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Radio address: Where Government Should Be. 15 pgs. [Report], 10/25/1968
RN's handwritten notes for appearance on Face the Nation. 4 pgs. [Other Document], 10/27/1968
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This file contains:
Radio address: Where Government Should Be. 15 pgs. [Report], 10/25/1968
RN's handwritten notes for appearance on Face the Nation. 4 pgs. [Other Document], 10/27/1968
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Returned White House Special Files
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Richard Nixon Presidential Library
White House Special Files Collection
Folder List
Box Number Folder Number Document Date
Document Type
Document Description
26
8
10/25/1968
Report
Radio address: Where Government Should
Be. 15 pgs.
26
8
10/27/1968
Other Document
RN's handwritten notes for appearance on
Face the Nation. 4 pgs.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Page 1 of 1
RN's Copy
Radio Address
Friday, October 25, 1968
WHERE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE
As we have crossed and recrossed the United States in this campaign year
1968, I have been impressed as never before with something we must
always remember about America.
1.
This is an enormous country, a continental country.
(1) And though other countries have been large, America
is something else.
1. Its people, its Americans, are diverse.
(1) And there are enormous energies in that diversity.
I have looked at America at night from my campaign plane -- at the great
cities of our nation -- New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tulsa, Dallas,
and a hundred others.
1. At night our cities seem almost to be made of electricity.
(1) The lights in the homes, the cars moving along the
roads, the colors.
2. During the day, the skyscrapers of our cities reach into the
clouds.
- 2
(1) Their factories and offices, their millions of Americans,
drawn from every nation in the world, sustain an economy,
and a free society, that is one of the wonders of history.
3. Between the cities there is something else that is unique in
history.
(1) The flowing fields and plains of our Republic, an
agriculture of unprecedented abundance.
(2) And the geographical diversity of America -- from the
deserts of the Southwest (who could ever forget their
sunsets) to the rich green delta lands, from our
mountain ranges, the Sierra Nevadas, and the green
mountains of Vermont, to the vast fertile plains of the
mid-continent.
And the more one sees of America -- its size, its diversity, and its
energy -- the more ridiculous, and the more dangerous it seems that
anyone would suppose that planners in a remote city could draw up
blueprints which would be adequate guides for a continent.
This is not a new feeling about America.
1. In its earliest days, America was diverse and vast, and the
most acute observers drew the correct conclusions.
3
(1) "However enlightened or skillful a central power may be,"
wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in his "Democracy in America,"
"it cannot of itself embrace all the details of the life of a
great nation ... and when it attempts unaided to create
and set in motion many complicated springs, it must
submit itself to a very imperfect result or exhaust itself
in fruitless efforts."
1. de Tocqueville wrote this in 1835, and if he saw
this truth about an earlier America, how much
truer it is today.
There has nevertheless been a tendency in our history for the Federal
government, during crises, to pre-empt functions which it is not suited
to perform, and to retain them when the crisis is past.
1. As a result, the federal role in the life of the nation has
continued to expand, and has expanded at an accelerating
rate.
Since the turn of the century, the gross national product in America has
multiplied 33 times but the Federal government is 234 times as large as
it was then.
1. I know that with the increasing complexity of our society,
with increasing mobility and with urbanization, government
must provide many services.
- 4
(1) Legitimate questions, to be sure, may be raised about
some services.
(2) But the crucial question our history now poses for us is
not SO much what services are to be provided, but rather
who should make the decisions.
1. Should the decision be made and the priorities be
set
by the citizens and their elected local officials,
or by the government in Washington and its appointed
bureaucrats?
The centralization of power in Washington has been a gradual thing.
1. A few federal programs were launched during the nineteenth
century, and a few others following the first world war.
2. The really large increase, however, came during the
Depression, when a dozen new programs were enacted.
(1) These were emergency times, and the programs often
were necessary.
3. Since World War II, we have seen a vast proliferation in the
number and kind of federal programs, as well as an ominous
tendency toward programs which by-pass the states, or else
call for a minimal participation by state governments.
- 5 -
Let me say that the men who have launched these programs have meant well.
1. They wanted to solve a particular problem, it seemed to them
that the federal government was the source of funds, and the
place to go to solve it.
(1) As a result, whether measured in numbers of programs
or in expenditures, federal grants have increased
significantly in the last twenty years, substantially in
the last decade, and very sharply in the last four years.
