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Remarks of the President at the Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7346525
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Remarks of the President at the Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
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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 30, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Syracuse, New York)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT THE
ONONDAGA COUNTY WAR MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM
9:25 P.M. EDT
Thank you, Bill Walsh and Senator Jack Javits.
I can't express adequately my appreciation to Jack.
Whether I am in California or St. Louis, Missouri or
Syracuse, New York or New York City, Jack Javits is out
there fighting for the principles we believe in. I thank
you from the bottom of my heart, Jack.
It is great to see Bob McEwan. You know, long
before some of you were born, I used to go up skiing
in Lake Placid, and I look forward to going to the Winter
Olympics in Lake Placid as your President in 1980.
I know Bob McEwan will be your Congressman at that time,
too. But Bill Walsh, former great Mayor of this City
of Syracuse, when I was in the House as the Minority
Leader, Bill did a super job. For your benefit, for
the country's benefit, let me say you darn well better
send Bill Walsh back to Congress.
Then I owe a special debt of gratitude to
Dick Rosenbaum. He did a tremendous job and significantly
helped me have the opportunity of representing our party
in this great campaign. I thank you very much, Dick.
I know Joe Garagiola was introduced, but Joe has
been campaigning with me for the last ten days. I will
tell you, his enthusiasm, his integrity, his support,
his friendship I will never forget. Joe, in front of
these great people from Syracuse and upper New York, I
want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
You know we are in the last quarter or we are in
the ninth inning. Thatiswhen you win. That is when Dolph
Schayes used to win for you here in Syracuse, that is when
Joe Garagiola pulled it through, and that is when Jerry
Ford is going to win this election on November 2.
I said in Kansas City that I wouldn't concede
a single State, I wouldn't concede a single vote, and
we haven't. Let me invite all of you wonderful people
here in the War Memorial Stadium -- I want to invite you
to a great party on January 20, 1977. Betty and Jerry
Ford invite you to the inauguration on January 20, 1977.
MORE
Page 2
You know, as we come to the final countdown --
that is where we really are, and I think you know but
I want to re-emphasize it -- I stand on your side for
limited Government, for fiscal responsibility, for rising
prosperity, for lower taxes, for military strength
and for peace in the world.
I am the first President to seek election
since Dwight D. Eisenhower who can go to the American
people and say America is at peace. I remind you that
not a single young American is fighting or dying
on foreign soil tonight, and they won't under the
Ford Administration.
But as we talk about things that are good,
things that we have done, I can't help but let my
mind drift back to 26 months ago when I became your
President and stood in the East Room of the White House--
never having sought election as President becoming
President under the most unusual circumstances, but I
found that this country was in tough shape at that time.
Unemployment was beginning to rise. We were
on the brink of a serious recession. Inflation was over
12 percent. The American people had lost faith and
confidence and trust in the White House itself. We
were still engaged in Vietnam. It was a tough and
troubled country.
But as I stood there and took the oath of
office and then had a few words to say, I said,
"Although you have not selected me by your ballots, I
hope you will confirm me with your prayers."
Over the long sweep of 26 months, those
prayers have helped. We put the ship of State on a
steady keel. We had a firm and common sense hand at the
tiller, and the net result is we made substantial
progress. We have cut the rate of inflation by more
than half. We have gained four million jobs in the
last 18 months. We have 88 million people gainfully
employed in this country, an all-time high. I think
we have restored honor and trust and confidence in the
White House by being frank, forthright and talking straight
from the shoulder. I don't believe in promising more than
I can produce, and I believe in producing everything
that I promise.
But, we have a long way to go. I am not
satisfied. I won't be satisfied until every American who
wants a job will have a job. We can do it in the next
four years. I won't be satisfied until every young
American, with his wonderful wife, can afford to buy a
house in a decent neighborhood because that is the
bulwark of our society -- a home where you raise fine
children, where you live in security and safety -- and
we are going to make it possible by lowering down-
payments, by adjusting mortgage payments and by lowering
the problems of inflation. We are going to give this new
spirit to the younger generation on the one hand and the
bui lding industry on the other. That is a goal of our
next four years.
