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2/4/75 - Remarks for News Media Breakfast, Atlanta, Georgia
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1252217
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2/4/75 - Remarks for News Media Breakfast, Atlanta, Georgia
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President's Speeches and Statements Reading Copies (Ford Administration)
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The original documents are located in Box 5, folder "2/4/75 - Remarks for News Media
Breakfast, Atlanta, Georgia" of the President's Speeches and Statements: Reading Copies
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. Gerald Ford 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 5 of President's Speeches and Statements: Reading Copies at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
(Pullen/Bird) PT
February 2, 1975
DRAFT PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS FOR NEWS MEDIA BREAKFAST,
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1975
Good morning.
I don't know which I'm enjoying more -- the opportunity to meet
some of the people who've been talking about me in print and on the air --
or eating a breakfast I didn't have to make myself.
I think meetings like this are very important. When I took this
job, I promised to be a listening President. And the news business helps
me to listen and to learn. But it is also important for me to meet with
you and to hear your views first-hand and to share my problems and hopes
with you.
One essential difference between democratic and autocratic
governments is the dialogue between citizens
and their elected
leaders. Your organizations are among the most effective vehicles for
that dialogue -- including the resounding "yes" or "no" that officials
get on election days.
- 2 -
I have come to Atlanta to promote this dialogue, and to ask specific
help from each of you. The problems we face today cannot be solved without
the understanding of the American people.
The major story this year is the economy -- a story you deal with daily.
It is a story that requires your highest ability to communicate because it is
complex. It hits people where they live. It has no easy cures.
Yesterday, I sent my budget message to Congress.
The budget is big. It calls for spending $349 billion for the fiscal year
beginning next July 1. That's nearly $1 billion a day!
It will result in a large deficit for fiscal 1976 -- $52 billion -- or
$1 billion per week! Believe me when I say the size of this deficit is of the
deepest concern to me.
But if the Congress cooperates -- if it rejects the "easy" so-called
/
cures and acts, we will be able to make such deficits unnecessary in the
future. That requires the restoration of a healthy, productive economy.
That is one of my most compelling long-range objectives.
- 3 -
Before we can end deficits, we must cope first with the recession --
by providing financial assistance to the unemployed and by stimulating the
economy through tax rebates and reductions.
But the budget I propose also attacks our other two major
problems
continuing inflation and our unacceptable dependence on
imported oil.
My budget is part of an integrated total plan to restore the economy
and achieve energy independence.
The need for action on recession and inflation is self-evident.
You know it first-hand, as do individuals in unemployment lines and house-
wives in supermarkets.
But the need for reaching energy independence, while not as easily
oil
visualized as during the/embargo, is just as real.
We must act on all three fronts, much as this Nat ion fought on
simultaneous fronts in World War II.
- 4 -
It is essential that in the drive to end the recession
we not add
to the fires of inflation. Therefore, when I examined the programs of the
executive departments in preparing the current budget proposals, I decided
the Nation cannot afford any new spending programs, except for energy.
None is proposed. And I repeat to you what I told the Congress:
not hositate to
I will veto any new spending programs which are sent to me.
As businessmen and realists, I believe you will share my rejection
of the idea that certain programs cannot be cut. No program that costs the
taxpayers too much and cripples our ability to manage our financial affairs
is sacred.
I have proposed curbs on programs that some political realists
consider untouchable -- including welfare, government salaries, subsidized
housing and some types of public assistance - - programs that account for
$165 billion in the 1976 budget, or almost half of the total.
I consider it unthinkable to block out half of the budget as untouchable.
Just as other programs in the budget must be examined for reductions, so
must those in this huge and ever-expanding category.
- 5 -
The opposing political arguments are obvious. Cuts of these so-called
will
"transfer payments "/hurt some people. But the reality is this. Not
controlling our spending hurts all people.
Consider this: Various forms of payments to individuals have soared
from almost $42 billion in 1967 to $165 billion in the proposed budget.
Unless this growth rate is checked, within two decades these
expenditures could gobble up more than half of our entire gross national
product.
A much maligned President, Calvin Coolidge, put the matter
straight for all of us. He said: "I favor the policy of economy, not because
I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women
of the country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of government."
We all know that far too many officials act as if someone other than
the American people foots the bill for Government spending. A dangerous
myth has grown up that it will be possible to solve our economic woes
without some sacrifices by the American people.
- 6 -
Some people are now trying to use the same myth to solve the
energy crisis.
This nation cannot deal with its economic problems and achieve
energy independence without paying a price. We had a long and nearly
fee ride in energy. But the free ride is over and we must fact the truth
and respond with truth.
If we let the energy situation slide along without forceful action,
we will find ourselves in the same terrible bind we now face with the budget
and the $52 billion deficit.
By 1985, if the present trend is not stopped, the United States will
be importing more than half of its oil. That must now happen. The $24 billion
we paid last year alone for foreign oil was a terrible drain on our economy.
And the current level of oil imports is a serious threat to our national
security.
- 7 -
We must promote domestic production. We must reduce wasteful
consumption. We must encourage more efficient use of energy, and we must
find new energy sources.
Doing all of these things -- and reviving the economy -- will not be
easy.
It requires honesty, it requires dollars, and it requires patience and
forebearance from every American involved in the dialogue of free people.
Earlier, I said I was going to ask specific help from you.
I don't ask you to back the policies of this Administration blindly.
Such editorial subservence would drive your customers away in a few weeks.
But when you and your analysts have taken a deep look at the proposals
I have made to turn this country around, I hope you will use your considerable
skills as communicators to spread the news -- good and bad -- as you see it.
- 8 -
Whether you agree or disagree with the programs I proposed, I intend
to keep on listening to what you have to say. I want to know your views.
Lyndon Johnson once said that the job of President isn't so much
doing what's right -- as knowing what's right to do.
I need your help. Perhaps more than in any other jobs in this country,
both yours and mine require us to keep abreast of the thinking of the
American people. And from my experience so far, I know this: The American
people want their problems solved. They want action now.
I have charted the direction. Now, it's up to the Congress. This
one can write itself into history as the action-oriented 94th or into oblivion
as another "do-nothing" Congress. For the good of our nation 2 hope
it is the former and 2 will work with the lorgras to achieve result that
Through your publications and stations, you can help to make Members
of the Congress alert to their opportunity and aware of their responsibility.
Thank you.
# # #
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
If
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
February 2, 1975
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
PAUL A. THEIS PAT
SUBJECT:
Atlanta Speeches
Attached in speech-size type are remarks for use before the White
House Conference in Atlanta on Monday at 5:00 p.m. If you have
revisions, they can still be made in the speech copy either Monday
before you leave or on Air Force One enroute to Atlanta.
Regarding the Opportunities Industrialization Centers speech on
Tuesday, we are coordinating your remarks at Don Rumsfeld's sug-
gestion with Secretary Kissinger's speech before the National Press
Club on Monday, since both will cover some of the same territory.
The Secretary's speechwriter hopes to have a draft of the Press Club
speech for us to go over later today. We will have a revised text to
you in the morning.
In addition, attached is a text which you have not yet seen of suggested
remarks to use before the Editors/Publishers media breakfast in
Atlanta Tuesday morning. After you have had a chance to go over this
draft, we can put it onto speech type either Monday before you depart
for Atlanta or after you arrive there.
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