 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. From you to Cincinnati, you could not have made a better choice. Our great city regale Abraham Lincoln is a candidate for his party's presidential nomination. And of course, this is the home of William Howard Taft. President Reagan comes to us as chief of state at the height of his popularity. Many Americans regard him as a personal friend. We are fortunate to have a leader who embodies gifts that are so rare in this day and age. Mr. President, you are a very special person. And we extend our fondest greetings to you and your beloved Nancy. May God bless you for years and years. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Barrett, and thank you all. This is quite a wonderful reception. For a minute there, I thought maybe you thought I was Pete Rose. It's great to be back in Cincinnati and a genuine honor to share the platform with your congressman, Bill Grattison, and his Ohio colleagues, Tom Kindness and Bob McEwen. Delalata would have been with us, but as things happen in Washington, something happened that interfered with his getting here. And I know that some place out there with you is a companion of mine of years back when we were governors together, Jim Rhodes. And I remember a story back from my Jim Rhodes days, my governor days in California. I was on the way to the office one morning at the car radio on, and it was a disc jockey on, playing songs and so forth. And suddenly I heard him saying, and we were having some problems at the time, I heard him saying something that endeared him to me. He said, every man should take unto himself a wife, because sooner or later something is bound to happen that you can't blame on the governor. Well, the last time I visited here, it was August 1984, the middle of the presidential campaign. And I spoke to you that day about my dreams for America and my plans for this second term. I told you, and I quote, we're going to simplify the tax system, actually make it understandable and clear and fair. And when we do that, your tax rates are going to come down, not go up. Well, my friends today, I've come back to Cincinnati to help make good on that promise. We now have before the Congress a sweeping proposal to reform our entire federal system of taxation. It has its roots deep in the American tradition of limited government, individual achievement, and economic growth. During the 1920s, for example, presidents Harding and Coolidge instituted a series of tax cuts that reduced the top rate on individuals from 73% to just 25%. Today, we remember the boom that followed as the roaring 20s. In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy cut taxes again. And again, the economy responded with great vigor and great growth. In 1981, our own first term tax cuts were enacted. And in 1983, when those installments, because it was an installment plan of tax cuts, went into effect and began to take a full effect, America took off on this recovery. I understand that here in Cincinnati in 1984 alone, some 20,000 new jobs were created. And during the last 18 months, greater Cincinnati has seen the creation of more than 1,400 new businesses. No wonder the press has coined the term, syncinomics. I knew that program was succeeding when they stopped calling it Reaganomics. Today, the American expansion is in its 34th consecutive month. And across the country, we've seen the creation of more than 8 million new jobs. My friends, history is clear. Lower tax rates mean greater freedom. And whenever we lower the tax rates, our entire nation is better off. Freedom for people to grow is as American as apple pie and the Cincinnati Reds. America's fair share tax plan will give us a new burst of economic achievement. Now, many already understand that our plan will mean lower federal income taxes for most individuals. But there's been some confusion about just what it would mean for business. Well, permit me to set the record straight. For business, America's tax plan will mean growth. Those of you here with the Cincinnati Institute for Small Enterprise Division of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber should be aware that for small businesses, our plan will represent a substantial tax break. Unincorporated small businesses, taxed according to the personal incomes of their owners, will benefit as we reduce and simplify personal income tax rates. The top personal rate alone will come down from 50% to just 35%. Incorporated small businesses will receive graduated rates of 15, 18, 25, and 33%, a measure especially helpful to businesses just getting started. As you know, small businesses create most of our new jobs. From late 1982 to late 1984, industries dominated by small businesses created new jobs at the remarkable rate of more than 11%. Under our pro-growth plan, I'm convinced that small businesses will form, grow, and create new jobs even more quickly. Those of you here with the Cincinnati Business Committee represent larger concerns. Such giants as Procter & Gamble and the Kroger Company and Federated Department Stores. Well, it's no mistake that this wonderful town is called the Blue Chip City. For corporations like your own, America's fair share tax plan will mean a lower top corporate rate down from 46% to just 33%. In addition, the system will dramatically be sampled as countless provisions for special treatment are reduced or eliminated. Take a moment to compare this simplified low tax rate future to the present arrangement. The corporate tax structure today represents a jungle of deductions, credits, and allowances, the only ones who can hack their way through it with ease or those with friendly guides on Capitol Hill. The whole weed-ridden, overgrown arrangement encourages competition of the worst kind not to produce better products at lower prices, but to hire bigger and bigger teams of lobbyists and lawyers ever more skilled in taking advantage of the tax code. My friend's great American corporation should not be strapped by a system that is tied to the stake of tax shelters. It should be set free to make better products than any other industry in any country of the world, and that's what America's tax plan we think is going to do. For capital formation, our plan envisions a cut in the top rate on capital gains to just 17.5%. Now, here again, history is our guide. Back in 1977, the number of dollars committed to venture capital, the funding so important to business startups, was just $39 million. And then in 1978, taxes on capital gains were cut, and in 