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President's Remarks and Question and Answer Session at the La Crosse Airport [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7343245
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President's Remarks and Question and Answer Session at the La Crosse Airport [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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1976-03-27
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1976
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Digitized from Box 23 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 27, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(La Crosse, Wisconsin)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AND
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
AT THE
LA CROSSE AIRPORT
7:05 P.M. CST
THE PRESIDENT: It is great to be in Wisconsin,
and one can't help but be greatly impressed by the warm
and friendly and very large turnout.
La Crosse has always been one of my favorite
cities. I was here in 1972 and, of course, I have been in
Wisconsin generally a great many times over the years
campaigning for Members of Congress and others. So it is
just nice to be back and we are going to be back some more.
With that, I will be glad to answer any questions
from the local press.
QUESTION: Mr. President, the head of one of
Wisconsin's milk marketing co-ops has criticized your
Administration for opposing a bill which would not set
standards for foreign dairy imports equal to those of
domestic products. Do you indeed feel that they should be
equal?
THE PRESIDENT: We have the Department of Agriculture
looking into that at the present time. I think the matter
is under review and the department will make a recommendation
to me.
QUESTION: Mr. President, Karl Hess, who was
the principal author of the 1960 and 1964 Republican platforms,
has dropped out of society -- he is living in a homestead
in West Virginia. In the March 25 Rolling Stone he predicts
that we might be witnessing the downfall of the Republican
Party. In his words, it is abandoning the middle class
that it once seemed to so solidly signify and that it has
become the party of the rich and the party of big business.
How would you respond to those charges?
THE PRESIDENT: That is categorically wrong. If
you will go back and look at the tax reduction recommendations
that I made a year ago and reiterated this year, I strongly
recommended to the Congress that there be greater equity
and greater reductions made in tax cuts for the middle
class so that in and of itself, I think, indicates to
Mr. Hess that he is totally wrong.
MORE
Page 2
QUESTION: Mr. Ford, any indication that the
Soviet Union or Cuba has heeded your warning?
THE PRESIDENT: There has not been any action
taken that we would define as adventurism, such as they
did in the case of Angola. 'I hope they understand what we
said. We said it very plainly and I can assure you we mean
it.
QUESTION: Mr. Ford, what is your stand on
revenue sharing?
THE PRESIDENT: I am a strong advocate of revenue
sharing. I led the fight in 1972 to get it enacted in the
first place and it has brought or will bring by the end of
this year to the State of Wisconsin about $750 million. It
will bring to La Crosse County, as I recall, about $3 million
and it will bring to La Crosse City about $3 million.
I recommended a year ago that the Congress extend
general revenue sharing for another 5-3/4 years, which would
mean that the State of Wisconsin would get over a billion
dollars over that period and, as I recall the figures,
La Crosse County and La Crosse City each would get about
$5 million.
So I am a firm believer in the program. I think
it is the right approach -- it gives Federal money to local
communities and to States so that they can make the decisions
as to where they want those resources expended at the local
level.
QUESTION: Mr. Ford, who would you rather have as
opposition in November for a President?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't really have much choice
on that but I happen to think that my good friend Hubert
Humphrey will be the nominee. The rest of them are all
nipping at one another and not getting, as I see it,
sufficient Democratic delegates to prevail when they go
to New York City next July. So it is my judgment that in
the final it will be a brokered convention and Hubert
will probably be the winner.
QUESTION: Is there present a situation, sir,
in which you would consider military action in Cuba?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would not speculate on
any possible diplomatic or military actions because we hope
that the words we have said will be understood and it won't
be necessary or required.
QUESTION: Mr. President, would you support
reconstruction aid to North Vietnam in exchange for names
of POWs?
MORE
Page 3
THE PRESIDENT: All we have said -- and I said
it in Honolulu when I came back from China in December of
last year -- is that we look to the future rather than to
the past and that, as a result of a Congressional delegation
that went to Hanoi several months ago, it looks like there
is a distinct possibility that we will start talking, but
there are no commitments and anything that was done is
absolutely predicated on a full accounting of our MIAs
and where we go from there is a matter of discussion.
QUESTION: Do you support further study on solar
energy?
THE PRESIDENT: I certainly do. When I was
considering the make-up of the budget for the next fiscal
year I increased research and development funds in the
solar energy area by about 40 percent. In fact, as I recall
the figures, in this current fiscal year we are spending
around $80 million and I increased about 40 percent for the
next fiscal year. This has a great potential long-range
payoff and I think we have to get on to the basic and the
applied research as quickly as possible, and the figures
that I put in the budget for the next year indicate my
strong support for that program.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much.
END (AT 7:15 P.M. CST)