 Ladies and gentlemen, savior applause. You're not gonna hear a lot from me either because we wanna hear from the president. What a delight for all of us, Mr. President and Mrs. Reagan. To have finished our convention on this kind of a note, a successful convention. We've got some great candidates running and Paul Curran and Lou Lerman and Jim Emery, Ned Regan, Whitney North Seymour, Mickey Sebert, Florence Sullivan and Fran Sclafani. We've had a successful convention. It's a delight to have you with us. I must tell you folks that I will have one happy memory of this, well a lot of happy memories of the convention, but one in particular that I hope to be able to tell my grandchildren. The hotel was kind enough to give me the presidential suite when I moved in here on Monday. I was asked to give it up and it was a delight. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. If I could just say one thing, I know I have to be very careful because you have primaries to go and so forth and so I've got to stay neutral until the candidates are selected, except for one, except for one, the first Republican woman candidate here in the history of our party. I know you'll have a spirited convention and you'll have a spirited primary, but remember one thing, it came from the West, I know, but I'm still singing it. The greatest thing that's happened for the Republican party is when the chips are down and the decisions are made as to who the candidates will be, then the 11th commandment prevails and everybody goes to work and that is thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. George invited us to drop by here before we went home after being at the United Nations earlier today. I'm always delighted to speak to Republican delegates. I sort of developed a taste for that in the summer of 1980. But I'll tell you what I like about my fellow Republicans, their optimism and their dedication and George is that kind of a Republican. Because I remember back there when everyone told us to write off New York in 1980 and not to waste our time or effort here because there was no chance and it was George Clark who said, not on your life, nothing doing and he was right and you know what happened. But it will be activists like him and you, the folks who organize and vote who will determine what America's going to be like in the years ahead. It's our job to muster the forces of hope and to show the nation that change is possible. Today we're engaged in a fierce struggle with the proponents of negativism, the advocates of no. They offer the politics of no new ideas, no growth, no incentives to work, no incentives to save and no firm security for the nation. And we are and must remain the proponents of yes. Yes, we can have a brighter tomorrow. Yes, we can make government work. Yes, we can solve our problems. We can have a safe and strong America. We can live together in harmony no matter what our race or religion. And when it comes to our country, yes is the only word we understand because that's what we've grown up with as a country. The colonists said it, that they could seek a better world. Pioneers said yes, we can open up the prairies and the frontiers. Heroes who said yes, we will defend freedom to the very end. 1982, we Republicans know what we stand for. Unlike many of our opponents. After being in Washington for a year and a half, there's one thing I know for sure. There are two sides to every question. And come election year, the Democrats turn up on both sides. We have an important job ahead and it's getting our message across. Won't be easy. It's a tremendous job to do. But in spite of everything you hear, the issues really are with us and it's up to us and to leaders like yourselves to become familiar to know what the answers are and the arguments are when the battle gets underway. The issues are with us because we're trying to solve the problems that are facing this nation. And on November 2nd, we have to get that story across. And then I think they will confirm the mandate that we received in 1980. Really. But let me just say a word about those issues and the comparison with where our opponents stand. The liberal leadership of the other party is going to have to explain why they, for two years in a row, fought right down to the wire and have in the last few weeks against reducing spending as if that were some kind of a sin against the body politic. It's the liberal leadership of that same party who first of all didn't want to give you the tax cuts that are scheduled for the next two years but now want to take them away from you on the grounds that somehow they're responsible for the recession. Well, the truth is we had the recession before we had the program. And that same leadership has tried to protect every lord and fiefdom in the federal bureaucracy and we have reduced the size of the federal government by tens of thousands of people. George Bush is heading up a task force with regard to those regulations that I talked about during the campaign, all those unnecessary regulations. And do you know what he's accomplished with that task force so far in just eliminating unnecessary regulations? The savings to the people of America in man hours of work filling out papers for the federal government have been reduced by 200 million man hours of paper. I think we offer the people hope. Hope that once again, we have the chance and the answer to making America great again. We can set things right. And with people like yourselves here, I know we're going to do it. Let me just, a few of the buzzwords and then Nancy and I are gonna have to run for that helicopter out there. But you've heard the term over and over again, budget cuts. And more and more you're seeing the sob sister complaints about that we're throwing people out into the streets and there is no safety net and we're not doing what we should do for the people who must have our help. Well, in the first place, there have been no budget cuts. I wish there were. I wish we were in a situation where we could reduce a budget to less than it was the previous year. But we couldn't do that and preserve the safety net for those people who need help. So the 82 budget that we have now is bigger than the budget we inherited in 81. The 83 budget that we're fighting for will be bigger than the 82 budget. But they won't be as much bigger. When we took office, the budgets were increasing in cost 17% a year. We cut that in half with the 82 budget and we'll make another slice about that big in 83. But let me just give you some things you might use in an argument about whether we are mistreating the people who need help. Oh, I know of 8,000 individuals whose social security checks have been eliminated. 8,000 of them. We found out they'd been dead for an average of seven years if they were still getting their checks. But government medical programs over the 70s from 1970 to 1980 increased an average of 16.9% a year in cost. Well, next year in the budget that we're fighting for, it won't be that much, but it'll be almost 15%. Does that sound as if we're denying medical care to those people who need it? The budget, well, let me go back just 20 years to 1962 to Camelot. John F. Kennedy, 29% of his budget was for human needs. And in our budget, 51% is for human needs. They tell us that we're wasting money on defense, that we shouldn't be spending all that money on defense. Well, I want to tell you, we had a few fellows out there with empty guns as a result of what had happened in the four years before we got here. We had airplanes that wouldn't fly for lack of spare parts and ships that couldn't leave harbor. Well, things are different now. And I want to tell you, did we as they say bankrupt the people for defense spending? 1962, 46% of John F. Kennedy's budget was for defense. 1983, less than 30% of our budget will be for defense. Now, I just think a few figures, we'll have more for you that you enjoy. I just found one yesterday. No, sorry, day before yesterday. We got the inspector generals, as they're known from every department together, when we first got here. We appointed some people as a task force to help them and said they were a task force against fraud and waste and extravagance. They were to report to me every six months what they have found. And so the day before yesterday was their third six month report. And in just the six months that ended, March 31st, they have saved the people of this country $5.8 billion. What they found out. One little item that just might interest you to show you what you can find if you look for it. They found out where we were paying $318 a piece for brackets in one department. And they found out they were available in a local store for $4 each. Well, that's enough of that. It's great to see you here and you carry on and don't get discouraged. I think that we're on the way. I got the news this morning. In the month of May, housing starts in the building industry went up 22% over the previous month. God bless you all and George, thank you for letting me in. Nancy and Mr. President, we thank you. We love you, keep fighting the good fight.