 Hi, Mr. President. Welcome back. Thank you, sir. Hi, Mr. President. We're all concerned about that. There's still a possibility of something that we're going to do. It's very much. Now, like a statement, a brief statement, you take as few questions as I can. Principally, with two tasks assigned to me by the President right now, I report it to the President. States, thank you very much. Welcome, and let me say congratulations for inducting the late W.O. Walker into the Publishers Hall of Fame. He was a courageous pioneer in the field of publishing. He's also a friend of mine, and he certainly deserves the honor that you're bestowing. I understand you're getting briefed today by others of our administration, and I hope that being newspaper men, you get some news out of it. A friend of mine used to explain what news was. He defined it as anything that would make a woman say, well, for heaven's sake. And to be honest, I'd rather you left here today saying, now, he's got a point there. But in any case, I'd like to say a few words about, and maybe you've already heard a lot about this, about our economic program, which I know is of great concern to your readers, and then we'll open it up for some questions. As I told the people of Alabama just a couple of days ago, when I was down there, the painful recession that we're currently feeling is the result of a long period, I believe, of government mismanagement. In the last 20 years, the federal budget increased to five times what it was at the start of those 20 years. But that didn't help the working poor and the pensioners who were flattened by double-digit inflation. It didn't help the small businessmen hit by the highest interest rates in 100 years. And it certainly didn't help the average worker when taxes doubled in the five years just between 1976 and 1981. This recession has been building for some time. It wasn't caused by our program. In fact, it began before our program started. In regard to unemployment, as you know, we're in a very hurtful situation, which I'll get to in a minute, but we've made progress in certain other areas. Inflation has fallen to about four and a half percent for the last three months. Savings are up, and the main incentives in our program are just coming online. They won't really begin until July 1st. The prime interest rate, while much too high, is about five points lower than when we took office. But it's the unemployment rate that causes me, and I'm sure many of you, the most personal heartache. I know what it does to families and to individuals. So what does our program do to help this? Well, economic recovery will, in just the normal process, help. And in our program, we also have certain tax incentives in place that will encourage this. The 25 percent reduction in personal tax rates could easily be called a small business tax cut, because at least 85 percent of all business firms pay their taxes by the personal rate, not the corporate tax. Small business people are our biggest employers and our biggest source of new jobs. Some 80 percent or more of all the new jobs are created at that level of business and industry. Telling people without work to wait, of course, is a very difficult thing. There's a lot of talk today about compassion. Who has it and who hasn't? Well, I believe that most of us do have real compassion for those who can't help themselves and must depend on the rest of us. But again, as I said in the other day in Alabama, how about compassion for those who sit around the table at night trying to figure out how to pay their own bills, keep the kids in school, keep up with higher inflation and higher taxes year after year? I realize that our solution is not easy or painless. And some, unfortunately, are experiencing more pain than others. But it's an honest solution, not a quick fix. And I believe it's the only way we'll produce a lasting recovery that will benefit all Americans. Let me say a word now about our federalism proposal. I know that you've just been hearing about that. The underlying purpose of the plan is to rest control of government from the hands of special interest groups and return it to the American people. I know you're concerned about the great strides that you've made in this country since the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. I know and can understand your concern that the states might not be as responsive to your interests as the federal government has been. Well, I intend to protect the civil rights of every American in this country. This administration is not trying to turn back the hands of time. We understand that the good old days, as some say, were not the good old days for all Americans. The federal government has a definite role to play in the lives of loyal citizens and local citizens. It is the federal government's undeniable responsibility to guarantee the rights of all Americans wherever those rights are being denied. And as I've said many times, to guarantee them at point of bayonet if necessary. Now, federalism will bolster an individual's rights and access to government, not reduce them. For black Americans as a group, I think our good faith on meeting the federal responsibility speaks for itself. This administration has sought the largest extension of Voting Rights Act ever, and at a time of rigid budgetary restraints and cuts in many other areas. We've made no reductions in aid to minority business and primarily to the black colleges with their fine traditions in this country. So I think anyone in this position is president of all the people, not just those who voted for him in the last election. I'm also deeply convinced that the policies this administration