You will see your gasoline and your heating bills and your cooling bills and every other bill, you will see them plummet and you will see inflation start to go away. I will eliminate the Biden ATFs ridiculous pistol brace rule, which orders law-abiding citizens to register or surrender guns with stabilizing braces. Does everybody like that or should I forget about it? They wanted me to put that in. I guess some people are happy with it. To restore our Second Amendment, we will pass legislation protecting the absolute right to self-defense with federal penalties for prosecutorial abuse, like we saw just recently in Texas. You saw that? Where a man was trying to defend himself and they want to put him in jail for the rest of his life, and I will ask Congress to send a bill to my desk delivering national concealed carry reciprocity. You want protection. Just like your driver's license or your marriage license, your Second Amendment must apply across state lines. The Biden gun control agenda is part and parcel of the left wing crusade to organize government against law-abiding citizens, while letting criminals roam free. They are all over the place. I have never seen anything like it. You are afraid to walk through one of these democrat cities. You go out for a loaf of bread, you end up getting shot. As president, I will end the weaponization of our government, including the ATF, the FBI, and the DOJ. They have weaponized our country. I will dismantle and destroy the deep state. We made a big progress, and that includes the gun grabbing bureaucrats who are persecuting gun owners and manufacturers every single day. You people are getting persecuted by these left wing maniacs. No longer will government target the left's political enemies. Instead, we will once again target violent criminals. I want to go after the criminals. These are mentally deranged or bad people, and we have to go after them and stop worrying about somebody that will never hurt anybody with a gun, just wants the gun for protection or whatever. We will get them behind bars and we will keep them behind bars. They do not even Now in New York, we have a district attorney. You can kill somebody and you do not even have to put up bail. It is insane and that is true with many different cities. You talk about April Fools Day. Murderers, killers, violent animals are released onto the streets immediately.


They do not even spend time in jail. The first duty of government is to protect its citizens. As an example, when you see these gangs of hundreds of young, usually young people, go and attack an apartment store, department store in San Francisco and Los Angeles and Chicago, and they are running by the hundreds and they are running out carrying refrigerators and carrying air conditioners and big stuff, big, little, everything, fur coats, non-fur coat, everything they are carrying. They empty out the stores and we Our police are incredible, but they are not allowed to do their job. They want to do their job so badly. They want to do their job, be so easy to do, but they are not allowed to do their job, because of these radical lunatics we have thinking they are doing the right thing. I do not even think they do think they are doing the right thing. The politically incorrect truth, that no one on the left wants to admit, is that violent crime is rarely committed by legal gun owners. It is committed by a brutal class of hardened repeat criminals. That is who is doing it. In San Francisco, and who would've thought San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In San Francisco, murder suspects have an average of 13.9 prior arrests and 9.2 felony arrests. In Portland shooting Suspects have an average of eight prior arrests and nine criminal charges. In Washington D.C., a place that I am very familiar with, four years. When I saw tents going up, I had them take them down immediately. You cannot do that on these incredible parks and these incredible monuments. They were putting tents up and I take them down immediately, because you can do that much easier than when you have hundreds and even thousands. You have to see what is happened to Washington D.C. since I have left. But in Washington D.C., an estimated 70% of all violent crime, and there is a lot of it involving guns, is concentrated among a group of just 500 chronic law-breakers. With most suspects arrested 11 times, at least, before being involved in a murder. They ultimately end up in a murder and then they end up getting like a year and sometimes less, and sometimes they are not even prosecuted. Let us get Trump. Let us get that son of a bitch. Let us get him. This career criminal class cares nothing about gun laws in Chicago.

Donald Trump Addresses NRA Meeting in Indianapolis Transcript


Just 3% of prison inmates, who used a gun, bought it at a store. So all of the gun owners in this room, a lot of them Who is a gun owner? Who is a gun owner, first of all? Is there anybody in the room who does not own a gun? Raise your hand if you have the courage. Okay, and how many people own gun stores and sell guns? The issue is too many thugs, hoodlums and savage criminals on our street. Instead of getting these dangerous killers into jail, we have radical DAs and attorney generals, prosecutors all across this country, subverting the law to attack conservative people and religious people, evangelicals, Christians. The very same raging, radical left, lunatic attorney general that is coming after me in New York State is also waging war on the NRA, shamefully trying to destroy this legendary organization that is been an American institution since 1871. You know when the NRA endorsed me in 2016, for the 2016 campaign, it was fairly early, and I do have two sons who are really good shots. They have been a member of the NRA for a long time, and I think maybe that helped, but they endorsed me. That was considered one of the greatest things to do. That it was like getting into the Wharton School of Finance or getting into Harvard or getting into a great college. And they endorsed me very early and it was a great honor. We did a great job. And they better endorse me again, or they are going to have some explaining to do. They will have some explaining to today. No, I do believe we are in pretty good shape, but when you see the polls in a little while, you can understand that we are in pretty good shape. I have never seen such spirit as there is right now. And part of that, sadly, is because they are doing such a horrible job of running our country, which is really destroying our country, and I think it makes us even more popular to be honest with you. They are doing such a horrible job. What they are doing is destroying our great country. I want to congratulate you for fighting it so bravely, all of the things that have been happening to you. The racist in reverse, ran for office on the promise, I will get Trump. You ever see the commercial? I will get Trump. I am going to get him. Did not know anything about me, she is running for office.


But I am watching her campaign and a lot of people in the race and get a few people that vote, very few people actually it takes to get in. But she proclaimed, I look forward to going into the Office of Attorney General every single day suing him and then going home, being very happy. But she announced, What is fueling my soul right now is Trump, getting Trump. And she knows nothing about me. So it is not an investigation, you are going through the same thing, it is a persecution. Just like her attacks on the NRA and just like the witch hunts against us by the Manhattan DA, the Marxist DA in Atlanta, and the guy I have watching, this guy's central casting, the guy from Washington special prosecutor. They say special counsel, I call it a prosecutor, it is much better. They are looking at the boxes hoax. Biden has 1,850 boxes that are unaccounted for. He had many boxes in Chinatown, classified information, many boxes. They got them out of there, but they got caught. And they sent them up to Boston and they sit up in Boston and then it was revealed that he got millions of dollars from the Chinese. He got millions of dollars. But he has boxes in Chinatown, boxes all over the place. They do not care about that, they only care about Trump. But they are trying to arrest their political opposition, it is really very much like the old Soviet Union. They called Soviet style with elections and with the interference. They are interfering with the election, that is what they are doing. It is going to be hard for them to get away with the kind of corruption they did when they had ENTITY because ENTITY made a lot of things bad for a lot of people, but they cheated and going to be hard. So now I really believe they are going the prosecutorial way, that is the route. Where they use prosecutors to Do not forget if you are a With me, it is sort of interesting because my numbers have gone way up, you explain this to me. But other people, because you know me, the truth is the American public knows me well and they know that is my deal, but they do not know a lot of people running for office. So if you have a young good Republican running for office gets a subpoena and then they leak it out to the papers, it is impossible for this guy to win a race.


So we have done something that I do not believe has ever done before, and we are going to stay there and we are going to go even higher if we can. I am not sure you can go higher, but we are going to go even higher if you can because we have to save our country. They are not coming after me, they are coming after you and I am just sort of in the way. I am in of these people. And as everybody knows, it is all because we are leading so big in the polls, not only against Republicans, but also against Joe Biden. And if you take a look this week's morning consult poll I led the field by 33 points with Trump 56 DeSanctis 23, Pence 5. I hope you gave Pence a good warm approval because he is a nice man, if you want to really know the truth. You have made news today. I do not know what you did, but you made news today with the introduction you gave. Nikki Haley, that is another, that is a beauty, she is at 4 and Abbott's at 1. I do not think Abbott's going to run, Governor of Texas. In a two-way poll of Florida last week it was Trump 47 and DeSanctis 32%. And there was another poll in Florida where Trump was at 80 and DeSanctis was at 50, and that is a Florida poll. In Texas it is Trump, 52% DeSanctis 20, Pence 5, Haley 4. The only way we can lose is if we go prevent defense. Do you know what that means? In football where they are holding the team to no score and then they go prevent the last two minutes and they lose the game. But you can take a look on the screen and you will see some of these things posted and they are really big polls. Massachusetts were leading by I think like 45, almost 50 points. In New Hampshire we are leading by a lot. In Iowa the farmers can never vote for me. I got China to pay the farmers $28 billion for the damage that they caused. And so you see some of these, I just thought you'd put them up. Remember in the old days, I used to always announce polls only if they were good, I would not announce them if they were not good. If I had a bad one, I would. But when they were good I used to drive the opposition crazy.


