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Eighth District Fund-Raising Dinner, Fredericksburg, VA, September 9, 1967
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Eighth District Fund-Raising Dinner, Fredericksburg, VA, September 9, 1967
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This file contains material relating to Credibility Gap.
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The original documents are located in Box D22, folder "Eighth District Fund-Raising
Dinner, Fredericksburg, VA, September 9, 1967" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Distribution - mail, 2:45, Friday Sept. 8, 1467
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE AT
6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, 1967
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., House Minority Leader, at
Virginia Eighth District Fund-Raising Dinner, Princess Anne Inn, Fredericksburg, Va.
Some people don't even learn from experience. You take the 1966 congressional
election. It clearly showed that the voters of America were fed up with a rubber-
stamp Congress and one-man government. But the word apparently hasn't filtered
through to Lyndon B. Johnson. He still wants to run the show all by himself. At
this moment, he has to be called the greatest obstacle to progress in America.
Mr. Johnson is an obstacle to progress because he is mistaken in his ideas
about how the Federal government should be run, and he is mistaken in his ideas
about how to achieve progress in America.
For example, Mr. Johnson insists that the burden of a 10 per cent income tax
surcharge be laid on the backs of the American taxpayer and consumer. He refuses
to admit there is a better way to handle the fiscal mess he has made since taking
office-the way of spending cuts.
If it is possible to cut Federal spending, Mr. Johnson says, he doesn't want
any help from the Congress. In fact, he is asking his Great Society friends in
the United States Senate to restore every penny of the $4 billion cut from his
spending requests by the House.
If there are going to be any spending cuts, Mr. Johnson says, he and he
alone will make them. This raises the question, why have a Congress at all? By
any other name, this is one-man government.
The American people can congratulate themselves for having changed the
makeup of the House of Representatives in 1966. With a net gain in the House
of 47 Republicans, the people took a step away from one-man rule and toward
restoration of the balance of power envisioned by our founding fathers.
There is room for improvement, of course, and we hope to complete the
process in the election of 1968.
*
*
Americans are great phrase-makers. They like catch-phrases, and they have
latched on to one with just two words in it--the "credibility gap." How did it
get started? I really don't know. Republicans didn't invent it. It just
happens to fit the Johnson Administration.
(more)
Digitized from Box D22 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
The phrase, "credibility gap," traces to Mr. Johnson's penchant for secrecy
and his unwillingness to give Americans the plain unvarnished truth about their
government and its problems.
The credibility gap lies back of the uneasiness and uncertainty the
American people feel about Mr. Johnson's Vietnam policy. They are never really
sure just what that policy is or how the war is going, and they remember how
Mr. Johnson eased this country into the Vietnam War without really letting the
American people know what was happening. It has been a one-man show.
Congress belatedly realized this, and that is why there was an explosive
reaction on Capitol Hill to Mr. Johnson's dispatch of three U.S. planes to the
Congo in early July. Members of Congress had finally awakened to the way
Mr. Johnson operates his one-man government--getting this country involved in
a foreign mess and then giving Congress a convenient explanation as an afterthought.
In the case of the Congo, the Johnson Administration offered Congress three
different explanations in the space of 72 hours. Why repeat those explanations
here? We still don't know which one was valid, if any. Small wonder the
American people don't trust the Johnson Administration.
***
The American people are keenly aware of the Credibility Gap and of the
dangers of one-man government. They know, too, that it is the Republican Party
which stands for a healthy balance in government--for a proper sharing of
responsibilities among the Federal, state and local governments.
They know that it was Republicans in the House who insisted that federal
grants under the House-approved Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 1967 be
channeled through the states, that it was Republicans who won congressional
approval for a shift in administration of the Teacher Corps to the states and
universities, that it is Republicans who would shift Federal aid away from cate-
gorical grants tangled in red tape and Federal rules and regulations, to tax
credits or percentage tax-sharing with a maximum of state and local responsibility
and say-so.