is pursuing will result in more progress, more freedom, and more economic opportunity for all Americans. So I thank you again for coming. Now we'll have some questions, and I understand that President John Prokope would like to... I'm looking at the wrong direction. It would be the first question. Thank you, Mr. President. We, you know, there are some things that we disagree with in your administration. We don't want to dwell on those. We would like to agree to disagree on some things, set that aside, and we'd like to ask you some questions about things that we can agree on and see if we can have some unanimity on that particular subject. And it has to do with economic development. Number one, we are publishers as well as journalists. And as publishers, we look upon ourselves as business people. As business people, we are 210 newspapers that we have in this country. We want to become involved in the free enterprise system. Since 1619, we've been living in a vacuum of a socialist society in our area because we depend on social welfare. And the other way we're going to get out of that is for us to develop business. And we are the oldest business in this country that is black-oriented. The oldest one is black newspapers. So what we want to do is this. We feel that you have a marvelous program that has to do with the defense industry. And the perception is that the money is being taken away from social welfare in a lot of our areas and is hurting our people, going to the defense industry. Now what we want to know, and my question is, Mr. President, is how can we get that money from the defense industries to dribble back down to our area so that from a public relations point of view you can show that our constituents, that the economic development part of your program that impacts on blacks in this country is part of your program. Now you have the machinery in 9507 in the Small Business Administration to implement that. As it is now, Defense Department has a large advertising budget. We have a hard time getting any advertising out of that. And our 210 black newspapers suffer because of that. We have a hard time getting institutional advertising from the defense industry. We have a hard time being very selfish about our newspapers because I'm president of the Newspaper Publishers Association and that's what we're here talking about. And therefore, rather than to talk about the things that are controversial, that we disagree on, if you could tell us how we can become a part of this free enterprise system of this country and as business people, I tell you that that's where we're coming from and that is my question. All right, there were several points in there and let me take them up if I can get all the points that were touched down and that needed. And the other, I have to say, I was not aware, frankly, that there was an awful lot of advertising by the Defense Department. I'll look into that. They're the 10th largest, Mr. President. They are? Yes, sir. Well, what is it, recruiting and that sort of thing? Yes, sir. Oh, well, I shall look into that. The other thing with regard to the Defense Department and whether that is taking the money that we're trying to reduce from the other portions of the program, not exactly. Our defense spending has been made necessary by the fact that for the last several years, our defenses were allowed to go downhill so far that we are in a dangerous situation. And I have said before I was ever here, but I now really understand that what I was saying before was right. Only when you're in this position do you have access to all the information that you need to know with regard to that kind of decision. And we, it is essential. Even with what we're doing and the spending that is going into defense now, the increased spending, we won't begin to close the gap with the Soviet Union before the middle of this decade. In the meantime, we can walk softly but we can't carry a big stick like Teddy Roosevelt did. We haven't got a big stick. So that is necessary. But the other thing is, let's get it into proportion also. Our defense spending is only 29% of the budget and almost half the budget is being spent on the social welfare reforms, even with the supposed reductions that we're making. Actually, the reductions we're making are in the increase. We have only increased the rate or decreased the rate of increase in spending. We haven't cut back to less than we were spending before. But in John F. Kennedy's administration, to give you a comparison and other administrations back through the years, defense spending was 46% of the budget and the social reform programs were 29%. So the conditions are just reversed, even with the supposed big spending that we're doing. Now, I agree with you with regard to the free enterprise system in business and this is why we didn't. Why I rejected the OMB recommendations that we cut back on the Small Business Administration. It wasn't for any political motive or trying to say, hey, look at me, I'm a good guy or anything. I just happen to believe that it is absolutely essential because the situation with the black neighborhoods and communities in America, unlike most ethnic communities, it's the multiplier effect. You get billions of dollars of income for blacks working in America today. Now, in the average neighborhood, each one of those dollars is turned over about five or six times before it goes back out into the general economy, except in your communities. And there, it's barely turned over once and maybe not even that before it is spent outside. Therefore, this was what was back of my decision. Yes, the goal must be the development and the building up in your