But we are leading Biden now by a lot, 7 points, 9 points and a 10 point, but seven points in the last Rasmussen poll. And I am the one that they do not want to run against, that is why they are coming after me like this. Instead, they put these monsters in there, they put these radical left crazy people in. They are the party of disinformation, remember that. What they say, you can usually go the opposite. They say, Oh yeah, we want to run against Trump. In the meantime, they got 5,000 prosecutors after my ass. We want to run against him so bad, we are going to run against him. That is the guy we want Trump. Please get him out as fast as you can. Nah, they are the party of disinformation or misinformation, nobody knows the difference but they are pretty close. It is no wonder that the far left crazies are engaging in election interference on a historic scale. Nobody outside of this country, nobody has ever seen anything like what is happening now with the prosecutors, these Marxist prosecutors, who release rapists and murderers while persecuting conservatives. On day one of my new administration I will direct the DOJ with a very strong leader, not like Barr, not like Bill Barr. You do not do anything. Remember they were going to impeach him and then all of a sudden he actually said, no, he did not see any wrongdoing in the election. My young son, very young, saw a lot of wrongdoing in the election every. Did anybody in this room can they say they did not see any wrong? That was the worst horror show, I think one of the greatest criminal acts ever, the election of 2020. But we will turn that around and it'll be even bigger. If you think about it, it'll be even bigger. We will be able to do things we could have never done because they have shown so bad. In other words, they want to show us. Well, they showed us. We have no energy. We have massive crime. Nobody respects us in the whole world. I mean, there is not a leader that respects our leader. We will show them through this horrible four years that we are going through. The problem is we cannot take any more of it because we are not going to have a country left.


But we will show them that we can do things and we will be able to do things on crime and other elements of society we will be able to do things that you probably would not have been able to do if you just carried it forward. So I think it is actually much bigger, this could be much bigger than if we went the more traditional route. I will direct the DOJ to investigate every radical DA and attorney general and American for their illegal race in reverse based enforcement of the law. I will then appoint a team of warrior US attorneys, and I know know some great ones including from this area, who will be the polar opposite of the DeSoro's district attorneys. These guys, I mean, what they are thinking? They are either stupid or they hate our country, and I do not think they are stupid because anybody that can cheat so well in election, they are not stupid. That means they hate our country and I believe they hate our country. They will be the 100 most ferocious crime fighters in American history and I will task them with demolishing every gang, street crew and criminal network they can find piece by piece until public safety is fully restored, and that means in Democrat run cities. And at the top of the list is Washington DC itself, which is absolutely plagued by numbers and crime that nobody's ever seen before. We have never seen anything like what is happening in Washington DC. Can you imagine these foreign leaders coming over from countries and they are looking at this filth and squalor and crime in our capitol? And I think we have to take it over. We have to take over management of our capitol because the people that are running, including the mayor who did nothing about January 6th, he was the one, No, we do not need anybody. We do not need any help. Along with crazy Nancy Pelosi, they did nothing. They did absolutely nothing. They are in charge of it. But all of our Democrat run cities are being absolutely ruined and destroyed. I will order the ATF to stop bullying gun store owners and wanting to shut them down for paperwork errors and instead go after drug dealers, human traffickers and criminal cartels, which is what they should be going after. Under Biden other countries are emptying out their prisons insane asylums and mental institutions and sending them right here to the USA.


I read a story not long ago where a man who takes care of a large segment of people in a mental institution in a South American country, a doctor, sounded like a great man actually, he said he no longer has anything to do. He used to work 24 hour days. He said, All of our patients have been released into the United States of America. And this is what we have. This is what we have allowed to happen. And we cannot allow this to happen because we will not have a country any longer. Under my leadership, we will quickly restore the most secure border in US history. We had the strongest border in history, and now we have, I think, the worst border in the history of the world because no country, even a Third World country, would allow what is happening right now to us to happen to them. The first reconciliation Bill I signed for a massive increase in border patrol. These Border Patrol and Brandon Judd and all of his people, they are incredible, the job they do. Tom Homan as a man that knows it, you see him on television, I call him central casting. But these two guys and all of the people that work with him, they are so good. They want to do their job. It is going to be a colossal increase in the number of ICE and Border Patrol, deportation offices following the Eisenhower model. I do not know if you know Dwight Eisenhower was very tough on the subject. We will use all necessary state, local, federal, and military resources to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. And I will ask every state and federal agency to identify every known or suspected gang member in America. And every one of them that is here legally we will pick them up and we will send them back to the country from which they came as we restore safety to our streets. have no choice. As we restore safety to our streets, we must also restore it to our schools. Hardening places of lording, we have to harden our assets to protect our children against threats of any kind. Last month, our hearts were shattered by news of the monstrous attack on a Christian elementary school in Nashville that claimed the lives of three adults and three precious children. Today we wrapped those beautiful families in our love and we lift them up in our prayers. We also salute the law enforcement heroes who ran into danger and took out that killer with speed and skill that made us all very, very proud.


It is a scandal and a tragedy that year after year Democrats in Washington continue to hold common sense school safety measures hostage to their radical gun control agenda, which in virtually all cases would do nothing to prevent attacks by demented and disturbed individuals, of which we have many and many are coming into our country, but we are getting them out. Our country has been chock-full of guns for centuries and there was no talk of massacres of school children until around the year 2000. They started talking about it. Each and every one of these heinous attacks depend on the same cold-blooded calculation that the evil monster will have a window of time to act out their demonic fantasy unchallenged, they want to be unchallenged, they do not want challenge. The only way to stop these wicked acts is to ensure that any sicko who would shoot up a school knows that, within seconds, not minutes, they will face certain death. They have to know that, then they will not be doing it. For this reason, I will ask Congress to repeal totally ineffective legislation that makes it harder to protect our schools and easier for criminals to face absolutely no opposition when they go in. I will also create a new tax credit to reimburse any teacher for the full cost of a concealed carry firearm and training from highly qualified experts who is better. If even 5% of teachers, people that are skilled with arms, we want that. 5% were voluntarily armed and trained to stop active shooters, we would achieve effective deterrents and the problem would cease to exist and that would be a lot of people, but these are all people that are trained and talented with firearms. For about $12 billion, we could fund arm security guards at the entrance every school in America and also arm every willing teacher. We want to arm some of these teachers that have to go through rigorous or some people say vigorous, I like vigorous better, I do not like rigorous, they have to go through vigorous training, but they are already there and they will do better than anybody you could put in. And they love our children. They really love our children. If we can send $120 billion to Ukraine, then we can afford one-tenth of that amount to protect American children in American schools. We also need to drastically change our approach to mental health.


Upon my inauguration, I will direct the FDA to convene, and it is going to happen quickly, to convene an independent outside panel to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression, and even violence. I think most of us already know the answer, do not we? Furthermore, we have to look at whether common psychiatric drugs as well as genetically engineered cannabis and other narcotics are causing psychotic breaks, lot of problems. We are having problems that we have never seen before and people sort of think they understand why. We must also be much better at detecting warning signs of evil disturbed young men, like the one who murdered colleagues in Louisville, we cannot rest until we get to the bottom of all of the sickness that we are seeing in our country. I will fight to restore our safety and I will also fight to reclaim our freedom. We are going to have freedom in our country. We are going to be able to walk down the street and buy a loaf of bread and come back and not be shot. To defend our constitution and the rule of law, I will give you my word today that I will appoint rock solid constitutional conservatives to crush the communists from our federal bench. They are communists, many of them. We did a great job. We set a record, but there is more to go. Before election day 2024, I will once again release the full list of names from which I select my appointments to the United States Supreme Court so everyone can see who I am . Thinking about putting there, I did that last time and a lot of people said it made a big difference. It will be an all star roster of young fearless originalists in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia, great man and the great lion of American Liberty. Justice Clarence Thomas, by the way, they are after him. Did you see it? They are after him now. They are after Clarence now, but he can take care of himself very well. At the same time, conservatives can no longer sit by and wait for the courts to save America. Our country is being plundered and ransacked by radical left barbarians who are trying to burn down every right and every liberty that we hold so dear. The next time we have power, Congress has to step up and stop this Marxist revolution and it strikes. We have a Marxist revolution going on and I think you are starting to see it. I think you are starting to see it, and we have to stop it fast.


This is what we must do to save our country. With your vote and with a Republican house and a Republican Senate, and we have a really good chance at both, I will lead the great rebirth of American freedom. We will build a future where we are free of crime and free of violence and free from fear, is fear, where we are free from dependence on foreign countries. We are so dependent on so many foreign countries, in particular China, where we are free from the shackles of an unelected deep state from corrupt intelligence agencies, free from war, free from poverty, free to speak our minds, and last but certainly not least, free to keep and bear arms. And in closing, I have to state, the USA is a mess. Our economy is crashing, inflation is out of control. Russia has joined with China, unthinkable. Saudi Arabia, great people, have joined with Iran. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea have formed together as a menacing and destructive coalition. Our currency is crashing and will soon no longer be the world's standard, which will be our greatest defeat in 200 years and was unthinkable just a few years ago. Unthinkable that that could happen, but it is happening before your very eyes and we will not let it happen. With me, not even a chance, just like Russia would've never invaded Ukraine, and China would not be having even a thought of raiding Taiwan. You did not hear about these things when I was president. If you took the five worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up, they would not have done near the destruction to our country as Joe Biden and the Biden administration have done. We are a nation in decline, and now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement and we cannot let that happen. But with all of this being said, and with a very dark cloud hanging over our country, I have no doubt that we will, together as a group, make America great again. I have no doubt. God bless you all. God bless you.


