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Exchange of Remarks between the President and Senator Peter J. Domenici [Ford Speech or Statement]
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Exchange of Remarks between the President and Senator Peter J. Domenici [Ford Speech or Statement]
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Digitized from Box 32 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 2, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
EXCHANGE OF REMARKS
BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT
AND
PETER J. DOMENICI
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
TO THE
PRESIDENT FORD COMMITTEE ON ETHNIC AFFAIRS
THE STATE DINING ROOM
11:40 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. It is wonderful
to see you all, and I am very pleased to welcome you to the
State Dining Room.
I know that the President Ford Campaign Committee
on Ethnic Affairs is going to play a very vital role in
this election. I am especially pleased to announce that my
good friend, Pete Domenici, has agreed to serve as the
chairman of this group.
I think Pete's story is a very inspiring one.
He is the son of Italian immigrants, and I think Pete
embodies all of the values that are the very backbone of
this country. Pete is a great campaigner. He tells me
he was out in New Mexico last night and flew back on the
red-eye special. (Laughter) And so anybody with that
dedication and that willingness to work is the right
kind of chairman for this very, very important campaign
committee. So, we thank you very, very much, Pete.
I am delighted to see not only all of you who
are leaders in your respective communities, but the Members
of Congress who are likewise vitally important, representing
their congressional districts but also their ethnic groups.
All of you as leaders in your community are vitally
important in this campaign.
I have said on many occasions, at the Convention
in my acceptance speech and down in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida that I don't concede a single State
and I don't concede a single vote.
The election is going to be close. We started
from behind, but we have the momentum, and I believe very
strongly that this election can and will be won by the
Ford-Dole ticket.
MORE
Page 2
It just so happens that the record and the
program of the Ford Administration coincides with the
aspirations of the groups that you represent. It is my
observation that those who have an ethnic background want
a job, a meaningful job opportunity. They are willing
to work and will go out and try to find a job.
This Administration believes that everybody who
wants a job should have a job, and this Administration is
going to achieve that result.
We don't think the situation is adequate today,
but our program of trying to expand the domestic economy,
the private sector, where five out of six jobs exist,
is the way to get a job for the young American; for those
who want a job and who are willing to work.
American ethnics want a home in a decent
neighborhood. This Administration believes that every-
body who will work and save can get a home in a decent
neighborhood under the program that we believe in.
We have to reduce down payments. We have to
have variable mortgage payments so that young couples,
when they start out, won't have to pay as much when their
income is down, but as their income situation improves,
they will be able to pay more.
This Administration has established under the
Secretary of HUD, Carla Hills, a Committee -- a joint
cabinet committee -- on Urban Development and Neighborhood
Revitalization, and this committee will do a good job in
making certain that your ethnic communities are preserved
in our major metropolitan areas.
With a job and a home, you can raise a family,
you can support your schools and you can support your
social clubs. You can preserve your cultural and spiritual
heritages, and those are vitally important.
This Administration believes that we also have
to take a forward step in the area of education. We have
supported the elementary and secondary education programs
that where the Federal Government makes contributions to
State and local educational bodies, we don't think the
system works as well with some 24 categorical grant
programs.
We believe that the same amount or more money
ought to go to elementary and secondary schools in a block
grant program so that teachers and administrators don't have
to spend all of their time making out Federal forms; so
they can spend their time teaching the children of all
Americans and thereby get a better education for the
young in this country.
MORE
Page 3
Although I am a product of public schools, I
strongly believe that our nonpublic schools are vitally
important in our society. Public schools are better
when they have competition from nonpublic schools.
Therefore, it has always been my view that we should find
a way under our Federal tax policy to give an opportunity
for those who want to send their children to nonpublic
schools should get some tax relief.
One final comment. On July 4 this country
celebrated its 200th birthday. It was a glorious
day. I think more Americans were thrilled by what took
place that day than almost any day in recent history.
On that occasion we honored the achievements of
the past, but in the third century I think we have to
write a new and better history for America. We have to
have jobs for our people. We have to have homes for
our old as well as young. We have to have safety on our
streets. We have to have the opportunity for better
health care. We have to have a strong nation with peace
at home and with peace abroad.
This nation, over the years, has done a good
job in keeping itself strong and healthy both here and
abroad. But sometimes it is helpful for us to learn
about the sadness and tragedy of other nations.
Just this past week, if you have been reading
the papers, our strong and good ally, Great Britain, has
been faced with a very serious crisis. You may have read
tht the Prime Minister of Great Britain appeared before
his own Labor Party Convention, calling for them to
support him in a strong fiscal and monetary policy so that
Great Britain could meet the crisis that has confronted
them in the last year or two, a crisis which has reached a
peak within the last few weeks.
