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GOP Dinner, Fayetteville, AR, October 27, 1966
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4525990
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GOP Dinner, Fayetteville, AR, October 27, 1966
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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Inflation (Finance)
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The original documents are located in Box D21, folder "GOP Dinner, Fayetteville, AR, October 27, 1966" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Copyright Notice The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Digitized from Box D21 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library CONGRESSMAN NEWS GERALD R. FORD HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER RELEASE FOR RELEASE AT 7 P.M. THURSDAY, OCT. 27, 1966 EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH BY REP. GERALD R. FORD AT GOP DINNER, FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. What we need most in Washington today is a responsible Congress. What we don't need is a Congress which bends to every whim of President Johnson and is eager to implement every hare-brained social welfare scheme that emanates from his Great Society administration. If we are to have a great society in America, we must first have a sound society. We will never have a sound society until we have a responsible Congress and sound government. Look at Arkansas' incumbents in Congress and ask yourselves whether they have voted for sound government of whether they wear the brand of LBJ and the welfare state. Then make your choice on November 8 and strike a blow for good government. Today we are a nation at wat. At the same time we find a fancy-Dan govern- ment in Washington which is spending money on low-priority domestic items, tossing money around like it was going out of style. Well, maybe it is. Under Lyndon Johnson, the dollar has a habit of getting smaller and smaller until it sort of disappears. As a friend of mine once said about Lyndon's Dollar, "Confidentially, it shrinks." You know one of the last things Lyndon Johnson's Great 89th Congress did? It earmarked $5.8 million to build a government exhibit at Interama, the Inter- American Cultural and Trade Center scheduled to open in 1968 in Miami. That wasn't 580 thousand dollars; that was nearly six million. And President Johnson had asked for six and a half million. That's what your money is going for--the money so many of the American people work so hard to earn--a government exhibit at a big exposition. Don't misunder- stand me, I'm not against expositions. But should we be lavishing nearly $6 million on a trade exhibit when we're fighting a war costing $2 billion a month? Should we be spending millions on unnecessary projects when federal spending is building a fire under inflation, puffing up prices that keep going up and up and up? I say now is a time we should be eliminating all unnecessary spending and building toward a sound dollar. Now is a time we need a responsible Congress. GERALA FORD VERYATI (MORE) -2- SPEECH EXCERPTS Over the last two years you have seen Lyndon Johnson's Inflation Congress in action. He calls it the greatest Congress in American history. I call it the Inflation Congress because it was a spendthrift Congress. Mr. Johnson accuses Republicans of preaching "fear" and nothing else. That's about as true a statement as all the other distortions that have been pouring out of Washington during the Johnson-Humphrey Administration. Mr. Johnson has a bad memory, or maybe a convenient one. Republicans did a little preaching back in January, 1966, when Mr. Johnson badly needed some good advice about how to run the government. We urged him to establish some spending priorities, chop all the fat out of his budget and make it a lean, wartime budget. He refused--and the inflation that had its start in 1965 was really off and running in 1966. Do Republicans have a program? Of course we do. Our program is prosperity with price stability, prosperity with a sound dollar. Lyndon Johnson's program is social experimentation--playing around with billions of taxpayer dollars--while fighting a costly war halfway around the world. Do Republicans have a program? Of course we do. We propose to attack America's problems but not to jeopardize all the economic gains Americans have made in the name of a nationwide search for votes. We propose to remedy America's ills without setting up a political grab-bag in the name of a War on Poverty. Ours is the party of sound government, and it is only through sound government that we can build a sound society. It is difficult for most Americans to grasp the idea that wild federal spending, unnecessary spending beyond the nation's means, generates inflation. But this is true, and tragically so under the Johnson-Humphrey Administration. This is why the leading economists in the nation, Democrats as well as Republicans, have talked for months about the urgent need to cut unnecessary federal spending. Do Republicans have a program? Of course we do. We propose to eliminate deficit federal spending and thus remove this fuel for the fires of inflation. Let's put out the fire that's