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    "label": "Masonic Banquet, Detroit, MI, May 1, 1966",
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    "id": "4525930",
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    "title": "Masonic Banquet, Detroit, MI, May 1, 1966",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4525930",
    "collections": [
        "Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers",
        "Speeches"
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    "subjects": [
        "U.S. Congress. 1789-",
        "Executive-Legislative relations"
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    "seq": 1,
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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box D20, folder \"Masonic Banquet, Detroit, MI,\nMay 1, 1966\" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the\nGerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nCopyright Notice\nThe copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of\nphotocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to\nremain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid\ncopyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\n10-Nothing peech\nCONGRESSMAN\nNEWS\nGERALD R. FORD\nHOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER\nRELEASE\nFOR RELEASE SUNDAY A.M.'s, MAY 1, 1966\nSPEECH EXCERPTS--MASONIC BANQUET, DETROIT, MICHIGAN\nThere are two basic issues in American government today--the restoring of\nproper balance between the three branches of the federal government and a rebirth\nof strength and vigor in state and local governments.\nFramers of the Constitution sought to guard against some of the developments\nwe see today--a Congress overshadowed by the Executive Branch, a Supreme Court\nwhich is making law through some of its decisions, state and local governments\nwhich are in danger of becoming mere appendages of the federal government.\nThe American political system now is like a pinball machine that somebody\nhas tilted to make it pay off his way. The people must see that the machinery is\nrighted and made to function as the authors of the Constitution intended.\nThere is danger in an excessively powerful central government, although many\nAmericans seem to have lost sight of that fact.\nThe wise men who laid the foundation of our political system gave strength\nto each of the three branches of federal government in a system of checks and\nbalances. They gave the states a dual sovereignty in relation to the federal\nestablishment.\nOver the years there developed the major political parties. This two-party\nsystem, when properly functioning, makes its own unique contribution to the\nsystem of checks and balances.\nThe system is out BE whack. It's like a machine with a bearing that's out\nof round. The defect threatens to wreck the whole machine--the entire structure\nof American life.\n***\nThere are two movements afoot which could go far toward correcting present\nimbalances in our political system.\nThese are a study of ways to improve and strengthen the machinery of Congress\nand bipartisan proposals to return a percentage of federal income tax revenue to\nthe states when the Vietnam war ends and this becomes feasible.\nA third correction could be largely realized in the 1966 elections--a\nstrengthening of the two-party system after the wrenching maladjustment which\noccurred in November, 1964.\nBERALD R.FORD LIBRARY\n***\nDigitized from Box D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\n-2-\nSPEECH EXCERPTS\nFrom the work of the Joint Committee on Organization of Congress may come\nrecommendations which will help Congress regain the eminence it once enjoyed in\nthe legislative process.\nFrom the proposals for federal revenue-sharing with the states may come a\nrejuvenation of state and local government. Such revenue-sharing, with no strings\nattached, has the endorsement of governors of both parties, political scientists,\nand many economists. It was first proposed by Dr. Walter Heller, chairman of the\nCouncil of Economic Advisers under the late President John F. Kennedy.\nCongress now is often placed in the position of an errand boy doing the\nbidding of the White House. This is unhealthy for the country. The Congress\nshould be originating legislation as well as improving and approving or rejecting\nthose measures sent to Capitol Hill by the President.\nThe Joint Committee on Organization of Congress may find ways to free\ncongressmen and senators from time-consuming chores and thus help make each\nmember a more effective legislator.\nThe purpose of the federal revenue-sharing proposal is, of course, to give\nthe states and local governments the means to do the things that can be done best\nat the local level.\n***\nMost Americans occasionally worry about the fact that the federal government\nkeeps getting bigger and bigger--but only occasionally. And for the most part,\nthey see no threat to their own individual freedom.\nIt is difficult for the individual American to realize how tremendously the\nfederal government has grown and how the role of the states and local governments\nhas shrunk. It is also difficult for him to understand that the greater the\nnumber of local decisions indirectly made by the Executive Branch in Washington,\nthe less he has to say about how his community, his state, and his nation are\nbeing run. It's just as simple as that.\nThe power to tax is the power to destroy, and power flows to where the\nmoney is. If the states and local governments must increasingly look to the\nfederal government for grants-in-aid circumscribed with federal regulations, their\npowers will be increasingly diminished.\nFederal grant-in-aid programs have grown in numbers from 18 to 140 different\nprograms in the last 31 years--and in dollars from $126 million in 1935 to\n$14 billion today.\n* * *\nThe minority party in America must be imaginative, dedicated and alert. But\nit must also receive added strength from the electorate if the steeply tilted\nmajority in Congress is to swing back toward a more sensible balance.\n###"
}