MORE
Page 3
As I look around this wonderful hall tonight,
I see some of what are called our senior citizens. We
owe them a special obligation. They have built the
America that we live in today. Your parents and my
parents and all of our grandparents, what a great country
they have given us,
So, as they live in their retirement, they
should have our full and total support. They shouldn't
have to worry about the problems of inflation, even
though they live mainly on fixed incomes. That is the
principal reason we have an obligation to put a restraint
on the increase in Federal expenditures, because the
best way to beat inflation is to cut Federal expenditures.
But we also owe them the opportunity of the
best medical care that is obtainable in America, and we
have the best. Everybody in this room knows a family,
maybe your own, where somebody has had an extended illness
with terrible medical and hospital costs. It is a catas-
trophe for the individual and for the family. We owe an
obligation that no person among our senior citizens should
go broke just to get well.
Among the other things that involve quality
of life in America is the finest education. We have
the teachers and the administrators and the facilities
and, believe me, under this Administration we will make
a maximum effort to make sure that quality education
with control at the local level exists under the Ford
Administration.
Nobody in this country can feel safe unless
we do something effectively about crime in America. We
have made significant progress in the last two years in
reducing the rate of crime, but I am not satisfied, nor
are you.
There are two programs that must be implemented:
The hardened career criminal who is a repetitive individual
in robbing or stealing must go to jail, and that person
must stay in jail.
Then, let me talk for just a minute about taxes.
In January of last year, I submitted to the Congress a
sound tax reduction program. The best tax reform that I
know is tax reduction for the middle income taxpayers. The
middle income taxpayers have been short-changed, and so
I recommended to the Congress last January that we increase
the personal exemption from $750 to $1,000.
The other day I was out talking to some workers
in a plant and one of the men said, "What have you done
to give me some tax relief?" I said, "How many children
do you have?" He said, "I have three." It ended up he
had a wife, three children, and himself. I said, "If
the Congress had been responsible, if the Congress had
done the right thing and followed the recommendations
that I made to give a fair break to the middle income
taxpayers, they would have accepted, approved, my increase
of $750 to $1,000 for the middle income taxpayers with a
personal tax exemption.
MORE
Page 4
Now, what did that mean to that family of five?
It meant $1,250 more in personal exemption. That is a
lot of dough to a family that is trying to make it with
a new house, send kids to school and improve their own
status in society.
That gentleman said to me, "Well, supposing
Congress doesn't pass it next time?" I said, "When
they get back in January, they are going to have it on
their desks. If they don't pass it in 1977, then we will
submit it in 1978, and if they don't pass it in 1978
to give you the kind of tax relief that you deserve,
we will go out and beat them in the 1978 election."
So, when you come right down to it, we have
peace, we are on the move to prosperity, and we restored
trust. So, in every field, America is on the move. The
Nation is sound. The Nation is secure. This Nation is
on the way to a better quality of life.
I say to you, my record is one of progress,
not platitudes; performance, not promises. We have our
problems, but I think we are making the kind of headway
that gives us pride in America.
So, I say to you, on November 2 -- it has been
tough the last two years, but I have been proud to be
your President in a period when adversity almost overcame
us, when difficulties were awesome, but because you
supported me, because our form of Government worked,
because America is great, it was a privilege to be
your President.
Now, as skies get brighter, I ask you to
give me an opportunity. I would be highly honored to
serve as your President for the next four years.
We had a magnificent Bicentennial. There was
a rejuvenation of the American spirit. There was a
rebirth of our faith.
So, I would look forward to representing you,
to doing the best I could, and I pledge that to you.
Therefore, on this occasion I ask you not only to
confirm me with your prayers but to support me with
your ballots. I won't let you down.
Thank you very much.
END
(AT 9:45 P.M. EDT)