I have an announcement with regard to the energy crisis that I will now make, and at the conclusion of my announcement, Mr. Simon will have a brief statement with regard to his acceptance of the position that I am appointing him to, and then will take questions on the new office that we are setting up and new actions that we are taking to meet the energy crisis. As you recall, in my report to the Nation on November 25, I said that I would be reporting from time to time on the energy crisis and on the steps that I would personally be taking to meet it. Last June, I asked Governor Love to join my staff in order to develop the necessary policies to meet what was then essentially a long-term problem which had important short-term consequences. Governor Love has provided me with a broad range of recommendations and policy considerations for achieving independence with regard to energy by the year 1980. The work which Governor Love and his staff have done in the last 6 months constitutes an invaluable and lasting contribution to this Nation's efforts to meet a challenge of formidable dimensions. While the process of policy formulation was going forward, the world--the United States and all the rest of the world as well--was confronted with a new and far more critical situation arising from the Middle East oil embargo. I have discussed in recent weeks those steps which we would take to meet this new situation. Such steps will involve the Federal Government directly in operational matters, in addition to its policy-making role in resolving the energy crisis. In order to administer the necessary voluntary and mandatory actions, some of which have been announced, some of which are still under consideration, we must now strengthen our ability to make and implement our energy program. The planning for this step has been in process for several weeks. I have been in consultation with my senior advisers on the development of an operational structure to carry out our energy policies. And we also have been in contact with major Congressional leaders who are interested in this particular problem and have responsibilities in the Congress for the problem. As a result of these consultations, I have decided to bring together in one agency the major energy resource management functions of the Federal Government to provide the centralized authority we must have for dealing with the energy crisis. I am personally assuming the Chairmanship of the Energy Emergency Action Group which will continue to oversee all major policy issues relating to energy. And Mr. William E. Simon, who is currently Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, will serve as Executive Director of this group.

Remarks Announcing Establishment of the Federal Energy Office


I expect, Mr. Simon, that this will take almost all of your time. Concurrently, I am asking the Congress to create a Federal Energy Administration and, in the Executive Office of the President, a Federal Energy Office to carry out all energy-related functions. In anticipation of Congressional action on my request, I am today establishing by Executive order the Federal Energy Office, which will begin to perform these functions while we await the necessary statutory authority which we hope to get from the Congress. The Federal Energy Office will also be headed by Mr. Simon. I am gratified by the rapid action which the Congress is taking on many of the proposals for dealing with the energy crisis. The emergency legislation which we must have is being considered in an expeditious manner, as is my request for legislation establishing an Energy Research and Development Administration. And I am confident, too, that my proposal for a Federal Energy Administration will be dealt with in a similar manner by the Congress. As these steps are being taken, I want to emphasize once again that the work of the Government agencies involved in meeting the energy crisis cannot be fully successful without the total commitment of every American citizen to see our Nation through this situation. The American people recognize the challenge facing us, and they are already responding to it in a way that speaks well for the future. Every day reports flow into the White House of families who are driving more slowly, turning down their thermostats in their homes, and seeking other ways to conserve fuel. Each of these families has my personal gratitude and has also the gratitude of the entire Nation. As we see the spirit of sacrifice which has distinguished this response, we approach the days ahead with the strongest confidence that we will weather this present difficulty as we have others in our history and that the ultimate accomplishment of independence with regard to energy can and will be a fitting tribute to America's strength and perseverance in this time. And now, Mr. Simon, who will have such great responsibilities to carry out these policies in this new office, will have a statement and then will take your questions.


Barbara and I are just delighted to welcome everyone to the White House. And let me single out a few people. Jim Watkins, who brought our National Energy Strategy through the Congress; Manuel Lujan, who is helped expand our parks and refuges; Secretary Barbara Franklin, her team's been out there pushing on the economic benefits of environmental protection. Don Atwood was to be here, but I single him out because he and the military brought an environmental ethic, I think, to everything from basic training to the conduct of a successful military operation halfway around the world in Desert Storm. Then our Secretary of Transportation was to be here, Andy Card. He is now Secretary of Transition and as well as Secretary of Transportation. Let me just say to this distinguished nonpartisan group that I am just determined that this transition goes smoothly and go well. And I am absolutely convinced under Andy's leadership it is going well and will go well. Speaking of nonpartisanship, I salute the Governor of Florida, and I am just delighted that Lawton Chiles is with us, leader in the environmental movement; Senator Domenici was to be here I do not see him, but nevertheless; and Congressman Gilchrest; Congressman Porter Goss. And I want to reserve a very special thanks for Bill Reilly, our able EPA Administrator, in whom I have great confidence, a confidence that has been well rewarded, I might say, by an outstanding performance; and then for Mike Deland, the key figure here today. He is the Chairman of our Council on Environmental Quality, and I believe he is done an outstanding job. And so I am just delighted, Barbara and I are delighted to be standing at his side. Gil Grosvenor of the National Geographic Society, Frank Bennack of Hearst, John Johnstone of the Business Roundtable, and Kathryn Fuller of the World Wildlife Fund. And I want to thank the awards selection committee and especially my old friend Bob Stafford who is back in Washington. I am just delighted to see him, and Gaylord, Senator Gaylord Nelson, as well. And most of all I want to send a special welcome to the guests of honor, the 9 medal and the 13 citation recipients. Congratulations to all, and I look forward to seeing the presentations. I am not going to make a long-winded speech, because I take the Clean Air Act very seriously. I have had a chance, under a very different schedule, to do a lot of thinking over the past 3 weeks.

Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the President's Environment and Conservation Challenge Awards


And let me just share some of your reflections. I hope you will excuse me if I take pride in talking about certain accomplishments. Over the next few years I reckon I will be spending a lot of time in what Teddy Roosevelt called the great cathedral of the outdoors, and I cannot wait. I will remember what we have tried to do to conserve it, to preserve it, and I am very proud of our team's efforts. Everyone is and should be, whatever age, interested in the environment. And my own conviction, or environmental policy, if you will, was born out of the concerns of a President, an outdoorsman, and maybe most of all, a grandfather. Our approach signaled a step beyond command-and-control regulation toward a more market-oriented, decentralized philosophy of environmental action. Those who said we posed a false choice between a strong economy and a safer environment just did not get it, just missed the point. We sought to achieve both while sacrificing neither. And we combined a pragmatism about human nature with an idealism about Mother Nature, an ambitious agenda that harnessed the energy of capitalism in the service of the environment. Now, excuse me, as I say, if I take pride in listing a few accomplishments that we pass on to a new generation. The Clean Air Act, with the help of Democrats and Republicans on the Hill, we broke 10 years of congressional gridlock by pushing through the world's most protective and cost-effective clean air legislation. And we have already proposed or finalized rules that promise to get at 85 percent of the pollution reductions that are targeted in this law. Reilly's clapping for himself, and I do not blame him. We won major funding shifting to environmental programs increasing the EPA's budget, I believe it was almost 50 percent; increasing funding for clean energy research and development by 66 percent. We enlisted the private sector in the voluntary pollution prevention efforts that are reshaping American industries, making us leaner, more efficient, and reducing toxic pollution by hundreds of millions of pounds a year. On the law enforcement front, we broke new ground and old records, filing more cases, collecting more penalties, and putting more polluters behind bars than every previous administration in history combined. We helped make America's great outdoors even greater, securing over a billion dollars to expand parks and wetlands and wildlife refuges, campgrounds and scenic rivers. We decided to end clear-cutting as a standard practice on Federal land.


