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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box 5, folder \"2/4/75 - Remarks for News Media\nBreakfast, Atlanta, Georgia\" of the President's Speeches and Statements: Reading Copies\nat 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. Gerald Ford donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain.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.\nDigitized from Box 5 of President's Speeches and Statements: Reading Copies at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\n(Pullen/Bird) PT\nFebruary 2, 1975\nDRAFT PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS FOR NEWS MEDIA BREAKFAST,\nATLANTA, GEORGIA, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1975\nGood morning.\nI don't know which I'm enjoying more -- the opportunity to meet\nsome of the people who've been talking about me in print and on the air --\nor eating a breakfast I didn't have to make myself.\nI think meetings like this are very important. When I took this\njob, I promised to be a listening President. And the news business helps\nme to listen and to learn. But it is also important for me to meet with\nyou and to hear your views first-hand and to share my problems and hopes\nwith you.\nOne essential difference between democratic and autocratic\ngovernments is the dialogue between citizens\nand their elected\nleaders. Your organizations are among the most effective vehicles for\nthat dialogue -- including the resounding \"yes\" or \"no\" that officials\nget on election days.\n- 2 -\nI have come to Atlanta to promote this dialogue, and to ask specific\nhelp from each of you. The problems we face today cannot be solved without\nthe understanding of the American people.\nThe major story this year is the economy -- a story you deal with daily.\nIt is a story that requires your highest ability to communicate because it is\ncomplex. It hits people where they live. It has no easy cures.\nYesterday, I sent my budget message to Congress.\nThe budget is big. It calls for spending $349 billion for the fiscal year\nbeginning next July 1. That's nearly $1 billion a day!\nIt will result in a large deficit for fiscal 1976 -- $52 billion -- or\n$1 billion per week! Believe me when I say the size of this deficit is of the\ndeepest concern to me.\nBut if the Congress cooperates -- if it rejects the \"easy\" so-called\n/\ncures and acts, we will be able to make such deficits unnecessary in the\nfuture. That requires the restoration of a healthy, productive economy.\nThat is one of my most compelling long-range objectives.\n- 3 -\nBefore we can end deficits, we must cope first with the recession --\nby providing financial assistance to the unemployed and by stimulating the\neconomy through tax rebates and reductions.\nBut the budget I propose also attacks our other two major\nproblems\ncontinuing inflation and our unacceptable dependence on\nimported oil.\nMy budget is part of an integrated total plan to restore the economy\nand achieve energy independence.\nThe need for action on recession and inflation is self-evident.\nYou know it first-hand, as do individuals in unemployment lines and house-\nwives in supermarkets.\nBut the need for reaching energy independence, while not as easily\noil\nvisualized as during the/embargo, is just as real.\nWe must act on all three fronts, much as this Nat ion fought on\nsimultaneous fronts in World War II.\n- 4 -\nIt is essential that in the drive to end the recession\nwe not add\nto the fires of inflation. Therefore, when I examined the programs of the\nexecutive departments in preparing the current budget proposals, I decided\nthe Nation cannot afford any new spending programs, except for energy.\nNone is proposed. And I repeat to you what I told the Congress:\nnot hositate to\nI will veto any new spending programs which are sent to me.\nAs businessmen and realists, I believe you will share my rejection\nof the idea that certain programs cannot be cut. No program that costs the\ntaxpayers too much and cripples our ability to manage our financial affairs\nis sacred.\nI have proposed curbs on programs that some political realists\nconsider untouchable -- including welfare, government salaries, subsidized\nhousing and some types of public assistance - - programs that account for\n$165 billion in the 1976 budget, or almost half of the total.\nI consider it unthinkable to block out half of the budget as untouchable.\nJust as other programs in the budget must be examined for reductions, so\nmust those in this huge and ever-expanding category.\n- 5 -\nThe opposing political arguments are obvious. Cuts of these so-called\nwill\n\"transfer payments \"/hurt some people. But the reality is this. Not\ncontrolling our spending hurts all people.