Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
4526085
label
Lincoln Day Dinner, Evansville, IN, February 3, 1968
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
4526085
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Lincoln Day Dinner, Evansville, IN, February 3, 1968
citationUrl
collections
Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
subjects
Federal budget
Inflation (Finance)
iiifBase
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
4526085
coverageEndDate
logicalDate
1968-02-29
month
2
year
1968
coverageStartDate
logicalDate
1968-02-01
month
2
year
1968
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
url
mediaId
27f0ea66c61259e5
ocrText
The original documents are located in Box D23, folder "Lincoln Day Dinner, Evansville,
IN, February 3, 1968" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File
at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box D23 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--For Release at 6:30 p.m. Saturday--
February 3, 1968
Excerpts from a Lincoln Day Dinner Speech at Evansville, Indiana.
President Johnson is asking the American people to pay for his mistakes.
That is the chief thrust of his State of the Union Message, his Budget
message and his Economic Report to the Nation. That is the significance of his
request for a 10 per cent income tax surcharge.
A few days ago Postmaster General Larry O'Brien remarked that President
Johnson would not attack his opponent in seeking reelection. Lyndon Johnson
would, O'Brien said, be continued in office on the strength of his record.
Let us take a look at that record. It is a record of mismanagement in the
handling of the Vietnam War and the domestic economy.
President Johnson's favorite line is: "Let us continue."
It is a meaningful phrase, for under Lyndon Johnson the Vietnam War con-
tinues, excessive federal spending continues, the threat of higher taxes
continues, the problems of our cities continue, the upsurge in consumer prices
continues, the squeeze on the farmer continues, the climb in the crime rate
continues, the rise in interest rates continues, the dangerous outflow of our
gold supply continues, deterioration of the dollar at home continues, and
massive federal deficits continue.
The answer, the President says--as though he has discovered a wonderful
cure for all our ills--is to add 10 per cent to the people's income tax bills.
He adds that "restraint is essential to our economic health" right now--and taxing
the people some more is his idea of restraint. Well, it's not mine. I say
restraint should begin with the President.
The President claims he is exercising restraint in federal spending. In
support of that claim he cites what he describes as "priorities" in his 1969
budget. Let me point out just two examples of the President's kind of
priorities--a $250 million increase in spending for development of a supersonic
transport plane and a 25 per cent increase--from $1.2 million to $1.5 million--
in highway beautification expenditures. These are Lyndon Johnson's priorities--
at a time when we are fighting a war costing $26 billion a year or more. I
don't believe the people will be misled by this pretense at frugality and prudence.
GERAL FORD LIBRARY
(more)
-2-
This is a time for putting first things first, not for going off in all
directions at once.
I feel sure the American people will not be deceived by President Johnson's
absurd exercise in priority-setting, any more than they will swallow his attempt
to blame the 90th Congress for the inflationary pressures generated by Johnson
Administration policies.
Johnson inflation not only has shrunk the dollar at home, it has hurt its
worth abroad. This is because Johnson inflation has so raised the price of
American goods that we have increasing difficulty in exporting them.
We can make progress in this country even in time of war, but not when the
federal government flirts with bankruptcy.
My good friend, House Majority Leader Carl Albert of Oklahoma, is fond of
saying that if Abraham Lincoln were living today he would be a Democrat.
Carl seems to have forgotten it was Lincoln who said: "The legitimate
object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to
have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves, in their
separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do
as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."
***
We currently are experiencing a failure in national leadership.
In this age of crisis the Nation sorely needs a new leader with a strong
sense of mission--to bring the Vietnam War to a successful conclusion, to steer
us clear of humiliating crises like the Pueblo incident, to curb inflation, to
restore world confidence in the dollar, to raze the slums and build our cities
anew, and to turn the national crime rate downward.
What is Lyndon Johnson's record of leadership? He has only succeeded in
accumulating federal deficits of more than $60 billion--half of that in fiscal
years 1967 and '68, pushing the federal debt to $370 billion and running up an
annual interest bill of $14.4 billion on that debt.