And our America the Beautiful initiative has gotten off to a good start with several million new trees all across this great country. We ensured that America's seas would still be shining, ending ocean dumping and sewage sludge, proposing and signing a tough oil pollution bill, and imposing a 10-year moratorium on oil and gas leasing over vast areas of the really sensitive, the ecologically sensitive coasts. We have launched a new generation of clean energy technologies, not only by increasing funding for research and development but also by increasing incentives for their use. And we have pushed through comprehensive national energy legislation a salute to Jim again that will guide our country into the next century. In terms of Federal leadership, we have tripled funding for Federal facility cleanups, secured over 100 enforceable cleanup agreements for Federal facilities, and signed Executive orders spurring the Federal Government to take the lead in increasing energy efficiency, recycling, waste reduction, and converting the Federal fleet to alternative fuels. Finally, we have insisted that a new world order include a cleaner world environment, and we reached over 20 new international environmental agreements. Just by way of example, we reduced Poland's debt in order to help them fund a new environmental foundation. We also launched the center, the Environmental Center in Budapest, to help countries in Central and Eastern Europe. We made America the world leader in the phaseout of ozone depletion, the ozone-depleting CFC's, and we led the way to global bans on driftnet fishing. We built environmental cooperation into trade negotiations with Mexico. We have expanded the debt-for-nature swaps to protect the rain forests in Latin America and created networks for cooperation with Asia. And our comprehensive, action-oriented approach to global climate change was ratified by the Senate and adopted by the world community. At the same time that we renewed our national commitment to the environment, we redoubled our efforts to support and encourage people like you. Everyone in this room, everyone here today, has demonstrated the principles of a new environmentalism. This national environmental awards program was established to honor those who honored the environment. Some here have forged innovative partnerships, environmental alliances that are protecting our wetlands, preserving our resources, and preparing a new generation of environmental leadership. Others have taken the lead in combining sound business with a safer environment, a smart new merger between profitability and preservation.


First, let me say to all of you that when we came in here tonight, I think it is fair to say that Hillary and Al and Tipper and I were literally overwhelmed by this reception. I knew there was a lot of enthusiasm, but it did not all quite add up until I realized that we had caused your exams to be delayed. And I want you to know that we are having such a good time, we'd be delighted to come back about this time next term if you want. I want to thank Dr. Williams for his magnificent invocation. I thank Dr. Woodall for the remarks he made, for making us welcome here, and for the example that he and Mr. Spencer, the principal here, all the teachers here, and all the students and teachers from this school and the other schools here represented. I thank you for what you are doing and for the example you are setting for America. I'd like to thank all of our musicians and the choir for playing and singing for us. And I want to thank Melissa for speaking so well. Were not you proud of her? Did she do a great job, or what? I am glad I never had to run against her for anything. I also want to thank all these wonderful people from Pennsylvania who have come here, all the officials and citizens from this area and from Philadelphia and nearby areas. Let me say, there was a lot of talk tonight keying off Reverend Williams' invocation about vision. I'd like to say something else, if I might, out of respect to others. It is a good thing to have a vision, because otherwise you never know where you are going. So you have to have one. I ran for ENTITY, beginning in 1991, because I thought our country was drifting and because I believed that if you look at these young people here one elementary school in this area has kids from 50 countries speaking 13 languages and if you look at all these young people and their parents and everybody in this room, and you imagine what the world is going to be like, and you know it is going to get smaller and smaller, and we are going to have more and more relationships, and the borders will become more and more open, it is hard to imagine any country in the world that is remotely as well positioned as America to give people the chance to make the most of their own lives. But we had to have a vision. My vision for the 21st century was pretty simple.

Remarks to the Montgomery County Community in Norristown, Pennsylvania


I wanted us to have a country for the children of the Gores and the Clintons and all the other kids in our country where every person who was a responsible citizen would have a genuine opportunity to live out their dreams. I wanted us to have a country where over all the differences between us we would relish those differences, our racial, our religious, our cultural differences; our serious differences we would debate seriously. But we would honor our common humanity and our shared values as Americans enough to say, what unites us is so much more important than what divides us; we will build one America in the 21st century. And I wanted us to continue to be the country, as we grew more diverse and, therefore, had deeper and deeper ties with more and more other people around the world. I wanted America to recognize that because of our wealth and position, we have not only the opportunity but a responsibility to continue to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom and prosperity for others. It is good for ourselves to do the right thing in trying to build the rest of the world and build closer ties. Now, it is a good thing to have a vision; you cannot get started without it. The Vice President talked about Tommy Lasorda and Mike Piazza. My favorite baseball player of all time, because he was such a wonderful speaker, was Yogi Berra. You know, Yogi Berra said, We do not know where we are going, but we are making good time. So you have to have a vision. But you have to have something else, too. You have to have people who are willing to act on it. I hope you could see with the four of us up here, we like being together. We see ourselves as a family, and we see our allies as a family. When I came to Washington, I wanted to do something about homelessness, but Tipper Gore helped me do it. I wanted to raise the consciousness of America about all kinds of things that we sort of kept hidden under the rug but were hurting people. Mental health was one of the most important. Tipper Gore helped me do it. I wanted to prove that we could have a smaller Government we now have the smallest Federal Government since 1962 but I wanted to do it in a way that would not just throw good Federal employees in the street and that would enable us to do more. The Vice President made it possible for us to do that; he led that effort.


I wanted to prove that we could grow the economy and improve the environment by doing things like building new cars that would triple gas mileage. The Vice President has led our efforts there, and in dealing with all the promise of new technology in trying to hook up all our schools and libraries to the Internet, and in managing a big portion of our relations with Russia, South Africa, and other countries. I can say without qualification that no Vice President in history has had so much responsibility or done so much good. So the vision requires an action. And if it had not been for Hillary, for all the good intentions in the world, we would not have done nearly as much to advance the cause of health care or child care or education or to observe the millennium. We would not have been able to do it. When I see Joe Hoeffel standing up here talking and I know he is going to be a strong force on the committees that he is gotten; I see another new Congressman out there, my longtime friend Bob Brady from Philadelphia. I know that they will be implementers of a vision. Or Chaka Fattah, who got you all worked up, up there, when he stood up; do you know what he did? He passed a bill in the Congress last year that I was for, but I could not have passed it. I could not have done it. But he went around to Republicans and Democrats alike and said, You know, I come from Philadelphia. There are a lot of poor kids there that have never had a real chance. They come from poor families. They live in tough neighborhoods, but they have got good minds. Will you help me pass a bill that will provide the necessary financial support for college students to come in and mentor these kids in middle schools so they will go on to college? And we did it because of that. Now, I will give you one other example. Last time I came here as ENTITY was in 1993, to a conference on entitlement reform. Entitlement reform is a fancy way of saying with everybody living longer and the baby boomers about to retire, all the rest of you are not going to be able to afford to pay our medical and retirement bills unless we do something. That is what entitlement reform means. And I said, You know, I have got this economic plan, and it is not going to be very popular with a lot of people because it has a lot of tough decisions.


We are asking people who are the wealthiest people in America to pay a little more in income taxes, sometimes a lot more if they were really well off. We are asking people who are used to getting Government programs to do without a few hundred of them until we get this budget in balance. But if we do it, we will lower interest rates, cutting home mortgages and the interest rates on car payments and credit cards, and we will get investment back in the country. We will have jobs coming back in the country. And the money you will save on the stock market going up and the interest rates going down will be far greater than the money those of us who are well off had to pay in a little more taxes. It was very controversial, and people said, Oh, it will bring an end to the economy. It will end the American economy as we know it. It will drive us into recession. Well, you heard what the Vice President said about the country with the longest peacetime expansion in history, the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957, and all of that. What you should know is that this county, this county has had, since that economic program passed and the interest rates started going down, 1,800 new businesses and 44,000 new jobs, the highest growth in the State of Pennsylvania. The decisive vote that made all that possible was cast in Congress by Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky. We won by one vote in the House, and it was tied in the Senate. The decisive vote in the Senate was cast by Al Gore. Now, the point I am trying to make is we had a good vision, but somebody has got to carry the water; somebody has to make the decisions; somebody has to push the rocks up the hill; somebody has to take that step and jump off the diving board; someone has to move. People have to act on their vision. That is why I said last night and that is why that sign says, Let us get to work. We have a good vision, but we must act. And for all of you, I thank you. I wanted to come here to this school because this school district represents what I think America ought to do. I know not every school district has the resources. So if we want everybody to end social promotion but have summer school and afterschool programs, we have to provide the funds from Washington to help the school districts do it.


If we want to turn around schools that are not working, we have to provide help from Washington. And we are doing that. But I want people to see this school district all over America, on the news tonight, in the articles tomorrow. I want people to know we came here to a place that has done important things, to give kids who need it extra help, to have high standards, to do things that will create a vision that people will want to act on. I think to have a motto like learn and live to serve is a stunning thing, and I hope you will live by it all your lives. Every high school graduate in this school district gets a license, a driver's license-sized copy of the diploma, and on the back it has the computer skills the graduate has mastered. That is a driver's license to the future. I would like to see that modeled in other places all across America, as well. So you have already heard what we have to say, but it is plain that America is working again. But every one of you knows if we had time to do it, I'd give everybody a piece of paper, and I'd ask you to write down you might do this when you go home tonight. I'd ask you to write down somewhere between three and six things no more than six that you believe are the long-term challenges that will face you young people in the 21st century and what is it that we could do now that would pave the way to a better future for you. I can tell you that I did my best in the State of the Union last night to say, Okay, we have got America working again, but what are the long-term challenges? And you have heard them talked about tonight, and I will not belabor them. But let me say, we have to build strong communities in the 21st century that gives everyone a chance at opportunity. That means we have to do more to have the kind of economic opportunity in places where unemployment is high and people make low wages that you have here. That means putting more money in there. It means teaching adults better skills. It means teaching those who are first-generation Americans to read better, if that is what it takes. It means continuing to drive the crime rate down.