The crucial question of the 1970s about who and at what level of government,
should make the decisions, has become especially pressing because of the
n ature of the problems confronting us.
1. In the earliest stages, federal programs were largely confined
to disbursing money or to building physical facilities such as
dams and highways.
(1) But in the recent activities the federal government has
involved itself in matters of much greater complexity
and delicacy -- even the quality of life.
1. As anyone might expect, Washington has increasingly
found itself in far over its head.
2. By their very nature, these modern problems demand
diversity of approach, independent creativity, citizen
- 6 -
participation and involvement, local direction and
co-ordination.
(1) Even to think that a large, remote, impersonal
bureaucracy could deal with them effectively strikes
me as presumptuous.
1.
Let me be more specific.
(1) By latest count there are 82 separate aid
to education programs;
(2) And 86 separate health assistance programs,
(3) And over 400 programs in all fields combined,
twice the number of three years ago.
(2) Programs dealing with one type of problem are
scattered among numerous federal agencies.
1.
There are, believe it or not, 38 separate federal
agencies involved in water resource programs.
(1) The city of Oakland, California, made a count
and discovered that it was involved in 140 separate
federal aid programs, each with its own guidelines,
matchingfund requirements, and reporting procedures.
7 -
2. This entire approach has resulted in a tangled web of confusion,
ineffectiveness, and tight federal controls. All too often,
the result has been chaos.
(1) Take one example.
1. In 1965, the town manager of West Rutland, Vermont,
determined that his town needed a new water and sewer
system and set out to obtain federal aid.
(1) First, he was told by the Farmer's Home Administration,
which administered a grant program of this type, that
the program was new and that though funds were available
application forms were not.
(2) So, not giving up, he devised hiw own application form,
and the local office sent it to Washington.
(3) Two months later the application was returned without
explanation of any sort.
(4) After another four months of inquiry, the town manager
was told the reason: West Rutland, he was told, was
too urban to qualify. Its population is 2300.
(5) Next the town manager sent his application through
the Economic Development Administration of the
Commerce Department, which also makes grants
for sewer and water proj ects.
8
(6) EDA was receptive, but told him to rush his
application since such grants depend upon a high
unemployment rate, and the rate of unemployment
in West Rutland was falling.
(7) He rushed in his application. But it was bounced
by EDA because he had not asked for enough money.
(8) Next he tried another federal agency, the Rural
Community Development Service.
(9) He was sent back to the Farmer's Home Administration,
which was where he had begun.
(10) But at just this time, the Soil Conservation Service,
without consulting anyone, announced plans which
would change the flow pattern in West Rutland's
water supply, and so the entire project had to be
redesigned.
(2) Well, the town survived all this; but this entire approach
has resulted in dangerous failures on a larger scale,
failures on the national scale.
1.
The Federal Agriculture Program is a classic and
colossal example, but it is far from the only one.
- 9 -
(1) --The Federal Housing Program is more eloquently
condemned by its former advocates than by its
opponents.
(2) -- The persistence of poverty in America gave rise
to a flamboyant war on the problem, which has not
made a dent in poverty, and actually bears witness
to the fact that thirty years of expensive federal
efforts to eliminate dependency have only succeeded
in institutionalizing it.
(3.) --Urban renewal, another flamboyant slogan, has
destroyed more low cost housing than it has created,
and instead of reducing tension has actually precipitated
urban riots.
(4) -- Increasing centralization has siphoned top management
talent from the State to Washington, handicapping the
states in dealing with their pressing problems.
(5) -- Increasing centralization has created a situation
of local fiscal poverty amid federal fiscal plenty.
1.
Our states and cities have the problems, and
Washington has the money.
- 10 -
(6) Increasing centralization has removed decision-
making from the local level and helped to breed an
atmosphere of alienation, made people feel that
they have no control over their destiny or the
quality of their lives.
The idea behind all this is that a few men in Washington know more about
how to spend our money than we do -- know more about it than state
government, more about it than local government.
Even among some Democratic spokesmen it is beginning to be recognized
that we must go no longer down this road.
1.
Professor Daniel Moynihan of Harvard has said that Democrats
"must divest themselves of the notion that the nation, especially
the cities of the nation, can be run from agencies in Washington.
We must, " he said, "attend to what the federal government is
good at
it is good at collecting revenues, and rather bad
at disbursing services."
2. U. S. Budget Director Charles Schultze put it in a nutshell:
He said that "to be effective, we must decentralize."
