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7344387
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Remarks of the President at Lima Mall [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7344387
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document
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Remarks of the President at Lima Mall [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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1976-06-07
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1976
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Digitized from Box 27 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
492
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 7, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Lima, Ohio)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT
LIMA MALL
5:27 P.M. EDT
Kent, Governor Jim Rhodes, Senator Bob Taft,
Congressman Tenny Guyer, Congressman Bud Brown, distinguished
guests, all you wonderful people from Lima:
I love you. Thank you for coming out. I want
to thank these wonderful bands and may I congratulate the
Elida High School baseball team.
I could tell you a lot of good things about Bob
Taft and Tenny Guyer, but one thing you are very, very
interested in -- those two men have worked hard and they
have given more and more and more of their time to get
that tank plant here in Lima, and I want to congratulate
them.
Let me just speak for a few moments about peace,
prosperity, and trust. When I became President of the United
States 22 months ago, in August of 1974, this country was
in a serious situation. The American people, for reasons
that we all know, had lost their confidence and trust in the
White House.
One of the first jobs that I had to do was to
restore that confidence, and I decided at that time the only
way that a President could do that was to be open, to be
frank, to be forthright, to be candid. In the last 22 months,
your President has stood for those things. We have had an
open Administration and the net result -- the American people
trust their President and have confidence in the White House.
Twenty-two months ago, we were suffering with
inflation of 12 percent or higher. Your earnings were being
eroded. Your taxes were too high. We were on the brink of
a serious recession, the worst one in 40 years.
But what have we done? We have turned it around.
We have done it the right way. We have reduced inflation
from 12 percent or higher to 3 percent or lower. That is a
75 percent reduction in the rate of inflation. That is a
darn good record.
MORE
Page 2
A year ago, unemployment was going up, employment
was going down. We have turned it around. Right now we
have 87,700,000 people gainfully employed -- the most jobs
in the history of the United States, and that is a darn good
record.
Incidentally, we have added 3,600,000 jobs in the
last 12 months, 300,000 jobs in the last month -- and I am not
satisfied. I won't be satisfied until we get a job for every-
body who wants a job and will look for a job.
Twenty-two months ago, our Federal taxes were too
high. In 1975, we cut Federal taxes, a total of some $23
billion, 75 percent of it going to individuals and 25 percent
of it going to business.
When I submitted the budget for this coming fiscal
year, in January of this year, I decided that Federal spending
was too high and I recommended a 50 percent cut in the growth
of Federal spending, and we are going to do better than that.
And if the irresponsible Members of the Congress -- none of
these people sitting up here -- send me some budget-busting
deficit spending bills, I will veto them again and again
and again.
But, in January of this year, I decided we ought
to have another tax cut. That is the way to give all of you
an opportunity to spend your money instead of having the
bureaucrats in Washington spend it. So, I recommended a
$10 billion tax cut to begin July 1, which would include the
increase of your personal exemptions from $750 per person to
$1,000 per person, so get the Congress to do it.
Now, let's talk about peace. When I became
President we were still at war some 18,000 miles away.
That war has been ended. We have achieved the peace. We
have the military capability. We have the diplomatic skill
to keep the peace, and I can assure you that this Administration,
because we are strong, because we are skillful, because the
American people have the will and the resolution, we are
going to keep the peace in the future, period.
I might remind you, there is not an American
boy fighting on foreign soil and dying today. Thank goodness
for that.
I might add, there isn't a single young man out of
the 2,100,000 who was drafted. They are all volunteers and
nobody getting through high school or college is under
the eye of the draft, and the Ford Administration will keep
it that way in the future.
MORE
Page 3
But let's take just a minute -- that election
tomorrow is a vitally important one. It will probably
decide who is going to be the Republican nominee for the
Presidency.
Let me ask you a question: Do you want a Republican
candidate for the Presidency who can win, or do you want
one who is going to lose? I say, vote for Ford, you have
a candidate who will win.
Let me ask you one other question about that
election tomorrow: We can't have the right kind of Government
in Washington, we can't have the right kind of government
in your great State of Ohio unless we have more Republicans
in the Congress. You want a candidate at the head of the
ticket in the national election for November that can help
Bob Taft get reelected. That is vitally important. That
will help Tenny Guyer, that will help Bud Brown, that will
help us get more candidates elected so the Republican
President can have a working majority to get the job done,
to cut spending, to reduce taxes, to keep the peace, and
to keep the confidence and trust that the American people
demand of their Government in the Nation's capital.
Let me just conclude with this: You know, those
of us who come from Michigan, we love you Buckeyes, we love
Woody Hayes (Laughter) and I love him particularly because
he came out and endorsed me. (Laughter) But let me say this:
You know, you like to beat us up in Michigan. Well, a couple
of weeks ago the voters of Michigan gave me a 65 percent
majority.
FROM THE AUDIENCE: We will do that.
THE PRESIDENT: That is all I want to hear.
Nothing would make me happier than for the State of Ohio,
those Buckeyes, to beat us, the record we set in Michigan
of 65 percent. Do it, and you will have a good President
for the next four years.
Thank you very much.
END (AT 5:40 P.M. EDT)