 At the lunch and we had the lunch here before they went up and I one of the men there at the time said that sometimes a Woman is the best man for the job and So I recall that to her and said because she was manning that long arm Which was the furthest and farthest reach out into space to retrieve that satellite and what a first that That really was But now I know you've been briefed on a number of things and anything that I'd try to say about what we've been doing would Probably be plowing plowed ground already. I Was asked when I was downstairs in the press were there about they're continuing to speculate about the the Jimmy Carter debate book so-called and Who gave us the copy It was Amy And why not she wrote it We've been talking about a number of subjects here And I know there's subjects that you all probably been talking about and as I say I won't try to repeat any of the things that we've been doing Because I want to get to at least a few minutes of dialogue and then we're going to go in the other room And I'm going to get to say hello to each one of you individually, but There is one thing that I'd like to say that maybe hasn't been covered and That is I know you all want to say what can you do? What can we do? How do we how can we help? I have never I'm so frustrated. I have never known a time when there has been so much distortion of actually What we're doing or what we're trying to do Actually to the to the ignoring totally of fact and figure About some of these things that what we need our more voices raised countering this and we learned once in the picture business and In spite of all of our billboards and trailers and all of those things and the fan magazines We found out in a survey once that the biggest seller of tickets in the movie business at that time was word of mouth So we could use all your mouths. I Gave just one example up here Ever since our commission on excellence in education has come out with its report Telling what most parents in the United States already knew and that was that the quality of education had declined I have seen them up on the hill going on television. I've heard one of the candidates for president on one of the Sunday panel shows All of them be laboring us and the terrible slashes that we've made in the budget and that's what's wrong with education Well in the first place since it started in 1960 Federal support to education has never amounted to more than 8% of the total budget of education 215 billion dollars last year spent on education. That's a billion dollars more than was spent on national defense but of that amount only some fourteen point eight billion dollars was federal aid to education and That was the same as it had been in 1981 in the budget. We inherited when we came here and this year We're spending fifteen point three billion dollars. So I don't think the federal government has done anything With money that caused the educational problems I'll tell you what it has done for its eight percent of the money over the last Twenty years it is insisted on about fifty percent of the interference With local school boards and administrators in running education and incidentally there was almost an almost two hundred percent increase in per capita spend per pupil spending in education in those Twenty years and in that same period of time. There was a 14% decline in the number of students So they must have had plenty of money left over as the the job Got smaller, but the revenue got bigger So now that dialogue that I promised Yes Well the first thing I'm going to use all the self-control I've got to not glow But really it it was a landmark decision it was This has been another frustrating thing most of this Much of it is going on back over the years but most of it has occurred in the last several years following Watergate Vietnam and It has been legislative veto and Now to be freed from that for example just to give you one figure President Nixon was one who in an effort to reduce government spending His administration was successful in saving in a number of areas and agencies and departments and not spending all the money That was appropriated And Congress just changed that and fixed it so that by law whether you need to or not you have to spend that money and Now we will be able to keep on doing what we've been doing and the economies in our various agencies and departments and have that Money left over to apply on the deficit and it's any number of things like that are just it's when I was in Chicago yesterday to Speak to the AMA convention and Bill Smith called me there before the speech and Told me what had happened, and I didn't have to use the steps to get on the podium. I just Yes on zero to 100 scale how far progress on I Don't know whether I could figure it that accurately as oh to a hundred, but let me just say in one thing The first thing is we've turned the entire debate around The up until we got here as you can remember back over the decades It was always Debating well which programs and how many spending programs and how much more are we going to do in government? And for three years now the debate has been how much are we going to cut and how much can we cut? And will they let us cut if they had given us all we asked for In these first two budgets that we had to deal with the deficit would be forty billion dollars less But even so we got about three-fourths of what we asked for We have the increase in the rate of spending was seventeen percent a year We have cut that to less than half of what it was. So maybe I could say we're at fifty But with this added help that has just come to us now We're going to progress further. I could tell you this also Non-defense admittedly we had to expand the Defense Department to make up for the way it had been trimmed back But in non-defense part of government We are way ahead of our target on employees We had said promise that we would reduce by seventy five thousand federal employees We've reduced by sixty five thousand so far. We said we'd do it in three years So we're ahead of schedule on that and we have a team Whose work is not evident yet that has been working for two years now on the actual business practices and management of government not the things of whether Welfare should be cut or not cut or things of that kind But on how do we do business? We were astonished at how far behind The business sector in this country government is we're still literally doing things horse and wagon In government and this task force has been working on these things. We have eliminated 2,200 Publications that government was putting out regularly Ladies would you like