own neighborhoods of black-owned businesses to get that multiplier effect, which builds the economy, which provides the jobs for those young people who are standing in the street corners and can't get jobs right now. And this we want to do. Now, as I say, I will look into the other things. Some of our supposed cuts in, when I spoke of cutting in social reforms, I was speaking of the overall amount. There are certain programs that, yes, have been reduced. But let me just give you a, for instance, of why. Here we are in this recession with this great unemployment that we've got. And we reduce a job training program from $3.5 billion down to $1.8. And you say, well, you know, that doesn't make sense in a time like this. It does if you know what's been changed. Out of the $3.5 billion program, only $592 million were going for actual job training. Out of our $1.8 billion, $1.350 million will be going directly for job training. In other words, the program, the first program, the one we're changing, had an awful lot of high administrative overhead that was benefiting a whole new luxury class in America, the bureaucrats, and wasn't getting down to helping the people who were supposed to help. So we can spend a little more than half as much but get more than twice as much actual job training. Now, someone else for the question. All right, then I'll take it. All right, I'm Calvin Rollock, vice president. Mr. President, we represent all black print in the United States. We control very few radio stations, very few TV stations. The black community look to us to interpret your story as far as blacks are concerned and countless numbers of us who do not have access to electronic material. Therefore, we must rely upon your press office in order to give us your statements, your facts, because we are not desirous of trying to interpret your statement through the Washington Post or through the New York Times. Now, this is, we have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. We like what you say. We understood in S-I-L-V-E-R rights and not C-I-V-I-R rights. We want to be a member of your team, but give us the information so we can interpret it the way we feel it should be interpreted. All right, I must tell you that sometimes I don't understand what I've said when I read it in the Post in the New York Times. It loses something in the translation. Yes, ma'am? Yes, Catherine Pugh from African-Americanism will report Baltimore. I was glad to hear that you did not cut the Small Business Administration program, but back in the earlier part of your administration it was a freeze on a bill of 11651, and that particular bill would have given priority to small ethnic-oriented newspapers would have been the first opportunity that they would have had to have access to Small Business Administration funding. That has been frozen, and I was wondering if the administration was taking another look at that because if you're not aware of it many newspapers in this country are the largest employers in the black community. And what that does is, I mean, if we can grow, that means that we provide more jobs. So I think it's an important piece of legislation and I would hope that your administration... What? It's a Small Business Administration bill 11651. 11651. Right. Okay, I shall look... look into that. I really will. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Mr. President. And then I'll come back to you. All right, Paul Bennett, Philadelphia Spirit, Philadelphia PA. Mr. Reagan, in preparing for this visit we polled a lot of our readers to find out exactly what they would ask you if they had this opportunity for a face-to-face. I'll tell you their concerns, and I'd like you to kind of address them. You've already touched on some of them, but they may appear to be a little redundant, but that's okay. The majority believe, again, that your economic plans aren't working. Again, you said that it's an honest approach as opposed to a quick fix. In Philadelphia, however, unemployment continues to grow worse. We've got big food chains and big industries that are shutting down and just last week, I'm sorry, just Saturday, just two days from now, 3,000 people are going to be put out of work because of a major industry. And the neighborhood economy is, in fact, sluggish. You're right about your figures in the dollar turnover. They've asked what happens, though, to the jobless, so they've been put out of work without proper job training or retraining. Secondly, they've asked, in that vein, why can't the government job training programs be geared to training grassroots people in technological and professional skills as opposed to the labor-oriented skills previously funded by CEDA? A couple people said, then, if that happened, those 16,000 jobs you talked about in the New York Times one-end section could be, in fact, filled. Thirdly, they pondered the defense issue and asked why so much money is proposed when, according to Congressman Dellens, $8 billion is... $8 million when we started. It began in 1979. The unemployment, as I say, having sought my first job in the very depths of the Great Depression in 1932, having seen my father, as I've told before, open what he thought was a Christmas greeting on Christmas Eve from his boss, and it was a pink slip telling him he didn't have a job anymore. Unemployment is kind of a traumatic thing with me. We know that the high interest rates are the biggest thing delaying now. The return of some industries, automobile, construction, and so forth. The type of places you talked about that were getting closed, these are now the spin-off. As the unemployment grows, then, suddenly, it begins to ripple out