breathing hot air into prices across the country. If we make deep cuts in federal spending, we won't have to raise income taxes--and we know that's what Lyndon Johnson is planning for us next, Elect a responsible Congress on November 8. Elect John Paul Hammerschmidt and others like him. Let's make a start toward responsible government and a sound society. Now is the time to begin. # # # CONGRESSMAN NEWS GERALD R. FORD HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER RELEASE FOR RELEASE AT 7 P.M. THURSDAY, OCT. 27, 1966 EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH BY REP. GERALD R. FORD AT GOP DINNER, FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. What we need most in Washington today is a responsible Congress. What we don't need is a Congress which bends to every whim of President Johnson and is eager to implement every hare-brained social welfare scheme that emanates from his Great Society administration. If we are to have a great society in America, we must first have a sound society. We will never have a sound society until we have a responsible Congress and sound government. Look at Arkansas' incumbents in Congress and ask yourselves whether they have voted for sound government or whether they wear the brand of LBJ and the welfare state. Then make your choice on November 8 and strike a blow for good government. Today we are a nation at war. At the same time we find a fancy-Dan govern- ment in Washington which is spending money on low-priority domestic items, tossing money around like it was going out of style. Well, maybe it is. Under Lyndon Johnson, the dollar has a habit of getting smaller and smaller until it sort of disappears. As a friend of mine once said about Lyndon's Dollar, "Confidentially, it shrinks." You know one of the last things Lyndon Johnson's Great 89th Congress did? It earmarked $5.8 million to build a government exhibit at Interama, the Inter- American Cultural and Trade Center scheduled to open in 1968 in Miami. That wasn't 580 thousand dollars; that was nearly six million. And President Johnson had asked for six and a half million. That's what your money is going for--the money so many of the American people work so hard to earn--a government exhibit at a big exposition. Don't misunder- stand me, I'm not against expositions. But should we be lavishing nearly $6 million on a trade exhibit when we're fighting a war costing $2 billion a month? Should we be spending millions on unnecessary projects when federal spending is building a fire under inflation, puffing up prices that keep going up and up and up? I say now is a time we should be eliminating all unnecessary spending and building toward a sound dollar. Now is a time we need a responsible Congress. (MORE) -2- SPEECH EXCERPTS Over the last two years you have seen Lyndon Johnson's Inflation Congress in action. He calls it the greatest Congress in American history. I call it the Inflation Congress because it was a spendthrift Congress. Mr. Johnson accuses Republicans of preaching "fear" and nothing else. That's about as true a statement as all the other distortions that have been pouring out of Washington during the Johnson-Humphrey Administration. Mr. Johnson has a bad memory, or maybe a convenient one. Republicans did a little preaching back in January, 1966, when Mr. Johnson badly needed some good advice about how to run the government. We urged him to establish some spending priorities, chop all the fat out of his budget and make it a lean, wartime budget. He refused--and the inflation that had its start in 1965 was really off and running in 1966. Do Republicans have a program? Of course we do. Our program is prosperity with price stability, prosperity with a sound dollar. Lyndon Johnson's program is social experimentation--playing around with billions of taxpayer dollars--while fighting a costly war halfway around the world. Do Republicans have a program? Of course we do. We propose to attack America's problems but not to jeopardize all the economic gains Americans have made in the name of a nationwide search for votes. We propose to remedy America's ills without setting up a political grab-bag in the name of a War on Poverty. Ours is the party of sound government, and it is only through sound government that we can build a sound society. It is difficult for most Americans to grasp the idea that wild federal spending, unnecessary spending beyond the nation's means, generates inflation. But this is true, and tragically so under the Johnson-Humphrey Administration. This is why the leading economists in the nation, Democrats as well as Republicans, have talked for months about the urgent need to cut unnecessary federal spending. Do Republicans have a program? Of course we do. We propose to eliminate deficit federal spending and thus remove this fuel for the fires of inflation. Let's put out the fire that's breathing hot air into prices across the country. If we make deep cuts in federal spending, we won't have to raise income taxes--and we know that's what Lyndon Johnson is planning for us next, Elect a responsible Congress on November 8. Elect John Paul Hammerschmidt and others like him. Let's make a start toward responsible government and a sound society. Now is the time to begin. # # #