1981, we cut them again. And last year, venture capital commitments were over $4 billion. Even early opponents of tax cuts on capital gains can now see how the new availability of venture capital has spurred our economic growth. Indeed, former Massachusetts representative and then Senator Paul Songus said of the 1978 tax cut, and let me quote him, that bill, which I did not support, did more for the economy of my state than anything I ever did as a congressman. When we cut the tax on capital gains again this year, we can expect capital formation and new business starts to hit new highs. As business people, you will understand that by far the most significant aspect of our plan is that it will be good for your employees and customers, the American people. As I've said, rates for most individuals will come down. To benefit the family, we'll increase to $4,000, the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly, and nearly double the personal exemption from just over $1,000 all the way to $2,000. The American people will have new incentives, more money in their pockets, more with which to purchase your goods, to save, and to invest. Just last month, the Council of Economic Advisers completed a study of how our proposals long-term or what our long-term impact would be. Using conservative estimates, that's the only kind I approve of, the Council found that America's fair share tax plan would increase our gross national product by about 2.5% to 3.2% over the next 10 years. Now that's the same as providing 11 years worth of growth in just 10 years in a decade. That translates into the equivalent of almost 4 million additional new jobs over the next 10 years and from $600 to $900 a year in additional income for every American household. Needless to say, these growth estimates are based on our own proposal. And I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I intend to fight for our plan. A top corporate rate of 33%, a top capital gains rate of 17.5%, 15, 25, and 35% rates for individuals in exchange for the 14 tax brackets we have today, a standard deduction of $4,000 and a nearly doubled personal exemption of $2,000. Now of course, there are those who say that getting tax reform through Congress this year will be impossible. Well, if everybody on Capitol Hill worked as hard for tax reform as your own outstanding Congressman Bill Gratison, we wouldn't have to worry. But for those who are predicting the defeat of America's fair share tax plan, I have a few other choice predictions I'd like them to consider. In 1899, Charles H. Duel, commissioner of the US Patent Office, said this, everything that can be invented has been invented. And he suggested we should do away with the office. And with the advent of soundtracks for motion pictures in the 20s, Harry Warner, one of my old bosses of Warner Brothers, said this, who the hell wants to hear actors talk? Do you know that Fulton tried to sell the steamboat for warships to Napoleon? And do you know what Napoleon said about it? You're telling me that you can make a ship go against the tide and the wind and the current by building a bonfire under the deck. I won't listen to such foolishness. Well, here's one for a great baseball town like Cincinnati. In 1921, Triss speaker of the Cleveland Indians said this, Babe Ruth made a big mistake when he gave a pitching. My friends today, naysayers will soon take their place beside Triss speaker in the great mistakes Hall of Fame. Just as sure as Ruth could hit home runs and rows can break records, during this session of the Congress, America's tax plan will become law. But it's going to take all of us and all of you, letting the folks in Washington know that you want this change made. I'm going to inject something here, because lately I've seen some remarks or some no philosophy attributed to me, that somehow I am concerned only with this, and that I'm not paying any attention to the national deficit, the deficit spending that the government is doing. 30 years ago, out of the mashed potato circuit, I was saying we had to interrupt this 50 year span that we've had of deficit spending and which over the years we were told was necessary to prosperity. And I kept saying it'd blow up and get out of control, and it has. But I'd like to just tell you something about that. That's a top priority with us. And in our wing over there at the West Wing of the White House, we have been talking about not just each year trying to get further cuts in the budget with the hope that someday we can get down to a balanced budget. We have been discussing a plan over a period of years to start a plan of spending cuts that will bring the percentage of gross national product that the deficit is today down four and 3%, then 2%, and on down to zero in a several year period, not too many years, and then our dream is at the end of that, that year you implement a constitutional amendment that denies the federal government the right to borrow money. Well just recently we discovered that two of our senators up on the hill, and in fact one of your congressmen, Del Lata, were engaged in discussions of exactly the same thing. Now we hadn't said a word about what we were talking about. They hadn't told us either what they were talking about. But we found out that we were sure thinking alike. I don't know whether the ESP was going from them to us or us to them, or whether it crossed on the way. But we have gotten together, and we are now in discussions with the people up on the hill about that kind of a plan to exert the discipline that is needed in Washington so that for someone to stage a big fight for his particular spending and overspending that he wanted to do or she wanted to do, instead they would be breaking the pattern of a plan over extended years to bring about a balanced budget. So we're in agreement on that and we're going to be talking about that. And I just want to say to you, my gratitude for what so many of you have done. You know, I've talked about the things that have happened there for the last four months. Inflation has only been two and a half percent. I spoke about the capital money, the venture capital that is available. We know that interest rates are coming down. We know about the eight million jobs that I mentioned. And we didn't do all of that. America did all of that. And I think the greatest contribution we made was we tried to get government out of your way. And we're going to keep on trying to do that. Thank you all very much. God bless all of you and God bless Cincinnati. Thank you.