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    "label": "Telephone Speech to Young Republicans, Wilmington, DE, April 11, 1967",
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    "title": "Telephone Speech to Young Republicans, Wilmington, DE, April 11, 1967",
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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box D22, folder \"Telephone Speech to Young\nRepublicans, Wilmington, DE, April 11, 1967\" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press\nSecretary and Speech File at the Gerald 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 The Council donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain.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.\nFOR Telephone RELEASEJO DELIVERY Speech AT 12 NOON to SATURDAY, PACIFIC TIME, Wilmington MARCH 18, 1967 Del,\nTuesday, april 11 deletions)).\nAN BEFORE ADDRESS MIRAMAR THE BY CALIFORNIA MINORITY HOTEL, COLLEGE LEADER SANTA BARBARA, GERALD REPUBLICANS R. CALIF. FORD, CONVENTION R-MICH.\nI have want to tell you about a great opportunity--an opportunity to become\npolitical missionaries in an age of young people who care much about problems and\nyou have an to Become\nlittle about blind allegiance to political parties in short political missionaries\nto people who think.\nLet's face it, Republicans are definitely in the minority in this country.\nThis poses a tremendous problem for the Republican Party--as a party.\nBut, even now, there are many signs the American people are open to reason,\nready to buy what we have to sell. The minority has solid hopes of becoming the\nmajority.\nThe 1966 elections proved that, and if I didn't believe it I wouldn't be\nstanding here.\nI am here because you gentlemen are the trumpets of hope. You are the messen-\ngers of the Republican Party. You are the conduit through which party leaders can\ntransmit to the American people the truths on which you and I base our political faith.\nYou are intelligent. You are vocal. You are articulate. The leaders of the\nRepublican Party need you.\nYou are the Republican Party's best hope for the future. I say that because\nyou are or will soon become part of what I call the New Electorate, the young people\nwho will become the majority in this country in perhaps 20 years. YOU are WHERE THE\nVOTES ARE, as a study made by the Senate Republican Policy Committee has indicated.\nWhat did that study reveal? It pointed up the fact that in the last two years\nalone nearly six million young people celebrated their 21st birthday. It also showed\nthat party identification is weakest among voters in their early and middle 20's.\nThe world belongs to the young. America belongs to the young. I say that\nwith joy in my heart despite my thinning hair.\nThe young are a new power group in American politics. And the most significant\naspect of this development is that it opens up a great opportunity for the Republican\nParty.\nThis is the opportunity I cited for you earlier. It is an opportunity to make\nAmerica's new voters Republicans, to sell them on the Republican Party before they\nbecome \"sot in their ways,\" as the mountain folk say.\nNow how do we do that? I think the answer is that we must talk with them in\nterms of their own problems, issues that are meaningful to them.\nGERALD LIBRARY\n(MORE)\nDigitized from Box D22 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\n-2-\nIt's not enough to tell them why YOU are a Republican. You must inform yourself\non what your Party is doing, what its policies are, what its ongoing program is. and\nsell Republicanism as the course that is right for the country.\nI firmly believe we DO have the answers, and I sense that a majority of the\nAmerican people are beginning to realize it. They are just \"beginning to see the\nlight,\" as the popular song goes, and so what you and I must do is to achieve a break-\nthrough. We have to bring the message home, make it stick, make it pay off at the\nballot box.\nYou DO have to have something to sell. It's fine to talk about faith in the\nindividual, the right to live your life without government interference, the soundness\nof the free enterprise system, the fact that the United States has an economic system\nsecond to none, a belief in economics based on sound money and avoidance of inflation-\nary deficits. But I don't know that you'll win many votes with these appeals unless\nyou tie them to a bread-and-butter issue, pin them to something people can see and\nsmell and touch.\nLet me try something out on you to show you what I mean.\nIn a few years--in some cases, in a few months--you will leave the halls of\nlearning and embark on a career. Whatever that career, you will be paying Social\nSecurity taxes.\nIn that context, let me tell you about the Johnson Administration's proposal\nto raise Social Security benefits an average of 20 per cent--and, of course, to raise\npayroll taxes. This is legislation that affects not only America's elderly but its\nyoung people\nOur elderly need an increase in benefits. They need help badly. But we must\nalso realize we are now reaching a moment of truth on the question of the payroll tax\nburden.\nFor many years Americans have taken the attitude...\"So what if Social Security\ntaxes go up; I'll get it all back some day when I need it the most.\"\nNow, for the first time, the shoe is beginning to pinch. People are beginning\nto realize that there must be a limit to how high Social Security taxes are permitted\nto go.\nThe President's proposal is a very ambitious plan--and inequitable to young\npeople.\nUnder his proposal, payroll taxes would rise steadily over the next 20 years\nuntil they reached a maximum rate of 5.8 per cent to be paid by every wage earner or\nsalaried worker on every dollar of his pay up to $10,800. Every employer also would\npay this same levy--for a combined employee-employer payroll tax of 11.6 per cent.\nTo put the President's plan into dollars and cents terms, the maximum that\nLIBRARY\n(MORE)\n-3-\ncould be deducted from a person's pay would jump from the present $290.49 to $343.20\nnext year, $390 in 1969, $450 in 1971. By 1988-20 years hence--it would be $626.40--\nmore than double the present amount.