my budget, the Supplemental Security Income
program, or SSI, will pay almost $6 billion in Federal
benefits to more than five million disabled and disadvantaged
older Americans in 1977, 170,000 of them right here in
Florida.
Let's be frank. There have been some problems
with this program, as you probably know, because the SSI
replaced a great number of Federal assisted State programs
and inevitably there was some confusion in the process.
We have already begun to take extensive steps
to correct these problems, and we will make sure that if any
American qualifies for these benefits, he or she will get
them, period.
Those who don't qualify won't be taking money
that you should have. In the field of health care, the
Federal Medicare program in 1976 will provide more than $17
billion for the health care of 24 million older and dis-
abled Americans, about 1 million 400 thousand right here
in the great State of Florida.
But, there are flaws in this program, which
actually help raise the cost of your medical care and which
fail to protect you adequately against the economic burdens
of prolonged illness.
I have proposed major improvements in the
Medicare program to make it serve you better. One of the
most important improvements is the creation of a system of
health insurance that would pay all but a very small
fraction of the catastrophic cost of complex or extended
care and treatment.
I don't have to tell you that medical treatment
is very, very expensive today. Hospital costs have risen
by more than 200 percent since 1965, to an average cost
of $128 per day. If you have to stay in a hospital or a
nursing home or under doctor's care for a very, very long
time, it puts an incredible strain on your lifetime savings
and on your peace of mind, and that strain is felt by
your loved ones as well.
MORE
Page 4
All of us know of cases in which someone in the
family or a close friend or a member of your church has
been stricken with an illness that lingers on and on and
on. We know of the pain and of the heartache associated
with a prolonged illness.
We know that being sick and bedridden for a long,
long time is bad enough without having a person's income
and life savings dwindle away as the medical bills keep
piling up.
This must not continue, and it won't, with my
program.
Let me put it this way. There is no reason
that older Americans should have to go broke just to
get well or stay well in the United States of America.
Under my proposal the individuals' contribution would go
up slightly, but consider what the increase would
provide.
Nobody eligible for Medicare would have to pay
more than $500 a year for hospital or nursing home care,
and this does not mean that you pay the first $500 of
your total cost. You would pay only 10 percent of the
total cost, or $500, whichever is less, and the maximum
annual cost to you for covered doctor's services would be
$250, or 20 percent, whichever is less.
Medicare would pay the rest, whether it costs
$1,000 or $10,000 or $50,000. It is a good program, and
we are going to make it.
If the Congress passes my program, the ruinous
economic burden of catastrophic illness is ,one thing you
will never have to worry about again. Another of my programs
would consolidate 16 Federal health programs, including
Medicare, into a single $10 billion block grant program to
the States.
If we can consolidate these programs, we can
make them more humane and more effective. We can improve
the services that they provide to you and millions like
you, and we can get those services to more people who really,
really need them.
Programs of this kind, despite some abuses, do
a tremendous amount of good. For some of our neighbors,
they provide the means for life itself. They provide the
food, the services, the health care, without which
some peoplewould not be able to enjoy this beautiful sun-
shine today in St. Petersburg and in Florida.
MORE
Page 5
It is all too easy to say that the Federal
Government is too big, that this program and that program
ought to be cut out of the Federal budget, tossed back
to the States to cope with, if their taxpayers will permit
it.
It is not that simple, and you know it and I
know it.
I am concerned, as you are, about the growth of
the Federal budget. I have been fighting to hold down the
Federal budget in a responsible way for 27 years, 25-plus
years in the Congress, a few months as Vice President,
and approximately 18 months as your President.
You all know how hard I have been trying for the
last 18 months to get control of the inflation which has
done so much economic damage to all Americans. During
1974, when I became President, inflation was ranging at
an annual rate of more than 12 percent, eating away at
everybody's buying power but absolutely devouring the liveli-
hood of people on fixed incomes.
I knew that something had to be done to bring
that situation under control. I knew that deficit spending
by the Federal Government was a major contributor to
inflation and that slowing the growth of Federal spending
was essential to solving the problem.
I have used my Constitutional power, that of
veto, 46 times since becoming President, trying to hold
down the level of Federal spending, trying to break the
back of inflation. To hold down the cost of living, we
must hold down the cost of Government. It is just that
simple.
We made some very encouraging progress with these
vetoes, saving the taxpayers about $10 billion. The
inflation rate that was 12 percent has been cut nearly in
half.
That is not good enough. That is progress,
real progress, that helps especially people on fixed
incomes more than anybody else in our society.
Just yesterday the Department of Labor announced
the Wholesale prices stayed level in January. In fact,
wholesale prices have shown no appreciable change since
October.
MORE
Page 6
I want to drive that point home. This is more
good news in our fight against inflation, and we are going
to keep the pressure on, and we are going to be successful.
You probably heard that we had some other good
economic news just about a week ago. Employment in
January took its sharpest drop in 16 years. Ninety-six
percent of all jobs lost during the depression have been
recovered.
A.
America is getting back to work, and we are going
to make better and better and better progress in reducing
unemployment. But, there is so much more that we have
to do. I want all Americans, young or old, black or white,
rich or poor, to live in dignity and security and in peace.
If we can continue making the progress America
has made in the past, we will see that wonderful goal
achieved. Too often people forget just how far and how fast
we have come as a Nation. We have our problems, and we
are not afraid to admit them.
Honesty in this situation is essential, but I
think it is time people stop running down America.
I think it is time we remember how richly blessed
this Nation is. You, or many of you, in this audience have
seen much of America's phenomenal progress with your own
eyes. In the space of your lifetime, man has taken
himself from the horse and buggy and explored the far
reaches of space.
Diseases which were once crippling and killing
millions of Americans have now been conquered. America's
population has more than doubled since 1910. Life expectancy,
which in 1910 was only 50 years, is today more than 7I
years.
The Gross National Product, the index of our total
production, is now seven times greater than it was in 1910.
To put it another way, the strength and growth of the American
economy provides the average American living today with
three and one-half times more in goods and services than
Americans enjoyed in 1910.
No other generation of Americans has achieved such
growth, and all of us thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
In 1910, some 156,000 young people graduated
from America's high schools. Last year's college graduates
totaled 944,000. That is another indication of the
progress we are making in this great country.
MORE
Page 7
In 1910 there was no regularly scheduled radio
broadcasting in the United States. Nobody had ever heard
of television -- maybe a few very outstanding scientists.
Today, we are living in an age of instant and global
communications. These examples -- and there are many, many,
many more -- serve to remind us of how much has changed,
of how much progress there has been in health, wealth,
education, communication, law, and in every other aspect of
life in our great country.
The fact is that you, your generation, has been
the greatest pioneer of progress and change in the entire
history of the human race.
But, some things thankfully have not changed at
all. We are still a people in America with love of freedom,
and after 200 years that love is undiminished. We are
still a Nation dedicated to progress and peace in the world,
We are still a Nation of compassion. We are still, as
Lincoln called us a century ago, "The last, best hope of
earth."
The United States is a great country, the greatest
in the world. You helped to make it that ..ay, and this
Nation will never, never, never forget your contribution,
past, present or future.
We will never forget the lesson which President
Eisenhower taught us from the wisdom of his years. "America
is not good because it is great" -- the President said --
"America is great because it is good.
Thank you very, very much.
END
(AT 11:20 A.M. EST)