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Remarks of the President at the Grossmont Shopping Center [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7346420
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Remarks of the President at the Grossmont Shopping Center [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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1976-10-24
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1976
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Digitized from Box 33 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 24, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(La Mesa, California)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT THE
GROSSMONT SHOPPING CENTER
8:17 P.M. PDT
Congressman Bob Wilson, Mayor Pete Wilson,
Congressman Clair Burgener, Mayor Fordem, distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Let me thank this wonderful group of
entertainers, superb performers, celebrities: Peter
Graves, thank you very much; Hugh O'Brien, thank you;
Zsa Zsa, we love you; Lance Alworth, thank you; Rod
McKuen; and those super singers, Serendipity Singers;
and the chicken, I love it. (Laughter)
And then we have four wonderful bands -- the
Helix, Grossmont, Mt. Miguel and El Cajon. Thank you
all very much.
But now I brought with me two super people
who were on a program with me this afternoon, which was
shown all over the State of California. They are known
to all of you. First, is Joe Garagiola; and then one
of the finest Members of Congress that I have ever known,
a tough adversary -- when she was with you, you couldn't
lose -- supporting me, Edith Green of Oregon.
What a treat to be in San Diego and its
wonderful surrounding communities. I love you and thank
you very, very much.
As I said in Kansas City, I won't concede a
single State; I won't concede a single vote. The Ford-
Dole ticket, as I see California today, will win in
California, and thank you very, very much. Let me extend
to all of you a wonderful invitation, a very special
invitation: Come to Washington next January for the
inauguration of Jerry Ford and Bob Dole.
You know where I stand. I stand on your side
for limited Government, for fiscal responsibility, for
rising prosperity, for lower taxes, for military strength,
for peace in the world, and I say with pride, not a single
young American is fighting or dying on any foreign soil
tonight, and we will keep it that way.
MORE
Page 2
After so many years in which America's
defensive needs were shortchanged I proposed the last
two years the two biggest defense budgets in the history
of the United States. I convinced the Congress in 1976
that they should stop slashing, stop cutting, stop gutting
the defense appropriation, and the net result is today,
America today and America in the future will be number
one, and we are going to keep it that way.
But let me add parenthetically, my opponent
in this campaign has promised defense cuts of at least
$5 to $7 billion. What does that mean? That kind of
defense cut would require troop withdrawals from many
strategic outposts around the world. It would delay or
cancel our advance new weapons systems like the B-1 bomber.
It would slow down our ship construction program. It
would do serious damage in some of our other research and
development programs. It might be just closing defense
plants throughout the United States, including some
right here in the great State of California. We aren't
going to let that happen. America must stay number one.
After so many years of runaway inflation, runaway
growth in the Federal budget, I submitted a budget for the
third fiscal year which will cut the rate of growth in
Federal spending by 50 percent. I have held the line
on Government spending with 66 vetoes and saved you, the
hard-pressed American taxpayer, $9 billion, and each
family in this country has been saved $200 by those tough
vetoes, and we are going to have more and more if the next
Congress is as bad as this Congress. Because I said no
on these 66 bills, we will be able to submit a balanced
budget to the American people and to the next Congress in
1978. And we will have another tax reduction, in addition.
My idea of tax reform is tax reduction. I
proposed, for example, raising your personal exemption
from $750 to $1,000. The middle income taxpayer in
this country has been shortchanged, and we are going to
change it in the next Congress.
The other day I was out to a factory talking
to some hard-working people who put in their eight hours
a day, who work hard, pay their taxes, and they asked me
about tax reduction. I said, "How many children do you
have in your family?" He said three. He has five
exemptions. I said that if the tax reduction that I
proposed goes through -- and we are going to get it next
time -- it would mean that you, when you fill out your
income tax return, will be able to take a $1,250 more
tax exemption in your next tax return. That helps the
middle income taxpayer, and that is what we are going
to get.
MORE
Page 3
After so many years of uncontrolled inflation,
I am proud to say that we have cut inflation by 50 percent
in the past two years, and I pledge to you we will do better
in the next four years. After the worst recession in 40
years, we have added four million new jobs in the American
economy, not by creating deadend jobs for those that want
to work, jobs created at the taxpayers' expense, but by
stimulating jobs with a future in the private economy where
five out of those six jobs exist today.
Too many people are out of work, I recognize
that. We are not satisfied with the progress we have
made, but more Americans were on the job in 1976 than
ever before in the history of this great country -- nearly
88 million people -- and that is a tremendous comeback
from where we were just a year and a half ago.
After suffering -- and I say this with sadness --
after suffering a tragic betrayal of public trust two
years ago, America has had its faith restored in the White
House. My Administration has been open, candid, straight-
forward and we will keep it that way for the next four
years.
In every field America is on the move, on the
march. We have made an incredible comeback in the past
two years, and we are not through yet. You can believe
me when I say -- I say it from my heart -- America, this
nation, is sound, this nation is secure, this nation is on
the way to a better quality of life, and this Adminis-
tration has earned the trust of the American people for
the next four years.
My record is one of progress, not platitudes:
performance, not promises. We don't need a Government to
do everything for us or tell us everything we can or
cannot do. As I travel around this great country, I find
we have a great reservoir of talent and industry in
America, and it is not all concentrated, believe me, on the
banks of the Potomac. Don't ever believe that.
Jimmy Carter has indicated -- Jimmy Carter has
told the American people that the United States is not
respected anymore. This week America made a clean sweep
of the Nobel Prizes for economics, chemistry, physics,
medicine and literature. This is the first time in history
that a single country has brought home all of these winners.
That doesn't sound like a second-rate nation to me.
As I stand before this fantastic crowd of
wonderful people from this part of California, I say from
the bottom of my heart I am proud to be an American, I am
proud of all of you and we are proud of America.
MORE
Page 4
We have our problems, but in the past two
years we have come a long, long way. At home and abroad,
we are putting all of our differences aside. We are
putting our old problems behind us and we are healing
the wounds. There is an old saying among many of us,
"You can disagree without being disagreeable," and
America is united. We are healed. We are on our way.
Let's keep going.
As I look back over these troubled two years,
it is a record that I think all of us can share. It is
a record that I am proud of, a record for the people of
California, and concerned citizens throughout America --
Democrats, Independents and Republicans. I think it is
a record you will support and the people in 49 other States
will support November 2.
Give me your mandate and we will reduce the
growth of Government in the next four years. Give me
your mandate and we will insure the integrity of the
Social Security system. We will improve Medicare so that
our older citizens can enjoy the health and the happiness
that they have worked so hard and so reachly earned. There
is no reason that they should have to go broke just to get
well.
Give me your mandate and we will create a tax
structure that is fair to all, that will preserve the
family home, the family business, the family farm, that
will give us business tax incentives to build new plants,
to modernize old ones and to create more jobs.
Give me your mandate and I will lead this
nation on a Dath of peace through strength, and we will
live in peace and freedom in the United States of
America. I have no fear for the future of this country.
For America, the future is a friend, and as we go forward
together, I promise you once more -- as I promised you
before -- to uphold the Constitution, to do what is
right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the
very best that I can for our beloved America. God helping
me, I will not let you down.
Thank you and good night.
END
(AT 8:33 P.M. PDT)