It means making all communities livable communities, to set aside the land that we need to set aside, to have the green space, to manage the traffic, to do the things that will make people free and happy if they live anywhere in America. These are the kinds of things we have to do. It means reconciling work and family. One of the best things that the Gores have done is, for the last 7 years, they have had a conference in Tennessee every year on the challenges modern families face. And most all of them relate somehow or other to the need to balance work and family, a challenge that faces Americans in all income groups. I will bet there is not a family here that has not at some point in the last couple of years faced some sort of challenge of balancing your responsibilities to your children to your responsibilities to your work. That is why we want a child care plan that includes help for stay-at-home parents when the children are very young, but real help for working people that cannot afford quality child care on their own. Because in America, when I look at all of you, I want you to be free and confident, when you start your families, that you can do what you want in your work life, but you know that your first responsibility is to raise your children, and you are going to be able to succeed at that responsibility. The Vice President told you that rather gripping story about the HMO's. The truth is we have to manage the health care system; it is like any other system. We have to keep the costs as low as possible. But the quality of our people's health counts most. That is why we say you ought to be able to see a specialist if you need one. You ought to be able to go to the nearest emergency room. You ought to be able to have your medical records private and all of the other things in our Patients' Bill of Rights, because we have got to balance the need to save money with the fundamental necessity of providing quality health care to all Americans. And I'd just like to say one other thing. We have said a lot about education tonight, but I would like to say something about the very first subject I talked about last night in the State of the Union, and that is the aging of America.


And again I want to say, this is an issue that should be of primary importance not to today's retirees but to tomorrow's retirees, their children, and their grandchildren yet unborn. Because when the baby boomers retire and that includes the parents of just about all of the students here; people between the ages of 34 and 52 were the people born in the generation after World War II, the largest group of people in history in America, young people, until the present class of students which numbers over 53 million. Now, when we retire, we are going to double the number of seniors by the year 2030. And what we have got and the average life expectancy is already 76 years old plus; for the young people here, it is probably about 83 years. But we do not want to get into a position where our retirement is a financial burden to our children and undermines our children's ability to raise our grandchildren. So when I tell you that we ought to set aside roughly 75 percent of this surplus we have got for the next 15 years to save Social Security and to save Medicare, and in the process, since we will be saving the money, we will be paying down the national debt, giving us the lowest level of debt we have had as a nation since before World War I in 1917, keeping interest rates down, investment high, jobs creation going, and incomes rising I say that not just for those of us who will be older but for our kids and our grandkids. And I hope you will see it that way. This is a big test for us. We have not had this kind of situation in a long, long time. And very rarely do societies have the luxury of being financially strong enough, militarily secure enough, and having enough information about the future to make the kind of decisions that I asked the American people to make last night. Yes, we ought to give some tax cuts, but they ought to be the right kind. They ought to be for child care. They ought to be for helping us to deal with our environmental challenges. They ought to be for people saving for their own retirement, because Social Security will never be enough for that. They ought to be for raising children. But we can save this money now and lift a burden from the young people here.


Do you really want to run the risk of squandering this surplus that we have worked so hard for until we know for sure that our retirement will not compromise the integrity of their lives and their ability to raise their children as we have tried to raise them? Now, the young people here are going to have a fascinating time. The Internet is already growing by, you know, millions and millions of new pages every week. It is the fastest growing communication mechanism in human history. People are able to move around as never before, and even if you cannot leave town now, you have got people from all over the world right next door. We are learning things that we have never imagined before. We are on the verge of not only unlocking the mysteries of the human gene but actually finding medical treatments to cure or even prevent things from Alzheimer's to arthritis to all kinds of cancers. I went to the auto show in Detroit the other day, and one thing I am looking forward to I love this job, and I am not looking forward to 2 years from now being barred from being ENTITY by the Constitution's two-term limit. But one thing I am looking forward to, now that I have been to the Detroit auto show, is getting back in those cars, because the cars of the future are going to be environmentally sound and hilariously fun to drive and safer. But we have to do our best in this time to, first of all, make it safe, dealing with the challenges of nuclear and chemical and biological weapons, to give you the strongest communities possible, to build one America across our lines of diversity, and to think about the future. When I ran for ENTITY in 1992, before I ever made the decision to run, a young man who is now not quite so young, he is a graduate student, named Sean Landris was driving me around Los Angeles. I was an anonymous, virtually anonymous Governor of Arkansas. But Sean Landris knew something about me and the speeches I had made and the things I was interested in, and he said, Are you going to run for ENTITY? And he had a little tape deck in his car, and he put this tape deck in and this old Fleetwood Mac song, Do not Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, which was made before he was born. And I believe that those of us in positions of responsibility have no higher responsibility than to think about your tomorrows.


It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that is modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our two countries. my Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke, and Minister Nabiullina. I always have a little trouble with that one. They say the same thing about Obama. We are joined by our United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Ron Kirk, and our great Ambassadors, John Beyrle and Sergey Kislyak. And I want to also thank the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S.-Russia Business Council, the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, and all the organizations who helped bring our countries together not just today but every day. Now, many of you joined us at the business summit during my visit to Moscow 1 year ago, and it is good to see you again. I noted then that you are part of a long tradition of commerce and trade between our peoples. Long before Russia and the United States even exchanged Ambassadors, we exchanged goods. In fact, before coming to Washington, President Medvedev visited California and Silicon Valley to explore new partnerships in science and technology and in venture capital. And while there, he pledged Russia's support to preserve the historic Fort Ross in Sonoma County, an enduring reminder of the early Russian settlements and trade that brought Russian goods to our young nation. Some have even wondered whether our Declaration of Independence may have been signed with goose quills from Russia. More than 200 years later, it is a sign of the times that during his visit to Silicon Valley, President Medvedev opened his own Twitter account. I have one as well. And I said during our press conference today that we may be able to finally get rid of those old red phones. As we all know, despite the surge in trade in recent years, the economic relationship between the United States and Russia is still largely one of untapped potential. And I pointed out last year that our trade with Russia is only about the same as our trade with Thailand, a country with less than half the population of Russia. And that is why part of the reset of the U.S.-Russia relationship required us creating the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Partnership Commission--Presidential Commission to explore a whole range of new opportunities, including economic partnerships that create jobs and opportunities for both our peoples.

Remarks at the United States-Russia Business Summit


And under Secretary Locke and Minister Nabiullina's leadership, that is what we have done. Companies represented here today are moving forward with a series of major trade and investment deals that will create jobs for both Americans and Russians across many sectors, from aerospace to automotive engineering to the financial sector and high technology. I am especially pleased that Boeing and Russian Technologies are moving forward with a $4 billion deal on 50 Boeing 737s. This is a win for Russia, creating a long-term market for its raw materials and resulting in modern airplanes for Russia's travelers. It is obviously a win for the United States, because this partnership could add up to 44,000 new jobs in the American aerospace industry. This reflects my administration's National Export Initiative, and it is a perfect example of the shared prosperity and the high-tech jobs that we can create together. So today President Medvedev and I agreed to expand trade and commerce even further. We agreed to deepen our collaboration on energy efficiency and clean energy technologies. We reached an agreement that will allow the United States to begin exporting our poultry products to Russia once again. I want to again thank President Medvedev and his team for resolving this issue, which is an important signal about Russia's seriousness about achieving membership in the World Trade Organization. And that is why I told President Medvedev that our teams should accelerate their efforts to work together to complete this process in the very near future. I believe that Russia belongs in the WTO. That is good for Russia, it is good for America, and it is good for the world economy. I pledged to President Medvedev that the United States wants to be Russia's partner as he pursues his vision of modernization and innovation in Russia, including his initiative to create a Russian silicon valley outside of Moscow. American companies and universities were among the first to invest in this effort. And I am pleased that a number of you here today are going to be working with it as well. Now, there is still a lot more that we can do to encourage trade and investment. And obviously in Russia--and Medvedev and I discussed this--issues of transparency and accountability and rule of law remain absolutely critical. This is the foundation on which investments and economic growth depends. And I very much appreciate and applaud President Medvedev's efforts in this area. Today we took another step forward.