\nIs there a pot of gold for the young at the end of the Social Security rainbow?\nThe Tax Foundation has made an analysis which indicates that a 21 year-old\nAmerican putting in 44 years of work and paying in to the Social Security Trust Fund\nat today's tax levels would pay $33,496 in taxes and interest to the fund. If he\nlived 13 years after reaching age 65, that worker would collect just $19,704 in\nbenefits.\nLyndon Johnson would impose an increasingly heavy payroll tax on young Americans\ndespite the fact they will get the short end of the stick when they retire.\nWhat's the answer? We must achieve a balance between benefits and the tax\nburden.\nWe need improvements in our Social Security system. Our elderly today are the\nvictims of Johnson inflation triggered when the Administration failed last year to\nhalt the swift rise in the cost of living.\nBut it is irresponsible for anyone to call for benefit increases averaging\n20 per cent and to dump the increased tax burden on our young people. It's Social\nSecurity politics with a vengeance.\nIt's time to look at the entire Social Security System, consider the intent of\nthe original Act, and ask ourselves where we go from here.\nThis is something you can talk about with young voters or prospective voters--\nthe fact that high federal payroll and income taxes are destroying individual\ninitiative in America.\nYou can talk about Vietnam and the proud record of the Republican Party\nin unswervingly supporting every sound effort to thwart Communist aggression there\nand to give the South Vietnamese the freedom to make a life of their own choosing.\nYou can lay that record alongside that of the other party--a party so deeply\ndivided on Vietnam that its voices of dissent encourage the Communists to keep\nfighting and thus prolong the war.\nThis is a tragedy that shakes the Nation. It brings to mind the immortal words\nof Lincoln: \"A house divided against itself cannot stand.\" I say a party divided\nagainst itself cannot lead--cannot effectively lead the country in war or out of war,\ncannot lead the people to an honorable peace.\nThese are the issues as the Republican Party seeks to offer responsible\nleadership to the American people. These are the issues, and there are many more.\nThere's the question of whether we should continue pouring out federal aid\nthrough a grant-in-aid system which is proving so ponderous as to be practically\nunworkable.\n(MORE)\n-4-\nRepublicans offer a New Direction in federal aid to local units of government--\nfederal tax-sharing which skirts the federal bureaucracy and makes some layers of it\nripe for the pruning knife. This would reduce the cost of operating the federal\ngovernment. It would speed up the process of problem-solving by making federal funds\navailable to states and cities without filtering project applications through several\nlayers of bureaucratic fat.\nThere is the spectacle of our cities, rotting under the weight of problems\nlong unsolved despite an estimated $100 billion in federal aid over the years.\nRepublicans know the job is just too big for government alone. Billions in private\ncapital are needed. Business has a social responsibility to help rebuild our cities--\nand there's money to be made in it, too. In addition to renovating and rebuilding,\nbusiness could bring its technological genius to bear on countless urban problems.\nThe result would be a kind of \"cities industry,\" generating a rebirth for our asphalt\njungles.\nWe need a true government-business partnership if America is to climb out of\nthe stagnation and decay into which its great cities have sunk. Federal tax-sharing\nis part of the answer, for it ultimately would provide our cities with many more\nfederal billions than they now have to work with and would let them use these funds\nin line with their own priorities.\nAir pollution and water pollution are dangers that demand an all-out assault\nby government and industry. We need standards and we need strong enforcement so that\ncompanies in one state are not placed at a competitive disadvantage with those in\nanother as they invest in pollution controls. The other party would just swing a big\nstick. Republicans believe the country would move much more quickly toward clean air\nand water if we coupled enforcement with incentive. Give industries a tax break on\nthe cost of air and water pollution controls and let's move swiftly to clean up our\nair and water. And let government set an example. Government itself is guilty of\npolluting our air, in some instances.\nWhat I am doing here is pointing up the differences in the philosophies of the\ntwo major political parties by translating them into specifics.\nTo put it broadly, ours is a responsible party--a party that encourages\nindividual responsiblity, individual initiative, strong local and state government,\na strong federal government which so exercises its power as to forge a partnership of\nprogress with state and local units of government and with private industry.\nThe other party sees the federal government as the receptacle of all wisdom,\nthe fount from which billions flow in unceasing flood for every conceivable project\nman can devise, the Mount Olympus where reside the gods who direct the affairs of the\nmenials in the state capitals and the cities of the Nation.\n(MORE)\n-5-\nWe--you--have an opportunity to change all that. The Republican Party has a\nreal opportunity to win ih 1968--to win the White House and control of the House of\nRepresentatives.\nThis will take desire, money, work and that most precious and easily lost\ningredient, unity.\nWe must build the Republican Party from a minority party to a group which holds\nthe reins of power. We can do that if college Republicans here and throughout the\nNation will rise to the responsibility that is theirs--the challenge to go out into\nthe wilderness of young Democrats and come back with some scalps. The future of the\nRepublican Party, ladies and gentlemen, is in your hands. Thank you.\n# # #"
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