 The First Lady of the United States, the President of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I once learned that you're never supposed to open any remarks with an apology, but I must because I am the reason for being delayed a little bit. It was late coming here and I have to explain the reason I was late. I was getting connected to Yugoslavia so that I could congratulate, on behalf of all Americans, Scott Hamilton for winning the gold. Now about that introduction and that line that was used in introducing me the other night by Mrs. Reagan, I had always heard that an emcee was to be so dull in introducing those to follow that they would appear brilliant by contrast. She got the biggest laugh of the night. But I'm delighted to welcome you here and it's good to see so many friends and to have a chance to make some new ones. I want to thank all of you for what you're doing to advance the goals and ideals that unite us. It's you, the office holders in state capitals and communities all across America who are putting our beliefs into practice. And I believe that America is moving forward again and it's not because of any magic in Washington. The only magicians are on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Slight of hand artists who have a way of taking your tax dollars and making them disappear. But it's your drive, energy and determination that make the difference. That's why America's future is looking better every day. My spirits are high for another reason as well. I'm able to share these few moments with two of the most important women in my life, Nancy and Maureen. And you know, I only work a few hundred feet from here but I rarely get home for lunch. Maureen did a little research for me and I know that even before women had the right to vote, our party became the first to elect a woman to the United States Congress. That's the Republican Party tradition and I'm determined to build on it. The only women in the Senate, Nancy Cassabon and Paula Hawkins are Republicans. Not to mention our nine outstanding Republican Congresswomen. Now, don't you think it's about time we gave them some more company? We're calling on the talents and leadership of women in a big way. For the first time in history, three women are in the cabinet at the same time. Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick, Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler and Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Doe. Ambassador Faith Whittlesey has brought her talent to our White House staff. And all told, more than a thousand women hold policymaking posts in our administration. And one of my proudest days was when Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman justice in the history of Supreme Court. And counting the votes sometimes and some of the issues in these last three years, I've had reason to cheer her being there. But just as important, thousands of able Republican women like you are serving on the front lines in public offices all across America. We want to see the number of Republican women office holders growing here in Washington and in every American town and city and state. Someday, a woman's going to have my job. Let's make sure it's a Republican woman. When historians write about these years, they're going to find that very skilled and talented women played a key role in putting America back on her feet. Challenges are still before us and together we Republicans can turn them into opportunities. Three weeks ago in my State of the Union address, I talked about how far we've come since those days in 1980 when we were hearing sorry excuses about some sort of malaise that the American people suffered. Well, I won't belabor the point, but if you figured out why our critics are going around the country moaning and groaning, maybe we should speak a little louder about the one big program that is helping every man, woman, and child in America. It's called economic recovery. By turning the economy around, we've helped everyone, and particularly women. The majority of elderly Americans are women. Double digit inflation in 1979 and 1980 was destroying their purchasing power. Now inflation is only 3.2%. Thousands of women who wanted to start their own businesses saw 21% prime interest rates slam shut the doors of opportunity. Well, those interest rates have been cut nearly in half, and if Congress will cooperate, we can do even better. Personal income tax rates have been reduced, and in indexing begins next year, meaning that government can no longer profit at the taxpayer's expense. We reduced the marriage tax penalty and almost doubled the maximum child care credit. We increased the limits for IRA and KIO contributions, and we've eliminated estate taxes on family farms and businesses for surviving spouses. For solid growth in housing, new housing starts in January, we're at their highest since 1978, to new frontiers in high technology, and from a healthy recovery in real wages to the sharpest drop in unemployment in nearly 33 years. We have good reason to be proud of what's been accomplished. For 13 months, we have been putting an average of 300,000 people a month back into jobs and off the unemployment rolls. Believe me, if we didn't control one House of the Congress, none of that could ever have been done. There's still so much to do, more to do in insuring women's rights, providing for equitable treatment in pension benefits and IRAs, facilitating child and dependent care, and enforcing delinquent parent support payments. And we've introduced legislation in all these areas to accomplish these goals. Unemployment is now down to 7.9%. The unemployment rate among adult women has dropped from 9.1% to 7.1%, and today more women have jobs than ever before in our nation's history. But I won't be satisfied until every American who wants a job can find a job. We need basic budget and tax reforms like the line item veto, a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget, and tax simplification so that we can make sure the progress we're enjoying will continue for generations to come. And I believe we must also move boldly to develop the enormous potential of space while preserving our resources here on earth, our land, water, and air. And let us preserve our other resources, which are just as precious. Our values of faith, family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom, the values that have made us a good and a loving people. Just as we're turning the economy around, there's a new sense of purpose and direction to America's foreign policy. Back in 1981, we had an uncomfortable feeling that we lost respect overseas. Some questioned whether we had the will to defend peace and freedom. Well, three years later, the world knows once more what America stands for, freedom, dignity, and peace for everywhere, for people from Asia to Central and South America. And that brings me to two final points. The first has to do with the Soviet Union. For the first time in years, we're on the way to restoring a constructive dialogue, one that builds stability and is so essential for peace. Time and again, in public statements and in private communications to the Soviet leadership, I've stressed our commitment to a serious and intensive dialogue, one aimed at building a more constructive relationship. Avoiding war and reducing arms is the starting point. But I want to accomplish much more. And all that's needed is a good faith effort on both sides. That's the message that Vice President Bush carried to Moscow earlier this week. And the Vice President emphasized once again America's desire for greater mutual understanding and genuine cooperation between our two countries. America has always been ready to meet the Soviets halfway, to find solutions to the many problems that divide us, and to reach fair arms reduction agreements. If the new Soviet leadership decides to join us in a good faith effort, we can accomplish much good together. And