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Republican Women of Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, June 22, 1971
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4526369
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Republican Women of Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, June 22, 1971
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D31, folder "Republican Women of Capitol Hill,
Washington, DC, June 22, 1971" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
REMARKS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD TO THE REPUBLICAN WOMEN OF CAPITOL HILL, 12 NOON,
TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1971, ROOM B 339, RAYBURN BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.
moffece Copy
Politicians have a favorite pasttime. It is called "viewing with alarm."
It's an easy game to play. All you have to do is to see the worst of things and
blame the other fellow for it. Who's the best at this game? You gue ssed it, the
Democrats.
There's really only one way to beat the Democrats at their game of "viewing
with alarm"
and that is to recite real-life the accomplishments of the
Republican Administration. Accomplishments made despite and not because of the
Democratic Congress. Accomplishments made the hard way.
It's
a bit difficult to pierce through the mantle of gloom in which the
Democrats have sought to wrap both our domestic and foreign affairs but today I'm
going to do it. "nd I think you'll be surprised by the proud Republican
record which is revealed when you strip away all the Democratic nonsense.
A good Democrat, Al Smith, used to say, let's look at the record. And today
when we do that it's going top sound like bragging. But that's all right, if that's
the way it comes out then so be it.
Republicans are usually modest fellows, you know. We don't engage in
a
lot of flowery oratory or issue a lot of political promissory notes. These are
the stock in trade of the other fellow. "hat we do is deliver. We are
not
New Dealers; we are dealers in rationality and realism.
Because we have
been realistic, we can point with pride to the accomplishments
of the Republican Administration during its 29 months in office. We can point to the
record as Al mith used to and come up with a fistful of accomplishments.
We have reason to be proud, and we should let the American people know why we
feel that way.
We feel proud because we are getting out of Vietnam in
a way that
gives
South Vietnam a chance to survive as an independent, non-Communist nation.
We feel proud because we
have scored a
bargaining breakthrough at the SALT Talks and have given our Nation cause to have
a
hope for a limitation on nuclear wapons.
We feel proud because we have achieved major draft reform and are moving to end
the draft and go to an
all-volunteer Army.
We feel proud because we have
reordered our priorities
for the
first time in two decades, so that we are spending more Federal
dollars
on
human
resource programs than on military programs--and that trend is continuing.
FORD
We feel proud because we have cut taxes and reformed the Federal tax structure-and
GERALD
RARY
the tax reductions are continuing.
Digitized from Box D31 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
We feel proud because we are holding back the rise in crime.
We feel proud because we are near the point of reforming the scandalous welfare
system inherited from a previous era.
We feel proud because we have establ shed a non-political postal service al though
it was generally believed this was not possible.
We feel proud because we are successfully fighting inflation.
WeWfeel proud because we are improving mass transportation and have embarked
on the most
ambitious mass transit program ever.
We feel proud because we are protecting the national health
and safety and
are implementing the most far-reaching coal mine safety laws in the history of American
labor.
We could do more. We want
to do much more.
And
we
will
do
much
more
if
we
get some cooperation from
our Democratic friends. But of course Democrant
in
Congress are reluctant to
take any actions which would reflect credit on a
Republican President. Instead they are seeking to embarrass him.
Let's be frank. The new Administration inherited a mess when Richard Nixon
took office int
January 1969.
With the help of
Republicans in Congress, the President is working
hard
to
clean up the mess the Democrats left behind. And some of this mess: is really tough
to clean up.
Naturally the Demoncrats aren't anxious to
help the President. Every time
they do join hands with him to solve a problem they are admitting it is something
they themselves should have cleaned up long before. So what they do is totry to
take credit--credit for cleaning up the mess they themselves made.
To end the war a Democratic President plunged us into.
To curb the inflation brought on by the irresponsible spending policies of the
previous Administration.
To reduce the unemployment which resulted when
an inflation-fueled
economy which overheated in the 1965-68 period had to be forcibly cooled off.
To reorder priorities knocked askew by the war we got into under a Democratic
President.
To end air and water pollution which grew steadily worse during the eight years
the Democrats controlled both the Congress and the White House.
To reduce a crime rate that rose 10 times faster than our population during the
eight Democratic years of the
Sixties.
It's tough to clean up the Democratic
mess, but we are making prograss.
Instead of helping us, the Democrats are employing the same kind of spend-more
-3-
tactics they used in
during the last decade.
