 And he didn't show up at the studio. And they called him. He hadn't gone out of bed yet. His alarm hadn't gone off. And they screamed into the phone. They said, you're on the air. And he said, well, how am I doing? Oh, that's wonderful. Now, did that really happen? Yes. Oh, radio. You know, all that talk about the fellow with the kids program and saying minority words and so on. I don't think there was ever a day that something didn't happen on the air in a studio or in a station. There wasn't any tape or anything at the time. Everything was live. More things could. H.R. Gross later at congressman. He did. He was the first newscaster. There were fair trade moves against radio broadcasting news. And our studio just decided they were going to do it. It was our biggest competitor. What am I to expect? 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Just made it. Yeah, I waited for you. I've been bridging like you are. I can stop breathing. So it won't be her on the air. That lovely voice you hear in the background. 10 seconds, mics on. My fellow Americans, just about a year ago, I went on national television to speak of a great national endeavor for our future. An effort by all of us to give the words freedom, fairness, and hope, new meaning and power for every man and woman in America. I spoke to you about what we must do to transform a tax system rotting from unfairness and complexity, a source of unending resentment and envy into one that is clear, simple, and fair for all, a system that could no longer run roughshod over Main Street America, but would ensure your families and firms incentives and rewards for hard work and risk-taking in an American future of strong economic growth. Death and taxes may be inevitable, but unjust taxes are not. And so we proposed as our number one domestic priority a radical reform to simplify the tax system and lower your tax rates. Clear out the clutter of special provisions, free ourselves from the grip of special interests, and create a binding commitment to the only special interest that counts you, the people who pay America's bills. All of us, our White House team, Jim Bakers at Treasury, and everyone else in the administration, have fought hard to get tax reform passed into law. But from day one, the Washington establishment has been firing its big guns, trying to shoot tax reform down. According to these experts, we never had a chance. If you listened to conventional wisdom here, to the wisdom of Washington's most influential lobbyists and insiders, tax reform was never more than a pipe dream. Less than one month ago, we were told that tax reform is dead. Well, just in case you missed one of the headlines last week, it read, sudden twists in tax bill's course leave lobbyists stunned bewildered. What happened? The people won. That's what happened. Well, they may not have won quite yet. But thanks to heroic work of Senator Bob Packwood, members of his finance committee, our administration, and you, the political entrepreneurs have just won a magnificent first victory over the stagnating forces of the status quo. America today stands poised to lift off into a new age of opportunity powered by one of the most exciting economic changes of my lifetime. Passed by an overwhelming 20 to 0 bipartisan vote, this proposal is really radical in scope. It dramatically simplifies the entire tax rate structure and reduces personal income tax rates to their lowest levels in over half a century. There will be only two simple rates, 15 and 27%. Over 80% of all Americans will pay a tax rate of 15% or less. In addition, the finance committee proposal will raise the personal and dependence exemption to $2,000 for all middle and low income Americans. It will remove 6 million working poor from the tax rolls altogether. That's right. I said 6 million. It will sweep into the trash bins of our past literally scores of unfair, unwise, unproductive tax shelters. It will make business decisions depend on economic merits rather than on tax considerations. And it will make America more competitive in world markets. Finally, the proposal will make an enormous contribution toward tax fairness by providing for a minimum tax of 20% on certain items of tax preference. In this way, we can be sure that all individuals and corporations finally pay their fair share. Of course, this bill is not perfect. But several months ago, I wrote several members of the House specifying the conditions that must be met for my support. This bill meets those conditions. As far as I'm concerned, it's a giant step forward. My counsel of economic advisors believes that the Senate Finance Bill is pro-growth and pro-opportunity. They estimate that added incentives and efficiencies could increase America's growth rate nearly 10% over the next decade. That could mean as much as $600 to $900 more income per household each year. Jobs could rise an additional 4 million over that period. That's why I'm asking Republicans and Democrats to unite to move this legislation through Congress as fast as possible so you, the people, can set the stage to make America the world's economic superstar through the 90s and the year 2000. As I seem to remember saying once before, let's go for it. Until next week, thanks for listening. And God bless you. And it was in his program, Mike, that it was unannounced. One night, he came in and I told him, he'd usually run over if he had a lot of means. But this night, I told him, we were followed by a commercial. So I said, you got to get off right on the nose. Oh, he said, I've got a lot of news tonight. They told me that I said, there's been a change. There's a commercial. And so he started going with the news. And finally, he didn't sound like he was stopping and I gave him a finger for one minute. Then I gave him half a minute and he was still going and finally right at the moment. I just pushed the button to program. And I said, that concludes the news program by H.R. Gross. We take you now to the Tropical Room with the Hotel Fort Des Moines and push the program button. Well, the fellas in the control room hadn't had time to pull his mic off the program. So his mic was on as the music started coming through from the Tropical Room. And H.R. stood up, kicked his chair across the studio and then in no uncertain and very profane terms, he started talking and the switchboard began to run. Oh, no, that's fair. Best part was that the police went to the Tropical Room and they heard it. They saw some drunk had gotten in there and they went in and said, you can't keep order in this place, we'll close it. Did both of you keep your job? Yeah. Okay, good work. Good day. Okay, bye.