I always feel self-conscious when I say that, and I say that every time I am in here, but somehow, technically and that just kind of explains some of the problems of government that this Old Executive Office Building is part of the White House. I have not put my clothes in a single closet over here. Well, I am glad to welcome members of the clergy and lay leaders to Washington. I have always' assumed that men of the cloth can visit this town and really see how it works without returning home feeling the need to pray fervently, and let me tell you, we need all the help we can get. I also feel a certain kinship with those of you who are members of the clergy. Now, this is a comparison that is not always made, but politicians and clergy do have a lot in common. We both have to make speeches and keep our audiences interested, and I know I am running a risk in telling members of the clergy a story about their own profession, but maybe it will be new to some of you. It has to do with a young minister who was very disturbed because sometime, particularly on those hot Sunday or summer mornings Sunday mornings, he'd see his group nodding off while he was preaching his sermon. And he told about his distress to a more experienced and older clergyman who said that he'd had that same problem, but he'd found an answer to it. He said, When you see them and their eyes beginning to close, he said, you just insert a line in your sermon and say, 'Last night, I held another man's wife in my arms.' Last night, I held in my arms a woman who was not my wife. Well, the first minister had told him that after he got them awake, he was to then say, That woman was my dear mother. And this young fellow said the line and then said, I cannot remember who she was. Well, I hope I have better luck today. I have come to talk to you about our efforts to overhaul our nation's tax code, but I first want to stress our commitment to solving the school dropout problem and youth unemployment. The two subjects are not unrelated because a vital, growing economy, liberated from high tax rates and an unfair and restrictive tax code, is the best way to provide opportunity for all. For the special problem of our unemployed young people, a youth employment opportunity wage is also vital.

Remarks to Religious Leaders at a White House Meeting on Tax Reform


Now, if you have not heard that term expressed, it is something we have asked of the Congress and asked that they do. The figures reveal that every time the minimum wage has increased, the number of jobs available for teenagers, young people, has gone down those afterschool jobs, those weekend, and those summer jobs. The jobs are simply priced out of existence. The school dropout problem is more complex, but I think that we can all agree that it is at least attributable in part to the increase in family breakdown. But one of the common causes of dropout from school also is a need or desire to be earning some money. In this modern age, families are subject to intense pressures from all sides. And sad to say, the Federal Government, instead of helping, has been adding to the burden of families. Throughout the great tax explosion of the sixties and seventies, everybody with a paycheck got hit and hit hard by taxes, but those trying to raise families really got clobbered. Not only did their taxes skyrocket, their personal exemption, the real value of the deduction that they were allowed to take for themselves and each one of their dependents, was steadily knocked down by inflation. If the personal exemption, which was $600 in 1948, had kept pace with inflation, that exemption today would be $2,700. Now, this is where the profamily initiatives of America's fair share tax plan come in. We are not going to go to the $2,700 or have not asked to do that but in our tax plan we have asked to almost double it, to raise it to $2,000 in order to make up for some of what the family has lost over those years. We are also increasing the standard deduction to $4,000 for joint returns. Our proposal will mean that families, as well as the elderly, the blind, and the disabled, living at or below the poverty line will be completely scratched from the Federal income tax rolls. The U.S. Government will no longer tax families into poverty. And under our proposal, a family of four would not have to pay one single cent of Federal income taxes on the first $12,000 of income. And because saving is so essential to families, but so very difficult with all those expenses, we are expanding the taxfree savings accounts of IRA's, the individual retirement accounts, so that they are fully available to nonwage-earning spouses.


America's fair share tax plan has received commendations from some unexpected quarters. The Democratically controlled House Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families rated our plan more profamily than any other tax proposal around and light years ahead of the present system. He said that our profamily provisions will do more for the poor than Lyndon Johnson ever did during the years of the Great Society. Are we going to give up and stick with a tax system loved only by the special interests and their high-priced tax attorneys, or are we going to stop making excuses and give the poor the break from unfair taxation they so very urgently need? You know, the Lord has told us that his share is a tenth of what we earn, and He has told us that if we prosper 10 times as much, we will give 10 times as much. But when we start computing Caesar's share under our present tax policy, you can prosper 10 times as much and find you are paying 50 times as much tax. So, I think what is fair for the Lord ought to be more reasonably fair for Caesar, also. Opportunity also means economic growth, and the best way to achieve that is by cutting tax rates still further. One of the great economic lessons of the last few years is the beneficial effect of tax rate reductions. We have seen that as tax rates go down, all the negative economic indicators, like poverty and inflation, go down, too; and all the positive economic indicators, like productivity, disposable income, and employment, go up. Something else also goes up when marginal tax rates are cut believe it or not at the lower rates, government revenue increases; it does not go down with the cut in the rates. Tax rates in this country, long ago, passed the point where they became counterproductive, stunting economic growth and actually bringing in less revenue than tax rate cuts that spur growth and draw investment out of wasteful loopholes and back into the productive economy. Just a few years ago, before our present tax cut the one that we launched in 1981 before that, there was only $39 million in America available for what is called venture capital to be invested into new ventures and new business and so forth. Well, last year, after our tax cuts were in effect, there was $4 billion available for such investment. Our first tax cut you can see the across-the-board thing it was 25 percent.


And since 1984 that was the first year that all of the three installments of our tax cut were in place we found that the tax revenues have been increasing at a rapid pace. And in fiscal year 1985, which ended October 1st, Federal revenues continued to grow at the remarkable rate of 10 percent. Now, let me suggest that over the long haul, the Federal Government simply cannot raise revenue any faster than by cutting tax rates and, then, cutting them again. So, it does not make much sense to blame the deficit on tax cuts, and even less to ask for economy-busting tax hikes as a cure. The deficit is quite clearly caused by overspending. The government Gargantua has been eating up those extra revenues from our tax cut and pounding on the table demanding more. Well, we are going to put Gargantua on a diet, the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings diet. It would pare $36 billion a year off its overeating, resulting in a balanced budget by 1990. All we are asking is that Congress take a little over one-half the extra $60-odd billion in revenue generated by our tax cuts and economic growth and use it to reduce the deficit. And the way some people in government spend the public's money also reminds me of a story. And again, it is about a clergyman who had gone to a small hamlet about a hundred miles from his own parish to preach at a revival meeting. And driving into the village, he noticed a man from his own community. The fellow was known, a little bit, for his drinking. And he was sitting on the front steps of the general store, and he had a bottle of beer in his hands. And the preacher stopped his car, and he asked the drinker why he was so far from home. And the man told him that beer was 5 cents a bottle cheaper where they were then. Well, the minister pointed out the cost of travel back and forth, the price for a hotel room. And the beer drinker retorted, I am not stupid, Reverend, I just sit here and drink till I show a profit. cuts in the deficit and cuts in the tax rates. Both are in the Congress now, and we need your support to keep their noses to the grindstone. As for America's fair share tax plan, we are shooting for Christmastime.


I am happy to have this opportunity to talk to you once more before I leave the White House. Next Tuesday, General Eisenhower will be inaugurated as ENTITY . A short time after the new President takes his oath of office, I will be on the train going back home to Independence, Missouri. I will once again be a plain, private citizen of this great Republic. Inauguration Day will be a great demonstration of our democratic process. I am glad to be a part of it-glad to wish General Eisenhower all possible success, as he begins his term--glad the whole world will have a chance to see how simply and how peacefully our American system transfers the vast power of the Presidency from my hands to his. It is a good object lesson in democracy. I am very proud of it. During the last 2 months I have done my best to make this transfer an orderly one. I have talked with my successor on the affairs of the country, both foreign and domestic, and my Cabinet officers have talked with their successors. I want to say that General Eisenhower and his associates have cooperated fully in this effort. Such an orderly transfer from one party to another has never taken place before in our history. In speaking to you tonight, I have no new revelations to make--no political statements-no policy announcements. There are simply a few things in my heart that I want to say to you. I want to say goodby and thanks for your help. and I want to talk to you a little while about what has happened since I became your ENTITY. I am speaking to you from the room where I have worked since April 12, 1945. This is the ENTITY's office in the West Wing of the White House. This is the desk where I have signed most of the papers that embodied the decisions I have made as ENTITY. It has been the desk of many Presidents, and will be the desk of many more. Since I became ENTITY, I have been to Europe, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands--Wake Island and Hawaii. I have visited almost every State in the Union. I have traveled 135,000 miles by air, 77,000 by rail, and 17,000 by ship. But the mail always followed me, and wherever I happened to be, that is where the office of the ENTITY was. The greatest part of the ENTITY's job is to make decisions--big ones and small ones, dozens of them almost every day.

The President's Farewell Address to the American People


The papers may circulate around the Government for a while but they finally reach this desk. He cannot pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That is what I have been doing here in this room, for almost 8 years. And over in the main part of the White House, there is a study on the second floor--a room much like this one--where I have worked at night and early in the morning on the papers I could not get to at the office. Of course, for more than 3 years Mrs. Truman and I were not living in the White House. We were across the street in the Blair House. That was when the White House almost fell down on us and had to be rebuilt. I had a study over at the Blair House, too, but living in the Blair House was not as convenient as living in the White House. The Secret Service would not let me walk across the street, so I had to get in a car every morning to cross the street to the White House office, again at noon to go to the Blair House for lunch, again to go back to the office after lunch, and finally take an automobile at night to return to the Blair House. But necessary, so my guards thought--and they are the bosses on such matters as that. Now, of course, we are back in the White House. It is in very good condition, and General Eisenhower will be able to take up his residence in the house and work right here. That will be much more convenient for him, and I am very glad the renovation job was all completed before his term began. Your new ENTITY is taking office in quite different circumstances than when I became ENTITY 8 years ago. On April 1945, I had been presiding over the Senate in my capacity as Vice President. When the Senate recessed about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, I walked over to the office of the Speaker of the House, Mr. Rayburn, to discuss pending legislation. As soon as I arrived, I was told that Mr. Early, one of President Roosevelt's secretaries, wanted me to call. I reached Mr. Early, and he told me to come to the White House as quickly as possible, to enter by way of the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance, and to come to Mrs. Roosevelt's study.