there's no better time to start than right now. Finally, let me say a few words about recent events in the Middle East. We all know the peace process has been painfully slow. But we must continue to search for peace and stability as long as there's a chance to bring it about. For the past 35 years, the United States has been working to build peace and stability in that troubled region. Most of that effort has been focused on resolving the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbors. Lebanon's troubles are just part of the overall problem in the Middle East, and her internal strife has only made it worse. The most recent outbreak of violence reaffirms the importance of redoubling our efforts to find a peaceful solution to the fundamental problems of the region. And we're trying to do just that. Earlier this week, I met with King Hussein of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt. We discussed our September 1982 Middle East peace plan and ways to move the peace process forward, both of them in complete agreement, that this should be done and they want to be of help. We're pursuing every avenue in the search for peace and stability. Now, I've gone on long enough. When you get back home, tell people what we stand for, what we've done, and how far together we can still go. We can make our dreams come true. The Republican Party needs you, and so does America. So temporarily, I'll say good luck, and God bless you, and we'll have dessert. Ladies and gentlemen, keep on with your dessert and with your coffee and all. And we've just got a few minutes before we're going to have an opportunity for us to meet individually in the next rooms and have our pictures taken and all, but just thought that there might be a question or two before we got around to all of it. All right. Mr. President, I'm Helen English, the representative from Michigan, and we appreciate your tax cut because it came right after we raised taxes in Michigan. We were able to take control of the Senate because of your tax cut. But one of the questions I have is, is your administration, Reagan Bush administration, in the next four years going to be committed to not increasing taxes because I'm going to pay taxes too? I am one who has believed that the whole problem and the problem of our deficits, which must be dealt with, it must be dealt with by redoing of our whole government structure with regard to spending, that the government is taking too big a percentage from the private sector and this has been responsible for our economic downturns and our problems. And we've had a history of tax increases due to the other party and back over these last 40 years and through all the years we have had consistent deficit spending as a part of the federal government policy in spite of all the tax increases did was just open the doors for more spending. And it's amazing now they've discovered deficits, which they say are ours. But no, I'm opposed to it. Mr. President, I'm Kathleen Wolche from Illinois and I'd just like to share something with you. I was one of those small business women that you spoke about earlier and I did lose my business because of the high rate of inflation and I only want to thank you now for what you've done with the rate of interest and for making our country strong today. Thank you. Thank you very much. Some questions are easier than others. You deserve to be challenged with a tough question because you're so good at them. According to some information we received in our packets this morning from the U.S. Department of Labor, most women work the majority of them because of economic need. Two-thirds of these women are single through the force or widow or whatever you have. Of these women, three out of five, I just got these figures, three out of five in the labor force have completed four years of college and yet of these women, men who have completed only one to three years of high school have the same income. Women that are high school grads are making about the same as men who haven't even completed elementary school. My question finally is why then is the administration resisting the frontier of comfortable work which seeks to restore some equity in only in government, not in the private sector? Well, I know that in all of you you will think that this is a stall or something when I say we're looking and we're trying to study the idea of government stepping into the free marketplace to establish we're all agreed on equal pay for equal work but to let government try and determine whether a job of this type should be equal to a job of this one over here instead of letting the free market determine that is something that I think is fraught with great potential for harm. It is true that the marketplace supply and demand determines many pay scales and then the free choice of people to take those jobs but we want to look very carefully at that because as I say, I think that government has proven over the years that it is not a very good fine tuner of the economy and that most of the time it messes things up and we would want to study a long time before we gave government that power. Mr. President, I'm Diana Nelson from Illinois and I'm a congressional candidate. I think that there is an issue that we were talking about at this table that is a good issue for Republicans and women and it's the issue of the college industries. There are a number of women out there who work at home either with a loom or a word processor or something like that because they choose to. Republicans have always stood for the individual entrepreneur for the person who chooses and we wish to maintain that position and I think that this is a good issue for Republicans because it will bring us the women that I travel in circles and I know that the issue of comparable worth has a great deal of just simply there is the feel out there in feminist circles that that is the next great issue and I would caution you against coming out against it in public at least before the election. All right. Let me just say I disagree with organized labor too on its opposition to the cottage type industry. I know they're trying to point out that this is some way going back to the sweatshops or something. I don't think it is at all and I think that's been a proud tradition in our country and I'm in support of it keeping it. Thank you Mr. President. Oh, I just pointed to someone. I'll overrule my daughter just once. Mr. President, I'm State Representative Marie Tansy from Ohio and on a voluntary basis would you consider a check off on our federal income tax forms to reduce the federal budget? Some of us are very concerned about it. Would that be very willing on a voluntary basis to make those contributions? Well, I must say I've never thought about it and we've never talked about putting it on the income tax or something but there is a fund in the Treasury Department which people can contribute for reducing the debt and we've got to get the word around to more people but that is true. I have to tell you something with all the criticism and I've been guilty of much of it about education and the failures in recent years or the decline in the quality and all is one school that I have to think must have some pretty remarkable teachers. In the fifth grade class a little girl wrote me a letter and sent a check for a couple of hundred dollars that the girls and boys in the fifth grade of her school had gone out and raised and worked and put together and sent it to contribute for payment on the national debt and I have to say when I was in fifth grade I wouldn't know what a national debt was at that time. I think, I take, no, Maureen was right on our time limit because we're going in the next rooms and then you're all going to have, we're going to have an opportunity to meet you and shake hands with you and have our pictures taken so if we're going to do that I won't be able to take any more questions. God bless you all and thank you.