through the rest. The two major industries, well, three really, steel is also, when the automobile industry goes down, steel goes down pretty sharply with it. Our unemployment is unevenly spreading. We have probably about 14 or 15 states in the union that are in really a depression. Their rates are almost up to depression rates. They're pretty much down through the center of the country, or automobile assembly, so forth is. They're up in the northwest in Oregon and Washington, the lumber industry because of construction. There's only one state in the northeast, believe it or not, which is actually in that bad a state, and it's yours, Pennsylvania. So you're feeling that spin-off. The job training that I mentioned, that is one government program. But we also, and this ties in with your prize winner there, we've also started a nationwide committee under Bill Verity, who's just retired as the chairman of ARMCO, a nationwide committee on the basis of volunteerism to find out what some communities are doing, to spread that word to other communities, to find out what we can do. And believe me, it is turning out, it is snowballing, this program of people willing to do things that for the last few years we've just thought only government could do them. And some of those are tied to jobs, right? Down here in your own state, Maryland, the governor's there in five, four other states, five states, although one of them is Arizona, have an experimental program in which they have been going into the schools, and they've been asking the teacher's evaluation of the students that are the least likely to succeed. Not the best prospects. The ones that really, after they're out, they found out that a high percentage of them wind up in a very few years in welfare. And they are going in now and taking them for on-the-job training while they're going to school with a fantastic success rate. Well, now, this was an experiment in five states. This has been turned over to Bill Verity's group also to spread that. And I know you're coming to tell me I've got to get out of here. But he's got the last question. He had stood up and I'd recognized him. But could I just say this? What's the thing about unemployment? And then it isn't true that the 9 million unemployed include the same 8 million who were unemployed back when we began. It is an ever-changing group. Those people who are laid off will be eligible for unemployment insurance. There will be program. And in some of these worst states, we have supplemented the budget to increase the period of time for those states. 42% of all of the unemployed are under 25 years of age. And about half of those, meaning roughly a fourth of the total unemployed are teenagers who are going to school and whose job hunting is really for an after-school job or a weekend job or something. What you really go by then is how many are 15 weeks or longer, how many people are still on there after that period. And you have to direct some of your effort to these problems. My line that has been misquoted so often about looking at the one ad pages, they didn't make it very clear, your colleagues in the Washington Press Corps over there, that I was really specifically pointing out that this was one of our problems. That you could have 45 pages of one ads in the paper and there weren't people qualified to seek those jobs that were going begging. And then I saw it hailed as my being non-compassionate and saying to the unemployed, go out and read the one ads, and so forth. I didn't have anything of the kind in mind. But all right. I'm John Merger with the Afro-American at Baltimore. You're sorry you missed the tour of the Enterprise Zone. Oh, I am, too. There was no storm over at Baltimore. But what we would like to know is what kind of timetable would you have to implement that program and also what would be some of the tax incentives that would be involved with the Enterprise Zone program? Well, now maybe somebody's got better facts now as to where they've been going in the negotiating on this. My own approach, however, is that what we're talking about are tax incentives of the kind that governments not giving anything up because it's not getting anything. In other words, if a business is ready to start up in an area like the South Bronx where most of the property now belongs to the city because of tax delinquencies, the city isn't getting any property tax. And so that's one incentive. If you could delay that and say, well, you're not getting any now, let this new business come in and get started and give them several years without that kind of tax. If they come in and hire the people that are presently on welfare and awards of the government, you're not getting any income tax from them. How about an incentive in which you give them some exemption for a while and say, take these jobs and on the job training and so forth and you want to pay any income tax until you really get established. A number of things of that kind that we believe make sense and no one is the loser in that regard because I say local government, they're not getting the tax now and pretty soon they will, if they encourage someone to come in and do something with those properties, they will begin to get a tax. But I'll leave him to explain that more because I can't keep up with all of the things that are stirring in the pot out there, although I try to at the risk of getting nosy. Well, I want to thank you again for this opportunity. I wish I should have talked less in the opening remarks and taken more questions because you might learn something from the answers, but I learn even more from the questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.