\nConsider this: Various forms of payments to individuals have soared\nfrom almost $42 billion in 1967 to $165 billion in the proposed budget.\nUnless this growth rate is checked, within two decades these\nexpenditures could gobble up more than half of our entire gross national\nproduct.\nA much maligned President, Calvin Coolidge, put the matter\nstraight for all of us. He said: \"I favor the policy of economy, not because\nI wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women\nof the country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of government.\"\nWe all know that far too many officials act as if someone other than\nthe American people foots the bill for Government spending. A dangerous\nmyth has grown up that it will be possible to solve our economic woes\nwithout some sacrifices by the American people.\n- 6 -\nSome people are now trying to use the same myth to solve the\nenergy crisis.\nThis nation cannot deal with its economic problems and achieve\nenergy independence without paying a price. We had a long and nearly\nfee ride in energy. But the free ride is over and we must fact the truth\nand respond with truth.\nIf we let the energy situation slide along without forceful action,\nwe will find ourselves in the same terrible bind we now face with the budget\nand the $52 billion deficit.\nBy 1985, if the present trend is not stopped, the United States will\nbe importing more than half of its oil. That must now happen. The $24 billion\nwe paid last year alone for foreign oil was a terrible drain on our economy.\nAnd the current level of oil imports is a serious threat to our national\nsecurity.\n- 7 -\nWe must promote domestic production. We must reduce wasteful\nconsumption. We must encourage more efficient use of energy, and we must\nfind new energy sources.\nDoing all of these things -- and reviving the economy -- will not be\neasy.\nIt requires honesty, it requires dollars, and it requires patience and\nforebearance from every American involved in the dialogue of free people.\nEarlier, I said I was going to ask specific help from you.\nI don't ask you to back the policies of this Administration blindly.\nSuch editorial subservence would drive your customers away in a few weeks.\nBut when you and your analysts have taken a deep look at the proposals\nI have made to turn this country around, I hope you will use your considerable\nskills as communicators to spread the news -- good and bad -- as you see it.\n- 8 -\nWhether you agree or disagree with the programs I proposed, I intend\nto keep on listening to what you have to say. I want to know your views.\nLyndon Johnson once said that the job of President isn't so much\ndoing what's right -- as knowing what's right to do.\nI need your help. Perhaps more than in any other jobs in this country,\nboth yours and mine require us to keep abreast of the thinking of the\nAmerican people. And from my experience so far, I know this: The American\npeople want their problems solved. They want action now.\nI have charted the direction. Now, it's up to the Congress. This\none can write itself into history as the action-oriented 94th or into oblivion\nas another \"do-nothing\" Congress. For the good of our nation 2 hope\nit is the former and 2 will work with the lorgras to achieve result that\nThrough your publications and stations, you can help to make Members\nof the Congress alert to their opportunity and aware of their responsibility.\nThank you.\n# # #\nTHE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN\nIf\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nWASHINGTON\nFebruary 2, 1975\nMEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT\nFROM:\nPAUL A. THEIS PAT\nSUBJECT:\nAtlanta Speeches\nAttached in speech-size type are remarks for use before the White\nHouse Conference in Atlanta on Monday at 5:00 p.m. If you have\nrevisions, they can still be made in the speech copy either Monday\nbefore you leave or on Air Force One enroute to Atlanta.\nRegarding the Opportunities Industrialization Centers speech on\nTuesday, we are coordinating your remarks at Don Rumsfeld's sug-\ngestion with Secretary Kissinger's speech before the National Press\nClub on Monday, since both will cover some of the same territory.\nThe Secretary's speechwriter hopes to have a draft of the Press Club\nspeech for us to go over later today. We will have a revised text to\nyou in the morning.\nIn addition, attached is a text which you have not yet seen of suggested\nremarks to use before the Editors/Publishers media breakfast in\nAtlanta Tuesday morning. After you have had a chance to go over this\ndraft, we can put it onto speech type either Monday before you depart\nfor Atlanta or after you arrive there.\nAttachments"
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