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7343912
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Remarks of the President at the PFC Volunteer Reception Breakfast, The Holiday Inn [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7343912
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Remarks of the President at the PFC Volunteer Reception Breakfast, The Holiday Inn [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
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1976-05-08
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1976
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Digitized from Box 25 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 8, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Omaha, Nebraska)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT THE
PFC VOLUNTEER RECEPTION BREAKFAST
THE HOLIDAY INN
8:35 A.M. CDT
Thank you very much, Carl. I want to thank
both Senator Carl Curtis and Senator Roman Hruska for their
great support, wonderful assistance. They, of course,
are two the outstanding legislators in the Congress
of the United States. They are long-time personal friends
and I can't thank Roman and Carl sufficiently for the
help and assistance they have given me. I am proud to
be associated with both of them and you should be proud of
them as your United States Senators, and I am also very
proud and very grateful for the fact that all of you are
here supporting me, and let me assure you I will not let
you down in the next four years.
I want to say with emphasis that Nebraska has
always been and is right now a very crucial State because
it is a contest within the Republican Party as to which of
the two nominees should represent our party in the next
four years, in the next campaign.
So what we do between now and next Tuesdav is
critical, is crucial. It requires a maximum effort by
all of you, by me and by our friends throughout the great
State of Nebraska.
If I might, I would like to take just a minute
to reemphasize in your minds what at least I believe are the
things we can say affirmatively, the things that are critical
as we talk to our Nation, to our friends and to anybody
else who will listen.
You can put it in three words, really, the
achievements of the last 21 months since I have had the
privilege of being President of the United States. You can
say it is prosperity, it is peace and it is trust. Those are
three pretty good words.
Let's take each of them for just a moment. We
can say with emphasis that when I became President the
economic situation in this country was deteriorating.
Inflation was over 12 percent. We have cut it down for the
first three months of this year -- it is under 3 percent.
That is a 75 percent reduction in the rate of inflation.
That is progress by any standards.
MORE
Page 2
When I became President, we were on the
brink of the worst economic conditions this country had
suffered for almost forty years. Employment was going
down. Unemployment was going up. We got some news
yesterday that showed that we have completely reversed that
situation.
Yesterday the Department of Labor announced,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that employment in the month
of April, just one month, had gone up 700,000 and that
if you go back to the last 12 months, and go from May or
April to April, we had gained 3 million 300 thousand jobs
in the United States, and that is not a bad batting
average either.
And the net result is that as of last month
84 million 700 thousand people were gainfullv employed.
That is an all-time record in the history of the United States.
I am sorry--86 million 700 thousand. But it shows the
progress. It shows that we have been doing the right
thing, and the net result is our economy is on a very good
track, and if I have the opportunity to be the President
for the next four years, we will continue those policies
and that progress will likewise continue in the future.
Now, let's talk about peace. I am going to say
at the University of Nebraska, when I have the privilege
of speaking there this morning, that this is the first
graduating class in a long, long time -- back since 1941 --
that hasn't had to expect the draft or Selective Service.
that we have been able to man our Army, Navy, Air Force
and Marines by voluntary action on the part of those who want
to enlist.
So this is progress. We are able to do the job,
to maintain the peace without depending upon Selective Service
or the draft. In other words, we have a capability through
strength to convince our allies that we are strong and
to convince our adversaries that they shouldn't tinker with
us.
So under any standard that you say, we have
sufficient military capability to carry out our missions, our
allies know it and our adversaries know it.
Then I think you can say that since the tragedy of
the period just before I became President, there had been
a great loss of confidence by many of our fellow Americans.
We have had an onen Administration, a candid Administration,
a frank Administration, and the net result is there has
been a restoration of confidence and trust in the White
House and I can assure you that in the next four years this
policy of openness, frankness, integrity, will absolutely
continue, ,as it must under our kind of Government, and as it
will under the Ford Administration.
MORE
Page 3
And one further comment. Ever since becoming
President, we have never promised more than we could
perform and we will perform on everything we promise,
and that is the kind of relationship that I think a
President must have with the people of this country,
and that is the way it will be because that is the way
it has been.
We are not going out to tell people that we will
promise them the moon when we know in our hearts we can't
perform. And everything we tell them, everything we
promise them, we will achieve. That is the way we have
been and the net results are good--prosperity, peace and
trust between the people and the President of the United
States.
And, therefore, it is my view that we can go to
our fellow citizens with an assurance, with a feeling that
they can trust us and we can work for them.
Thank you very, very much.
END
(AT 8:42 A.M. CDT)