When I arrived, Mrs. Roosevelt told me the tragic news, and I felt the shock that all of you felt a little later--when the word came over the radio and appeared in the newspapers. I offered to do anything I could for Mrs. Roosevelt, and then I asked the Secretary of State to call the Cabinet together. 09 p.m. I was sworn in as ENTITY by Chief Justice Stone in the Cabinet Room. Things were happening fast in those days. The San Francisco conference to organize the United Nations had been called for April 25th. After attending President Roosevelt's funeral, I went to the Hall of the House of Representatives and told a joint session of the Congress that I would carry on President Roosevelt's policies. On May 7th, Germany surrendered. The announcement was made on May 8th, my 61st birthday. Churchill called me shortly after that and wanted a meeting with me and Prime Minister Stalin of Russia. Later on, a meeting was agreed upon, and Churchill, Stalin, and I met at Potsdam in Germany. Meanwhile, the first atomic explosion took place out in the New Mexico desert. The war against Japan was still going on. I made the decision that the atomic bomb had to be used to end it. I made that decision in the conviction it would save hundreds of thousands of lives--Japanese as well as American. Japan surrendered, and we were faced with the huge problems of bringing the troops home and reconverting the economy from war to peace. All these things happened within just a little over 4 months--from April to August 1945. I tell you this to illustrate the tremendous scope of the work your ENTITY has to do. And all these emergencies and all the developments to meet them have required the ENTITY to put in long hours--usually 17 hours a day, with no payment for overtime. I sign my name, on the average, 600 times a day, see and talk to hundreds of people every month, shake hands with thousands every year, and still carry on the business of the largest going concern in the whole world. There is no job like it on the face of the earth--in the power which is concentrated here at this desk, and in the responsibility and difficulty of the decisions. I want all of you to realize how big a job, how hard a job, it is--not for my sake, because I am stepping out of it--but for the sake of my successor. He needs the understanding and the help of every citizen.


It is not enough for you to come out once every 4 years and vote for a candidate, and then go back home and say, Well, I have done my part, now let the new President do the worrying. He cannot do the job alone. Regardless of your politics, whether you are Republican or Democrat, your fate is tied up with what is done here in this room. The ENTITY is ENTITY of the whole country. We must give him our support as citizens of the United States. He will have mine, and I want you to give him yours. I suppose that history will remember my term in office as the years when the cold war began to overshadow our lives. I have had hardly a day in office that has not been dominated by this all-embracing struggle-this conflict between those who love freedom and those who would lead the world back into slavery and darkness. But when history says that my term of office saw the beginning of the cold war, it will also say that in those 8 years we have set the course that can win it. We have succeeded in carving out a new set of policies to attain peace--positive policies, policies of world leadership, policies that express faith in other free people. We have averted world war III up to now, and we may already have succeeded in establishing conditions which can keep that war from happening as far ahead as man can see. These are great and historic achievements that we can all be proud of. After the First World War we withdrew from world affairs--we failed to act in concert with other peoples against aggression--we helped to kill the League of Nations--and we built up tariff barriers that strangled world trade. This time, we avoided those mistakes. We helped to found and sustain the United Nations. We have welded alliances that include the greater part of the free world. And we have gone ahead with other free countries to help build their economies and link us all together in a healthy world trade. Think back for a moment to the 1930's and you will see the difference. The Japanese moved into Manchuria, and free men did not act. The Fascists moved into Ethiopia, and we did not act. The Nazis marched into the Rhineland, into Austria, into Czechoslovakia, and free men were paralyzed for lack of strength and unity and will. Think about those years of weakness and indecision, and the World War II which was their evil result.


Then think about the speed and courage and decisiveness with which we have moved against the Communist threat since World War II. The first crisis came in 1945 and 1946, when the Soviet Union refused to honor its agreement to remove its troops from Iran. Members of my Cabinet came to me and asked if we were ready to take the risk that a firm stand involved. So we took our stand--we made it clear to the Soviet Union that we expected them to honor their agreement--and the Soviet troops were withdrawn from Iran. Then, in early 1947, the Soviet Union threatened Greece and Turkey. The British sent me a message saying they could no longer keep their forces in that area. Something had to be done at once, or the eastern Mediterranean would be taken over by the Communists. On March 12th, I went before the Congress and stated our determination to help the people of Greece and Turkey maintain their independence. Today, Greece is still free and independent; and Turkey is a bulwark of strength at a strategic corner of the world. Then came the Marshall plan which saved Europe, the heroic Berlin airlift, and our military aid programs. We inaugurated the North Atlantic Pact, the Rio Pact binding the Western Hemisphere together, and the defense pacts with countries of the Far Pacific. Most important of all, we acted in Korea. I was in Independence, Missouri, in June 1950, when Secretary Acheson telephoned me and gave me the news about the invasion of Korea. I told the Secretary to lay the matter at once before the United Nations, and I came on back to Washington. Flying back over the flatlands of the Middle West and over the Appalachians that summer afternoon, I had a lot of time to think. I turned the problem over in my mind in many ways, but my thoughts kept coming back to the 1930's--to Manchuria, to Ethiopia, the Rhineland, Austria, and finally to Munich. Here was history repeating itself. If we let the Republic of Korea go under, some other country would be next, and then another. And all the time, the courage and confidence of the free world would be ebbing away, just as it did in the 1930's. And the United Nations would go the way of the League of Nations. When I reached Washington, I met immediately with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and General Bradley, and the other civilian and military officials who had information and advice to help me decide on what to do.


We talked about the problems long and hard. We considered those problems very carefully. It was not easy to make the decision to send American boys again into battle. I was a soldier in the First World War, and I know what a soldier goes through. I know well the anguish that mothers and fathers and families go through. So I knew what was ahead if we acted in Korea. But after all this was said, we realized that the issue was whether there would be fighting in a limited area now or on a much larger scale later on--whether there would be some casualties now or many more casualties later. So a decision was reached--the decision I believe was the most important in my time as ENTITY. In the days that followed, the most heartening fact was that the American people clearly agreed with the decision. And in Korea, our men are fighting as valiantly as Americans have ever fought-because they know they are fighting in the same cause of freedom in which Americans have stood ever since the beginning of the Republic. Where free men had failed the test before, this time we met the test. We met it firmly. We met it successfully. The Communists have seen their hopes of easy conquest go down the drain. The determination of free people to defend themselves has been made clear to the Kremlin. As I have thought about our worldwide struggle with the Communists these past 8 years--day in and day out--I have never once doubted that you, the people of our country, have the will to do what is necessary to win this terrible fight against communism. I know the people of this country have that will and determination, and I have always depended on it. Because I have been sure of that, I have been able to make necessary decisions even though they called for sacrifices by all of us. And I have not been wrong in my judgment of the American people. That same assurance of our people's determination will be General Eisenhower's greatest source of strength in carrying on this struggle. Now, once in a while, I get a letter from some impatient person asking, why do not we get it over with? Why do not we issue an ultimatum, make all-out war, drop the atomic bomb? We are not made that way. Peace is our goal, with justice and freedom. We cannot, of our own free will, violate the very principles that we are striving to defend. The whole purpose of what we are doing is to prevent world war III.


We are living in the 8th year of the atomic age. We are not the only nation that is learning to unleash the power of the atom. A third world war might dig the grave not only of our Communist opponents but also of our own society, our world as well as theirs. Then, some of you may ask, when and how will the cold war end? I think I can answer that simply. The Communist world has great resources, and it looks strong. Theirs is a godless system, a system of slavery; there is no freedom in it, no consent. The Iron Curtain, the secret police, the constant purges, all these are symptoms of a great basic weakness--the rulers' fear of their own people. In the long run the strength of our free society, and our ideals, will prevail over a system that has respect for neither God nor man. Last week, in my State of the Union Message to the Congress--and I hope you will all take the time to read it--I explained how I think we will finally win through. As the free world grows stronger, more united, more attractive to men on both sides of the Iron Curtain--and as the Soviet hopes for easy expansion are blocked--then there will have to come a time of change in the Soviet world. Nobody can say for sure when that is going to be, or exactly how it will come about, whether by revolution, or trouble in the satellite states, or by a change inside the Kremlin. Whether the Communist rulers shift their policies of their own free will--or whether the change comes about in some other way-I have not a doubt in the world that a change will occur. I have a deep and abiding faith in the destiny of free men. With patience and courage, we shall some day move on into a new era--a wonderful golden age--an age when we can use the peaceful tools that science has forged for us to do away with poverty and human misery everywhere on earth. Think what can be done, once our capital, our skills, our science--most of all atomic energy--can be released from the tasks of defense and turned wholly to peaceful purposes all around the world. The Tigris and Euphrates Valley can be made to bloom as it did in the times of Babylon and Nineveh. Israel can be made the country of milk and honey as it was in the time of Joshua.


