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Remarks of the President at a President Ford Committee Reception, Town and Campus Inn [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7346214
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Remarks of the President at a President Ford Committee Reception, Town and Campus Inn [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 13, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Union, New Jersey)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT A
PRESIDENT FORD COMMITTEE RECEPTION
TOWN AND CAMPUS INN
5:20 P.M. EDT
Thank you, Matt; thank you, Cliff; thank you,
Millicent; thank you, Dave; thank you Tom Kean, I thank
all of you. You know, I have said it before, but I want
to say it again. I saw a sign down the road that says
"Jersey Loves Jerry." But, let me reciprocate -- Jerry
loves Jersey.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to the New
Jersey delegation that went to Kansas City and came
through with, I think, flying colors. It depended upon
the great organization and the support of Tom Kean,
Millicent, Matt and everybody else. I thank you from the
bottom of my heart.
Incidentally, I want you to make darned sure
that you re-elect Matt, that you re-elect Millicent,
you elect Dave so we can have a far better Congress to
help Cliff Case in the next four years.
You know out in Kansas City in my acceptance
speech I said I was going to not concede a single State,
a single vote, and we were going to campaign from the snowy
banks of Minnesota to the sandy plains of Georgia.
We are doing it. We were in New York yesterday.
We had agreat reception in Flatbush, in Brooklyn in
Manhattan. We have been in Yonkers and White Plains and
Rockland in Orange County. We were in New Jersey, had two
great stops, including this one, and I am encouraged. I
know we are going to carry New Jersey November 2, period.
One of the most important issues in this campaign,
especially in New Jersey, is taxes. The people of New
Jersey have already heard four sides of the tax issue
two from Governor Carter and two from Governor Byrne.
You know firsthand how risky. it is when a
candidate says one thing about taxes on the campaign
trail and then does something else when he gets into-
office. You know what it is like when a candidate faces
the voters with a smile (Laughter) and then turns his
back on them later. You have been burned before.
I will just say this: I think Mr. Carter has
tried to do the same thing to you.
MORE
(OVER)
Page 2
Let me give you some examples. First, back
in February Mr. Carter said he wanted to eliminate the
home mortgage interest deduction on your Federal income
tax return. Not long after that he said maybe he wouldn't
eliminate it. He said, as it stands now -- nobody is
sure, certainly Mr. Carter -- just what he wants to do
on this particular item.
Second, a few weeks ago Mr. Carter suggested
that he would raise income taxes for anybody from the mean
to the medium income tax level, which means about $14, 000
per person. Now he says, "That isn't what I meant.' He
says he has not studied the subject at all but he will
let us know how he really feels after he has been in
office for a few months.
Let me talk straight to you. That is too darned
late. I think the people of New Jersey ought to know,
along with 215 million other Americans, before the election
what Mr. Carter really intends to do about your taxes after
the election. Third, Mr. Carter proposed putting a tax
on all church properties other than the church building
itself. He wants to tax church-supported schools, church-
supported hospitals, church-supported orphanages and church-
supported retirement homes. Those activities are just
as much a part of the church's work as the physical place
of worship and we shouldn't let him get away with that
kind of a tax policy.
Fourth, Mr. Carter his platform that he
embraced and many people say he wrote -- calls for
between $100 billion and $200 billion in additional
Federal spending, yet he talks about balancing the
budget without raising your income taxes. He can't have
it both ways. He can't talk about compassion and not
have compassion for the hard working middle income
taxpayers in this country.
The American people have a big heart but too
many politicians mistake that big heart for a blank
check, and I don't think the American people want to give
that kind of authority to a candidate for the Presidency
of the United States who says one thing on Monday and
another thing on Tuesday. He is on both sides of the
issue, and he cannot be trusted with this kind of a state-
ment on that kind of a platform.
We have got to beat him in New Jersey and in
Michigan and in 48 other States. It is not an act of
compassion to prevent a young couple from buying a home
because Federal borrowing for deficit spending sends
interest rates up. It is not an act of compassion to put
generations of Americans deeply in debt and mortgage
their future before they are born. You worked very hard,
every one of you here and all of those several thousand
outside. You worked very hard for the money that you earn.
Your tax dollars should work just as hard for you as you
worked for them. You know who pays the bill for each
campaign promise. You know when the bills come due
you get stuck with them, predicated on false promises
before an election.
MORE
Page 3
In the last two years I vetoed some 60 various
bills sent down to the Oval Office from Capitol Hill. My
vetoes saved us $9-1/2 billion. I am darned proud of
that record. And if we had had more stalwart Republicans
up there to help with those vetoes we could have saved
you another $16 billion. So, that is a good reason why
we ought to change the Congress and get the right kind
of a Congress for the next two years.
Mr. Carter talks about tax reform. I think the
best tax reform that we can talk about is tax reduction,
cut spending, cut taxes, keep more of your own money. For
the last 10 years now Federal spending has grown at an
alarming rate, thanks to an overtaxing, overspending,
overburdening Congress.
The budget that I submitted to the Congress
last January sought to cut the rate of growth in Federal
spending by 50 percent. I asked for a $28 billion tax
reduction coupled with a $28 billion reduction in Federal
spending. The Congress sent me a $10 billion tax
reduction and an $18 billion increase in Federal
spending. That is going the wrong way, and that is
another reason why we have to change this Congress in
this election.
The most meaningful tax reduction, the one you
understand the best, the one that helps the middle
income taxpayers the most, is an increase in the personal
exemption from $750 to $1,000. If you take a family
of three children, a husband and wife, one taxpayer,
that family gets, under my proposal to increase the
personal exemption by $250 -- that family would get
$1,250 more, more, more in tax reduction. That is the
kind of meaningful tax reduction that you ought to get,
215 million Americans ought to get, and that is what
President Ford proposed, and that is what he will propose
in January of next year as President of the United States.
As I have said before, the middle income
taxpayer gets shortchanged. He has been shortchanged
for the last 22 years. He has been shortchanged by
a Congress controlled for 22 years by the Democratic
Party.
Mr. Carter calls our tax laws a disgrace.
Well, he ought to look back and see the pages of history.
What political party has controlled both the House
and the Senate for the last 22 years? They have passed
every tax law; they have passed every loophole.
I think you know where to put the blame. Let's
make sure, darned sure we get more good Republicans from
the State of New Jersey to go down and help us with this
tax problem in the next session of the Congress.
MORE
Page 4
We have less than three weeks to go. It
hardly seems possible. It is a very crucial three weeks,
but the decisions that people make in the State of
New Jersey, New York, Michigan and 47 others, those
decisions will determine the direction of the American
people in our great country for the first four years
of our third century.
Mr. Carter and his party platform offer more
promises, more programs, more spending, more taxes,
more inflation and more unemployment. I say the
Government is already too big, too powerful, too costly,
too remote and too deeply involved in your personal
life.
I want your Government to be made your servant,
not your meddling master.
I am a candidate for the Presidency because
I have a deep conviction and faith, a deep inward feeling
that the American people want to go the direction we want
to take them. And, therefore, I come to the great State
of New Jersey to ask for your help and your support.
New Jersey is a key State. New Jersey can
make the difference whether we have enough electoral
votes on November 2 to win.
So, let me just conclude by saying I know we
will win in New Jersey. Jerry loves Jersey, and I have
a good feeling that Jersey loves Jerry like Jerry loves
Jersey.
Thank you very much.
END
(AT 5:33 P.M. EDT)