I read of the speech that Prime Minister Callaghan
gave to his Labor Convention and one sentence in that
speech impressed me tremendously, and it is a sentence that
I think we should take a good look at and perhaps learn
something from. Let me read it to you.
"Britain for too long has lived on borrowed
time, borrowed money and borrowed ideas. We will fail if
we think we can buy our way out of our present difficulties
by printing confetti money and by paying ourselves more
than we earn."
MORE
Page 4
That is a very, very powerful sentence given by
a courageous Prime Minister, telling not only the people
in his party but the people of Great Britain that they
have to take strong action in a time of crisis.
Let me say that as long as Jerry Ford is
President, Jerry Ford will never let the United States
of America reach this kind of a crisis.
Now it is my great privilege to introduce your
chairman, an outstanding Member of the United States
Senate, a real leader, Senator Pete Domenici.
SENATOR DOMENICI: Thank you very much, Mr.
President.
You know, you indicated to our adviser group
that is here that I am the son of immigrant parents, and
indeed I am. Both my mother and father were born in the
country of Italy.
Mr. President, how proud my mother is that I am
here today and that you have asked me to do this, and I am
sure my beloved father would probably have flown back on
the red-eye with me if he were alive, Mr. President, so
he could be here today on this occasion.
Let me tell you a little bit about your advisory
group. We have 26 nationalities represented here, Mr.
President, from 13 States. We have been working to put
this team together. We have a wonderful team of staff
workers, and we are going to commit to you, Mr.
President, that the Democratic Party and the Democratic
candidates are going to find out this year that they
cannot take the ethnic vote for granted anywhere in the
United States.
Mr. President, we all support you for the same
reason because basically we love our families, we love
our country, we love our little homes that we have bought.
Our sons and daughters have had a great opportunity in
this land, and we admire and expect two things: Integrity--
and you abound in that--and, secondly, you have a great
respect for all people. You treat all people the same,
and that means you are going to treat our ethnics just as
other Americans have been treated.
That means, Mr. President, when you are elected
and begin to serve your first year of your elected term,
that we are going to look to you, Mr. President, to
give back to us what we are giving to you. We are going
to give you a full American treatment from ethnics, and
we only want a full American treatment back to our ethnics
from you and from Government.
MORE
Page 5
There is one thing, Mr. President, that those
who came to our country from foreign lands--probably,
above all else--one thing that they retain and that they
will never let go away, and that is their religion;
their love for their church and their desire that their
children and their family participate in all the things
that churches that they belong to can provide.
With that, Mr. President, I want to tell you
that something disturbs me about Governor Carter's
recent statement, and I will quote. He said recently,
Mr. President -- and I also tell my advisory group this,
we will talk about it today as we meet -- but he said
in the Religion Liberty Association of America Seventh
Day Adventist publication, and I will quote for you, Mr.
President, that he would "favor the taxation of church
property other than the church building itself."
Now, Mr. President, this disturbs me, and I am
sure when we finish meeting today, that we will have a
statement for you from our ethnic advisory committee on
this proposition.
I don't favor that if that means that hospitals,
or religious institutions that our churches own that are
not directly related to a building called a church are
going to be taxed so we can raise more revenue for the
American tax coffers.
There are a lot of other ways to do it, and we
don't want to do it that way, Mr. President. We know
that profit-making endeavors of our churches are presently
taxed, and I think you support that and I think we
support that. But, Mr. President, we think it would do
great violence to the ability of our churches to supply
the great kinds of social needs that they are now giving to
us and our children if this proposition by Governor
Carter became the law of the land, that only the church
building itself would be exempt from taxes.
I know that you have some feelings on this. If
you would, Mr. President, I would like you to give us your
observations on this and, once again, I thank you for the
privilege you have given me for being your chairman and
we make a commitment to you today -- that we are going to
prove that the ethnics in this country just don't follow
any party, they vote for a man and they are going to
elect you as President.
MORE
Page 6
THE PRESIDENT: Senator, I was, of course, very,
very disturbed when I heard about the proposal of Governor
Carter. I think my opponent's proposal to tax church
properties other than the church building is a very, very
unfortunate and disturbing development. Nothing could
be worse for church-operated schools, hospitals and
orphanages, many of which face constant financial struggles
to make ends meet.
I think the more we learn of my opponent's plans
for future taxes, the more troublesome they become. I can
tell you unequivocally, emphatically, that this Adminis-
tration has neither plans nor supports any effort to
tax churches beyond the present scope of Federal taxation.
It seems to me instead of a tax proposal to
increase taxes in this way we should make additional
efforts in the area of tax reform. When I talk about
tax reform, I talk about tax reduction for the middle
income taxpayer.
So, Pete, thank you. I thank all of you.
Why don't we take a few minutes and-say hello
and let me chat with each of you individually.
Thank you very much.
END
(AT 11:58 A.M. EDT)