Soon the Democratic Party will be having its annual Jefferson-Jackson
Dinners. I suggest as a theme the following statement made by Thomas Jefferson
in 1816: "I place economy among the first and most important of republican
virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared."
###
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--For Release at 6:30 p.m. Saturday--
February 3, 1968
Excerpts from a Lincoln Day Dinner Speech at Evansville, Indiana.
President Johnson is asking the American people to pay for his mistakes.
That is the chief thrust of his State of the Union Message, his Budget
message and his Economic Report to the Nation. That is the significance of his
request for a 10 per cent income tax surcharge.
A few days ago Postmaster General Larry O'Brien remarked that President
Johnson would not attack his opponent in seeking reelection. Lyndon Johnson
would, O'Brien said, be continued in office on the strength of his record.
Let us take a look at that record. It is a record of mismanagement in the
handling of the Vietnam War and the domestic economy.
President Johnson's favorite line is: "Let us continue."
It is a meaningful phrase, for under Lyndon Johnson the Vietnam War con-
tinues, excessive federal spending continues, the threat of higher taxes
continues, the problems of our cities continue, the upsurge in consumer prices
continues, the squeeze on the farmer continues, the climb in the crime rate
continues, the rise in interest rates continues, the dangerous outflow of our
gold supply continues, deterioration of the dollar at home continues, and
massive federal deficits continue.
The answer, the President says--as though he has discovered a wonderful
cure for all our ills--is to add 10 per cent to the people's income tax bills.
He adds that "restraint is essential to our economic health" right now--and taxing
the people some more is his idea of restraint. Well, it's not mine. I say
restraint should begin with the President.
The President claims he is exercising restraint in federal spending. In
support of that claim he cites what he describes as "priorities" in his 1969
budget. Let me point out just two examples of the President's kind of
priorities--a $250 million increase in spending for development of a supersonic
transport plane and a 25 per cent increase--from $1.2 million to $1.5 million--
in highway beautification expenditures. These are Lyndon Johnson's priorities--
at a time when we are fighting a war costing $26 billion a year or more.
I
FORD
don't believe the people will be misled by this pretense at frugality and prudence.
(more)
-2-
This is a time for putting first things first, not for going off in all
directions at once.
I feel sure the American people will not be deceived by President Johnson's
absurd exercise in priority-setting, any more than they will swallow his attempt
to blame the 90th Congress for the inflationary pressures generated by Johnson
Administration policies.
Johnson inflation not only has shrunk the dollar at home, it has hurt its
worth abroad. This is because Johnson inflation has so raised the price of
American goods that we have increasing difficulty in exporting them.
We can make progress in this country even in time of war, but not when the
federal government flirts with bankruptcy.
My good friend, House Majority Leader Carl Albert of Oklahoma, is fond of
saying that if Abraham Lincoln were living today he would be a Democrat.
Carl seems to have forgotten it was Lincoln who said: "The legitimate
object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to
have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves, in their
separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do
as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."
***
We currently are experiencing a failure in national leadership.
In this age of crisis the Nation sorely needs a new leader with a strong
sense of mission--to bring the Vietnam War to a successful conclusion, to steer
us clear of humiliating crises like the Pueblo incident, to curb inflation, to
restore world confidence in the dollar, to raze the slums and build our cities
anew, and to turn the national crime rate downward.
What is Lyndon Johnson's record of leadership? He has only succeeded in
accumulating federal deficits of more than $60 billion--half of that in fiscal
years 1967 and '68, pushing the federal debt to $370 billion and running up an
annual interest bill of $14.4 billion on that debt.
Soon the Democratic Party will be having its annual Jefferson-Jackson
Dinners. I suggest as a theme the following statement made by Thomas Jefferson
in 1816: "I place economy among the first and most important of republican
virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared."
###