But Hubert Humphrey hasn't gotten the message. The federal program for
a narrowly defined purpose has become the main instrument for building the
so-called great society.
- 11 -
Mr. Humphrey's stock answer to a failing, stuck-in-the-mud program is
to expand it.
1.
When millions of dollars have beenspent ineffectively, he
answers: quadruple the expenditure.
2. He is unable to change; he is trapped in the attitudes of the
generation before last.
3. His campaign symbol ought to be the dinosaur, not the Democratic
donkey.
(1) He has forgotten nothing.
1. No, not one slogan, and he has learned nothing --
and so all he can offer in response to the problems
of the 1970s are the slogans of the 1930s.
(1) He would end by bankrupting the taxpayers, because
he himself is bankrupt of ideas.
We hear much talk of revolution these days. I think we should consider
for a moment the French Revolution.
1. No doubt it had many causes, but the main cause, as historians
agree, was the rigidity and ineffectiveness of the central government.
(1) Years of waste and mismanagement, a cumbersome,
encrusted, inefficient bureaucracy, a gigantic debt, and
- 12
a king out of touch with reality, brought down the
whole structure.
1.
The result was disaster.
But I believe that we can find new approaches, both more effective and
more responsive to the needs of the people.
1. The main reason for the growth of federal power and the
decline in home rule and self-governmenthas been the
proliferation of specialized federal grants-in-aid.
(1) I believe that there is a better approach than such
proliferation of programs at the federal level.
1.
Instead, we should begin to return tax revenue to states
and the local communities in the form of bloc grants,
and thus allow them, within the very broadest policy
definitions, to determine their own priorities in the
allocation of resources.
2. The initial distribution of funds should be to the states.
3. However, the pressing needs of our cities and of other
local governments require that any final plan must
contain enforceable provisions to ensure that they
receive a fair share.
- 13 -
2. Revenue sharing will restore real partnership to American
government.
(1) It will help to place decision-making in the right hands.
1.
For we do not believe that a man sitting in an office
in Washington knows more about the needs of the
people than our Governors and our Mayors and our
local leaders.
We must have a vital and effective federal government in Washington.
11
One way to ensure that we do have one is to get the federal
government out of matters it is not competent to handle,
and allow it to focus on its proper business.
The threat posed by increasing centralization to the traditional balance of
governing authority in America is so great, and the problems of our cities,
counties, and states are so serious, that we must not postpone this new
direction in governmental policy.
1. Unless we move in the direction suggested by revenue sharing,
our fifty state governments, 35,000 municipalities and townships,
and 43,000 school districts, will be reduced to subdivisions
which take most of their orders from non-elected federal
administrators in Washington.
- 14 -
(1) Revenue sharing is an urgent and necessary step, but
it is only one of the steps our new Administration will
take.
We will also:
1.
-- Reverse the tendency to proliferate specialized federal
programs -- now estimated at well over 400 -- by a gradual
consolidation of grants under more broadly defined categories,
thus allowing for more discretion in setting priorities at the
state and local level.
2.
-- Allow increased Federal income tax credits for taxes
paid at the local and state level, thus enabling state and
local governme nts to increasingly finance their own
activities.
3.
-- Press measures to relieve the financial strain on private
institutions, such as schools, which perform public services.
4.
-- Place greater emphasis on the potentialities of the independent
sector.
5.
-- Act promptly to increase cooperation and consultation
between the Governors of the States and the Administration
in Washington.
- 15 -
And while we are talking about the Governors of the States, I would like
you to remember that the overwhelming majority of our new and creative
Governors have been Republicans.
1. This is no accident.
(1) For we believe in the value and effectiveness of state
government.
And so, after forty years of steady Federal expansion, the pendulum is
beginning to swing, and I believe that we are on the edge of great rebirth
of state, local and independent vitality.
1. Everywhere the recognition is growing that this great nation,
with its diverse peoples and its complex needs cannot be run
in every detail from Washington.
This philosophy is right in the mainstream of the American tradition.
1. The founders of this country, in the very beginning, rebelled
against rigid, remote government - -- government "from the top down."
(1) They would not be ruled by kings and we will not be
ruled by Bureaucrats.
2. The first three words of the preamble to the Constitution place
the emphasis where it always ought to be in America: "We, the
people. "
That is the American tradition, and it's time we began to recover it.
######
Mark
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