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GOP Dinner, Fort Wayne, IN, October 28, 1966
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GOP Dinner, Fort Wayne, IN, October 28, 1966
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D21, folder "GOP Dinner, Fort Wayne, IN,
October 28, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
FRIDAY, OCT. 28, 1966
EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH., AT GOP DINNER, FT. WAYNE, IND.
The supermarket boycotts being staged by housewives here and there throughout
America are a natural expression of the anger our citizens feel over high prices.
As one who has called for months for government action to fight inflation, I
sympathize deeply.
But I would suggest that the real target in the inflation war should be the
wild-spending policies of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration and the irresponsible
actions of Johnson Democrats in the 89th Congress who have renewed and enlarged the
Administration's spending license.
That's who these good ladies should be hounding and hunting down-the big
spenders who have recklessly used taxpayer dollars to feed the fires of inflation.
These are the villains of the piece--the spenders who have expanded on President
Johnson's Great Society schemes instead of fighting inflation by eliminating un-
necessary federal spending.
I have enough spark left in me to lead a pretty good revolt--but the revolt
is against reckless government spending. Excessive federal spending is the primary
cause of inflation; high price tags in the supermarket and elsewhere are the end-
product.
The Johnson-Democrat 89th Congress was an Inflation Congress. It fully
deserves that name. President Johnson himself hung a spender tag on it and begged
his wild Democrat majorities to hold back. But they went right ahead with their
spendthrift ways, just as though the taxpayer money well didn't have a bottom.
If there is an income tax increase next year--and President Johnson is almost
certain to ask for one--it will be Mr. Johnson and his wild-spending Democrats who
will be to blame. I was going to say "responsible"--but that is just what they
are not. The Johnson Democrats in Congress are an irresponsible lot, and if there
ever was a time when the voters should "turn the rascals out" this is it.
There doesn't have to be a tax increase. You can be sure if the Republicans
were in the saddle and not the rancher from Texas, there would be no danger of a
tax boost.
(MORE)
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-2-
SPEECH EXCERPTS
Republicans in Congress tried all this year to hold down their wild-spending
Democratic friends, to stop red-ink spending. We tried to stop them because we
know that pumping all those billions of printing press dollars into the economy
is the force behind inflation.
Some of these billions are being fed into the economy in the name of the poor.
And yet the poor, along with Americans on fixed incomes such as Social Security,
suffer the most from inflation. It is the poor who are hit hardest by rising prices.
What is the answer? Is it to redistribute the wealth as the Democrats would
do? Or is it to restore a sound dollar to the American people and to attack
poverty by creating jobs and training the poor to fill them?
Recently Dr. Martin Luther King said he is going to organize massive street
demonstrations throughout the country to dramatize the economic plight of the poor.
He said the demonstrations will be aimed at arousing support for a guaranteed
annual income and Medicare for all ages.
This is what we are headed for under the Great Society. This is why it is
so vitally important that the American people elect a Responsible Congress on
November 8.
We know that proposals for a guaranteed annual income are being discussed in
the Johnson-Humphrey Administration. We know that only Congress as a check-rein
on the Executive Branch can stop this wild scheme, this proposal to take part of
the earnings of millions of hard-working Americans and pass it along to idle or
less-productive citizens. We know, too, that Medicare for all ages is simply
socialized medicine under another name. And we know it would be destructive of the
high quality medical care we have achieved in this great nation through the American
system of individual initiative and standards of excellence.
There now appears to be a moratorium on demonstrations. Dr. King announced
that his marches on behalf of guaranteed annual income and socialized medicine
will not take place until after the election. Could it be he is afraid the
demonstrations would turn the American people against the giveaway artists of the
Great Society--the Johnson Democrats in the Congress?
I firmly believe that Americans cannot be bought. That is why I feel the
American people will elect a Responsible Congress on November 8. That is why the
American voter will turn to the Republican Party on November 8. Only with unbought
Americans can we have a sound society; and only with a Responsible Congress can
we achieve that sound society.
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