to know that the only reason that you've got a clean kitchen is because the government had a booklet That they put out that told you the importance of keeping the sink clean They told you why that draw bugs if you didn't but it smelled if you didn't you'd never figure that out by yourself But two quick comments one on education was a nice article Coming out of Northern California, so the end of these boys there's six years and came couldn't speak English I mean else he gradually fell they're trying his class I don't think the educational system is all that bad of somebody to do that our system and secondly Have you given much thought about possibly having a summit meeting with and rope off this You know the baby cool off see these people say we're not doing enough to plan We're Let me first comment on that and I called several of those New Asian American citizens of ours that have come here in the last few years called them personally because Several of them were the leaders in their class Throughout the nation, but I have to tell you that the percentage of high school students who can't read their diplomas is Distressingly high But with regard to when drop-off we're ready for a meeting Except in no way just to go and have a meeting to get acquainted and then have the let down that would follow When there is an agenda and something that we think offers an opportunity to make a real accomplishment in our relations We'll have a Summit meeting Well we talked about that at this table here, too at the latest and last possible moment that such an answer can be given I Had recognized this gentleman they've told me oh dear look I'm gonna I'll say it in advance warning you you and you and then Bob's told me that that was supposed to be the last one And then we will We certainly want you to veto anything that's going to be done to try and change your tax cut program I'm sleeping these days with a pen under my pillow. I can't wait now People and that way I wasn't dead alive because the wives are very important part of your support group I Listen, I I think it's a great. I I think it's a great idea. Did you make a note Mike? All right Decision when you weigh the factors whether you will or will not run I may not see you between now All the people that I can't paint with an 80 for you Everyone knows that many qualified men and women in the Republican Party You are the only one who's been waiting so if you want to carry your policies carried out in the next four years I'm sorry. You're gonna have to do it yourself Well, I've always said that the people tell you whether you should run or not and I'll make a note of all that you I Know I wasn't supposed to yes There's so much this information around we need your answer When do we draw the line, Mr. President? Do we draw the line at El Salvador? Or at Nicaragua where the Russian missiles are aimed towards the United States? Or We draw the line in El Salvador Here I have to take a minute we talked some about this here at our table, and I have to take a minute for that This is where We can use your voices We need this because of the constant drumbeat as we heard it in Vietnam Whether on the hill or in the the press that seems to be biased that way But somehow we're on the wrong side and it's none of our business and the gorillas must be the good guys and so forth We're having a battle with the Congress and I think their politics are being played with this whole thing up there they would like to keep us just Dribbling out little bits of help that are not enough to ensure victory But if we keep on doing it it will just take it longer for El Salvador to bleed to death but the truth of the matter is Those aren't Embattled farmers with muskets up there in the hills. These are professional trained Fighting men trained in Cuba the Soviet Union even the PLO has been present and helping We just met this morning with a group of congressmen who've come back from there And they did not all go down there supportive of El Salvador They have come back with some stories that I've said somehow we've got to get these stories to the public First of all, they met young 16 year old boys enlisting in the El Salvador army and they said why why are you doing this? And they said to fight for our country They're not sympathetic to the gorillas. They want what they have started Admitted it isn't as much democracy as we'd like to see it isn't as much as they'd like to see but they've been several hundred years without Democracy they have to learn what human rights are all about but more than that These congressmen met with some of the high-ranking officers of the other side and They were very outspoken One of them said we're for real This revolution is Not for one country. It's for all of Central America Another one said to them it won't be too long before you'll be seeing is that the Arizona Mexican border This is how for real they are they are better armed than we have been able to arm The troops with down there are the battalions that we trained were the most successful Because their army has been a kind of a barracks army where you know They went home at night and went home for lunch and and took the weekend off And it's it we trained them what it was like to be in a war But we we only trained one out of ten and then we ran out of the money and this is what we're asking Congress for We need the American people to join us in saying to Congress We want the war stopped there Before it spreads, but their aim is is all over there So far this year in these few months more Soviet ships have unloaded munitions in Nicaragua Then came to Nicaragua in the total of all last year and just these few months That's how much they have stepped it up. They have virtually quadrupled their military shipments to Cuba much of which We think is also going across But this is so vital to us and I said here at the table, you know, Houston is only a two-days drive by automobile from El Salvador This isn't Vietnam. This isn't 10,000 miles away across an ocean This is these are our friends and neighbors. These are fellow Americans Because from the South Pole to the North Pole, that's what this Western hemisphere is You can cross a border into someone else's country, but you're still among Americans because we're all Americans And it's about time we learn to stick together and do what this hemisphere can do and God bless you for Bringing that question here and giving me a chance to I'm going I'm going in the name knows of you that I missed I'm going in the next room and you're all coming in there And we'll each have our pictures taken and say hello and then you can slip me the question