Passing a $4 billion accelerated public works bill that is going to have little or
no immediate impact on unemployment. Passing a
$5 billion public service jobs
bill that would
create 150,000 jobs--hardly
making a dent in
unemployment of 5.2 million.
Instead of supporting the President as we steadily withdraw from Vietnam
while strengthening the South Vietnamese,
Democrats with an eye on
the
White House undercut the President
by urging immediate total
withdrawal
regardless of the consequences.
in both foreign and domestic affairs
What we
are getting from the Democrats
is the same thing we
got from them from
during the Sixties. It can be summed up in one word--
irresponsibility.
There is still another phrase that describes the Democratic Farty today-status
quo.
The Democratic Party has become a stick-in-the-mud party, a party that resists
change, a party which clings to the past, a party which keeps pushing schemes which
are outdated and shopworn, schemes that have never worked but read like good political
propaganda, schemes like accelerated public works and public service jobs.
So this is the
Democratic Party of the Seventies--a party which
advocates surrender to get us out of the war they got us into in Southeast Asia and
a party
which proposes billions upon billions of dolaars
for so-called
unemployment solutions that would have about as much real impact as a
raindrop
falling into the
ocean.
This is why I call the Democratic Party irresponsible.
Yes, we are still plagued
inflation. And, yes, unemployment is much
too high. But we cannot solve overnight the problems that the Democrats labored for
years to
generate.
We are slowly bringing inflation under control. The cost of living during the
first four months of this year rose at an annual rate of 3 per cent. That stands
in sharp contrast with 1970, when the rate was 5.5 per cent,
and with 1969, when
the cost of living rose 6.1 per cent.
We will bring unemployment down, but we are moving from a wartime to a peacetime
economy and the dislocations are severe.
It
will take time to improve the
unemployment situation. Meantime, employment is
at an all-time high. But the numbers
moving into the job market are S0 great that the economy will have to grow markedly in
order to soak up the increased number of job-seekers.
It is efforts to control infl ation that have produced severe unemployment. And
-4-
we inherited
the inflation problem from the Democrats. The Democrats allowed
inflation to race along almost unchecked for
nearly four years before the
Nixon Administration took office.
Whenever any Democrat talks to you about high unemployment, just remind him of
one thing. The Democrats have never solved the unemployment problem. They were
just
in office when a war came along to take up the slack.
emind the Democrats that the unemployment rate
r an above 5 per cent
during the first four Democratic years of the Sixties and dropped below that figure
only after a Democratic President took us into a jungle war halfway around the world.
The facts are that the sharp decline in unemployment in 1966 coincided with a
shearp upsurge in the economy triggered by the Vietnam War. Is that the kind of
prosperity we want in this country? I think not. We want
peacetime prosperity,
and that is the kind of prosperity we are going to have under a Republican Administration.
What the Democrats now are trying to do is to saddle Republicans with the
consequences of their own sins. I don't think the American people will be misled.
They are too smart for that.
The issues of the 1972 campaign are already clear. A vote for the Democrats will
be a vote for irresponsibility--for
reckle SS inflationary spending and for the status
quo.
By contrast, the Republican Party offers the voter a whole host of reforms: A
workfare program int place of the welfare scandal; a consolidation of manpower programs,
with job training to be turned over to the states and local communities;
a sharing of
Federal income tax revenue with the states and local units of government on a no-strings-
attached basis; a re-examination of Federal aid to schools to achieve quality education;
a revampaing of our labor laws
for improved handling of national emergency labor
air and
disputes in transportation; and a crusade to rid
ourselves of water pollution.
Every one of these reforms will be an issue in the 1972 campaign to the extent
that the Democrats in Congress fail to join this crusade to improve the quality of
life in America.
The American people want these reforms. You can be sure Republicans would deliver
on them if Republicans controlled the Congress.
The hour of truth is upon us, and the time is now. Truth will be our greatest
weapon in the 1972 campaign. Our success at the polls will be measured by our success
in bringing the truth to the people.
It is vital that We elect
Republicans to the Congre SS next year and
keep Richard Nixon in the White House.
hat is the truth you must make clear
to your friends and neighbors. You must make clear that President Nixon will be
helped immensely--the Nation will be aided--if there is a Republican majority in the
5
Congress as a result of the 1972 elections.
So let us do the job.
Let us prof ve that our party is a winning one.
We have the candidates and the programs the people want. Let us move forward together.
#####