There is a plateau in Ethiopia some 6,000 to 8,000 feet high, that has 65,000 square miles of land just exactly like the corn belt in northern Illinois. Enough food can be raised there to feed a hundred million people. There are places in South America--places in Colombia and Venezuela and Brazil-just like that plateau in Ethiopia--places where food could be raised for millions of people. If we can get peace and safety in the world under the United Nations, the developments will come so fast we will not recognize the world in which we now live. This is our dream of the future--our picture of the world we hope to have when the Communist threat is overcome. I have talked a lot tonight about the menace of communism--and our fight against it-because that is the overriding issue of our time. But there are some other things we have done that history will record. One of them is that we in America have learned how to attain real prosperity for our people. We have 62 1/2 million people at work. Businessmen, farmers, laborers, white-collar people, all have better incomes and more of the good things of life than ever before in the history of the world. No depositor has lost a cent in that period. And the income of our people has been fairly distributed, perhaps more so than at any other time in recent history. We have made progress in spreading the blessings of American life to all of our people. There has been a tremendous awakening of the American conscience on the great issues of civil rights--equal economic opportunities, equal rights of citizenship, and equal educational opportunities for all our people, whatever their race or religion or status of birth. So, as I empty the drawers of this desk, and as Mrs. Truman and I leave the White House, we have no regret. We feel we have done our best in the public service. I hope and believe we have contributed to the welfare of this Nation and to the peace of the world. When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task. But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. And I have tried to give it everything that was in me. Through all of it, through all the years that I have worked here in this room, I have been well aware I did not really work alone-that you were working with me.


You know, Paul, if you really have all morning been talking about all those things you said, then I have not got anything left to say. That is what I was going to talk about. No, I want to thank you. It is a privilege to be with so many hard-working and dedicated Republicans. And with regard to the interruptions last night, afterwards I said to George, I said, I thought there for awhile I was going to have to do the speech one word at a time. But it is a special honor to greet the women and men who've just become the new Republican National Committee. And incidentally, if we are the reason for all of this, we would not have been in a position to be responsible for all of this if it had not been for people like you putting us here, and we are most grateful. Each of you has dedicated years of effort to the cause that unites us. And today, you take up positions of the highest responsibility in one of the oldest, proudest political parties on Eartha party that is always stood for human freedom, a party that is given the world leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight David Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln. Your positions give you an opportunity to serve our country in an historical manner. And on behalf of all Republicans, I give you a heartfelt congratulations. During your time in office you will face many challenges, but none will be greater than the challenge you face in the next 74 days. And I just know that with the people by our side, we willand by we I mean Republicanswe'll lead not only our party but our country. And we will fight this campaign with every ounce of strength we have, and the people will win. We will go to the peopleto all the peoplewe'll speak of our beliefs; we will stand on the record; we will deal in the facts. The opposition has already begun to try to pit one group of Americans against another. But the election of '84 will be a battle not of groups, but of ideas. And we will wage it with joy and vigor. We know that our constituency is everyone in this country. And our intent is to keep promoting policies that will help all of the people and help the people of this country to help themselves. that we are the party of new ideas; we are the party of the future; and we are the party whose philosophy is vigorous and dynamic.

Remarks to Members of the Republican National Committee and the Reagan-Bush Campaign Staff in Dallas, Texas


The old stereotype of a kind of pudgy, stolid, unimaginative Republicanthere may be a few cartoonists around that still want to portray us as that, but they are lying in their teeth if they do. I know that all of you know that. And it is no time to sit on our laurels. 1984 is the year when we can get out there in the union halls and the VFW, the church meetings, and get out the word. As a matter of fact, we will be walking away from here in a few minutes, because Nancy and I are due in Chicago to speak to the VFW this afternoon at their national convention. But we want to get out the word on how, through cutting tax rates, we are making the GOP stand for Great Opportunity Party, and get out the word on how our policies have enhanced America's strength and this has made the peace that we enjoy more solid and durable; get out the word on how inflation has plummeted and unemployment has fallen and the value of the dollar is higher and the economy is expanding. And we did not do this to help some of the people; we did it to help all of the people. Things are going so well that the opposition has had to reverse the meaning of a few words and concepts. Indeed, at their meeting in San Francisco, one of their speakers called the economic expansion-and I quotean illusion. Well, it is pretty hard to cash an illusion. People are cashing bigger checks. But according to the opposition, prosperity is an illusion. And if you read the record of the last administration backward, it has a happy ending. Well, this expansion has already lasted 20 months without fueling inflation. It is given nearly 6 1/2 million more Americans, as I said last night, jobs. There is nothing dangerous about an expansion that is based on hard work and innovation, and the American people know it. Looking to the future, it is clear that the opposition has only one innovation to offerstrange for them, tooa huge tax increase. But let us get the word out on that one, too. To bring the budget under control, we need more Republicans elected who will support the line-item veto and the balanced budget amendment.


You have heard me say that before, but we are going to keep on saying it, because every poll indicates that the American people support those measures overwhelmingly, once again showing that the leadership of the other party totally is ignoring what their own people are telling them they want. And to spur new investment, to enable the people to keep a greater share of their earnings, we need that historic simplification of the tax code. And if we can broaden that base, if we can begin to get the unpaid tax that is now out there from those who are freeloading on their neighbors, we can reduce the rates for everyone. Our vision is and must be an America of greater incentives, more growth, and new opportunities. Holding this office has allowed me to see as never before how richly our nation has been blessed. Around the world, totalitarians tread ideals underfoot and oppress millions. But in America, it is still our privilege to stand for liberty. This election is for more than our party and more than the White House; it is for the future of our beloved country, the place Mr. Lincoln called the last, best hope of man. For the sake of our children and the millions on Earth who look to America for hope, I know that we will fight the good fight, we will keep the faith. There was one thingI know that many of the things I have said here were repeated many times in the convention, because they had to do with the actual record of 'what we have been doing in the management of the Government, but I think you might be pleased to knowyou'll remember back a couple of years ago when we were talking about a private sector initiative, encouraging that. And thousands of volunteers came forth with every kind of idea, and we had a commission, temporarily put together, that collected, and then in the White House we had computerized the literally thousands of programs throughout the country that citizens and community groups have themselves put in place to solve some problems that heretofore our opponents always would think was only for government to do. Well, we still maintain a headquarters in that private initiatives, and there is hardly a week goes by that we do not have something that we pick up the phone to them and say, Hey... And sometimes it is a problem only involving one individual that we have heard about, or that we have read in the press about, with a situation that government is not equipped to solve, and we call them. All taken care of.


I want to say a deep thank you from the bottom of my heart for your warm welcome to this wonderful State of sunshine here in Arizona. This is not a day for politics. This is a day for God, and since this is God's day I will leave very shortly and go with my old and longtime friend, Roy Elson, down to hear his preacher. He recommends him pretty highly, and I want to see if he is as good as the preacher I would have heard at Johnson City had I gone to church at home this morning. The reason I did not go to church at home this morning was because that beloved and venerable and wonderful man, than whom there is no other like him in all the world, Carl Hayden, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said to me, I think if you are going from your ranch in Texas to the sidewalks of San Francisco, you better not do it without stopping in Arizona. And when the Chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee makes a slight suggestion to the President, I hope the President is smart enough, and I know he loves Carl Hayden enough, that his suggestion is my command. I want to thank Governor Fannin and Governor McFarland, my old boss that taught me so much and I love so much, and Edna, for coming out here to meet me. I want to tell you how grateful I am that Arizona furnishes one of our Cabinet members, Stewart Udall, and his lovely wife, and I am very proud of him. He is doing a wonderful job. We have done the best work on water and on power and on conservation that has been done any years since I have been in Washington. I want to thank Congressman Udall and Congressman Senner for coming here and welcoming me this morning. I am going to leave with Roy now in just a moment and I will not be seeing you any more, but I am coming back to these wonderful, happy, smiling faces, and this dry air and this fine sunshine because it is good and it invigorates you. It makes you count all your blessings and think about really how fortunate we are to be Americans. Now, all of you people out here have faith and have hope and have vision or you would not be in this Promised Land of Arizona.

Remarks Upon Arrival at the Phoenix Airport