This is the way of the future--the way to healthy and progressive government
at all levels. This is the way the people pointed to in 1966 and the New
Direction they will take in 1968. It is the way for the South as well as the
rest of the country because the people of the South now recognize that Republicans
best represent them and best express their philosophy of government. It is a
better way--a far, far better way--than LBJ.
###
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE AT
6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, 1967
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., House Minority Leader, at
Virginia Eighth District Fund-Raising Dinner, Princess Anne Inn, Fredericksburg, Va.
Some people don't even learn from experience. You take the 1966 congressional
election. It clearly showed that the voters of America were fed up with a rubber-
stamp Congress and one-man government. But the word apparently hasn't filtered
through to Lyndon B. Johnson. He still wants to run the show all by himself. At
this moment, he has to be called the greatest obstacle to progress in America.
Mr. Johnson is an obstacle to progress because he is mistaken in his ideas
about how the Federal government should be run, and he is mistaken in his ideas
about how to achieve progress in America.
For example, Mr. Johnson insists that the burden of a 10 per cent income tax
surcharge be laid on the backs of the American taxpayer and consumer. He refuses
to admit there is a better way to handle the fiscal mess he has made since taking
office--the way of spending cuts.
If it is possible to cut Federal spending, Mr. Johnson says, he doesn't want
any help from the Congress. In fact, he is asking his Great Society friends in
the United States Senate to restore every penny of the $4 billion cut from his
spending requests by the House.
If there are going to be any spending cuts, Mr. Johnson says, he and he
alone will make them. This raises the question, why have a Congress at all? By
any other name, this is one-man government.
The American people can congratulate themselves for having changed the
makeup of the House of Representatives in 1966. With a net gain in the House
of 47 Republicans, the people took a step away from one-man rule and toward
restoration of the balance of power envisioned by our founding fathers.
There is room for improvement, of course, and we hope to complete the
process in the election of 1968.
* * *
Americans are great phrase-makers. They like catch-phrases, and they have
latched on to one with just two words in it--the "credibility gap." How did it
get started? I really don't know. Republicans didn't invent it. It just
happens to fit the Johnson Administration.
(more)
-2-
The phrase, "credibility gap," traces to Mr. Johnson's penchant for secrecy
and his unwillingness to give Americans the plain unvarnished truth about their
government and its problems.
The credibility gap lies back of the uneasiness and uncertainty the
American people feel about Mr. Johnson's Vietnam policy. They are never really
sure just what that policy is or how the war is going, and they remember how
Mr. Johnson eased this country into the Vietnam War without really letting the
American people know what was happening. It has been a one-man show.
Congress belatedly realized this, and that is why there was an explosive
reaction on Capitol Hill to Mr. Johnson's dispatch of three U.S. planes to the
Congo in early July. Members of Congress had finally awakened to the way
Mr. Johnson operates his one-man government--getting this country involved in
a foreign mess and then giving Congress a convenient explanation as an afterthought.
In the case of the Congo, the Johnson Administration offered Congress three
different explanations in the space of 72 hours. Why repeat those explanations
here? We still don't know which one was valid, if any. Small wonder the
American people don't trust the Johnson Administration.
***
The American people are keenly aware of the Credibility Gap and of the
dangers of one-man government. They know, too, that it is the Republican Party
which stands for a healthy balance in government--for a proper sharing of
responsibilities among the Federal, state and local governments.
They know that it was Republicans in the House who insisted that federal
grants under the House-approved Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 1967 be
channeled through the states, that it was Republicans who won congressional
approval for a shift in administration of the Teacher Corps to the states and
universities, that it is Republicans who would shift Federal aid away from cate-
gorical grants tangled in red tape and Federal rules and regulations, to tax
credits or percentage tax-sharing with a maximum of state and local responsibility
and say-so.
This is the way of the future--the way to healthy and progressive government
at all levels. This is the way the people pointed to in 1966 and the New
Direction they will take in 1968. It is the way for the South as well as the
rest of the country because the people of the South now recognize that Republicans
best represent them and best express their philosophy of government. It is a
better way--a far, far better way--than LBJ.
###