 Don't be running this now. It doesn't help you have a sound. Optimistic. This is yours. General Spilcroft, do you think he has votes on the Hill? I think this is a phone watch. No, but this is for the President. I am scared. God, it's contagious. I always call him a President. No matter where he is. of the National Economic Growth. And as you know, in February of this year, I sent to the Congress our federalism package comprising four megablock grants. And included as part of the federal local block grant is the preservation of general revenue sharing for five years at current funding levels. Now, knowing how the clock runs on the hill and putting that all together and knowing also that you need to plan your budgets, many of which begin in July, with that in mind, I've sent to the Congress a separate revenue sharing bill which reauthorizes that program for three years. Maybe that can move faster than the other one. But another issue which I know is important to you is the result of the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Boulder case, municipal antitrust liability. And I share your concerns about intrusions into state and local autonomy. We support legislation which would provide an exemption to federal antitrust laws for local governments provided that the following conditions are met. Local governments are acting under the authority of state law and localities are acting within their government or police power capacity. And lastly, a subject which I know Gary Jones discussed with you earlier, but one which is very important to me is our education system. The time, I think, has come for a grassroots campaign for educational renewal. We must restore parents and local governments to their rightful place in the education process. Quality education can best be achieved through decentralization of education decision making rather than continued federal direction and control. I almost said decoration there. And I think a lot of their controls are just about that, decoration. Many claim the solution to the problem is to pour more money into it. Now, I know you've heard stories about major spending cutbacks. But the total expenditures in the nation's public schools this year are expected to reach $116.9 billion. That's an increase of 7% over last year. And that's more than double what was spent just 10 years ago. While throwing money at the problem is not the solution, there is much the federal government can do to help set a national agenda for excellence in education. We should reward excellence. Teachers should be paid and promoted on the basis of merit and competence. And we can also encourage excellence by encouraging parental choice. And that's why we're trying or what we're trying to do through our programs of tax credits and vouchers, allowing individual parents to choose the kinds of schools that they know to be best for their children's needs. But I didn't come here today for a monologue. I came for a dialogue, so I'd like to hear your comments and questions. May I just before you do that say that yesterday I was speaking to the day before yesterday to a university graduation? And when that great number of students who had majored in education and were going to become teachers, when I spoke to them about pay and promotion being based on competence and merit, I got a standing ovation from the graduates and their caps and counts who were going to be teachers. But some of you must at some time have said, if I ever had a chance, would I ask him? Yes, ma'am. Yes, Mr. President, I've all been said if I ever had a chance, I'd like to tell you how much I approve of your initiatives for the nation, for our cities. And I'll wait for you 100% to continue to be with me. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's it. I'll take this young lady and then you. Mr. President, Lillian Ware from Georgia, I would just like to say how much we appreciate all you have done for us through the state of Georgia, but specifically with the Small Cities Black Grant Program through the Community Development Program. We want it to retain its same posture, the same mandates that are in it. It has been one of the most workable programs for our people. And I was happy to have chaired the policy procedure through our department of community affairs through the state of Georgia and setting it out. And it has been a most desirable program. And I hope it retains the same. Thank you very much. These are the best questions I've got. Mr. President, Mike sitting from Florida. It's our indications that the Federal Revenue Sharing Program has generated quite a bit of support. And there's a good possibility that the bill may come to you with additional money. Would you be supportive of that or would you be inclined to be? I'd have to look at that as to where it fit with the other things that they're asking for up there to see very frankly whether we could afford it or not. I have a great affinity and affection for general revenue sharing having been a governor. And my whole impression of federal programs then could be summed up in one in which I vetoed. If you remember a governor could veto a federal program. And if it wasn't overridden in 60 days by Washington, it stuck. And this one wasn't overridden. I think public relations had something to do with it. I remember it was a block grant that was going to put, or not a block grant, it was a grant that was going to put 17 of our workers in one county to work in helping with the county parks. Well now that sounds like the very thing, these were welfare recipients, the very thing that I would want to do, except that half the budget was going for 10 administrators to make sure that 17 got to work on time. Mr. President, Don Griffith, Mayor of the City of Levin Pennsylvania, and President-elect of the Pennsylvania League of Cities, we in the Commonwealth pride ourselves in trying to do our homework. And I wanted to let you know that we provided for you through, I believe, his name is Rick Neal, some homework that we did on the impact of revenue sharing on local government broken out by congressional districts in the state of Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had one of your representatives work with this. I should look forward to reading that. Thank you very much. All right, yes? Mr. President, I'm by Joe Swap from Tennessee, and I guess on behalf of Senator Baker, I'd be tempted to ask you and the Vice President if you're planning to run again. But I think that wouldn't be appropriate. I would like to hear, Mr. President, your idea in the effort to return power and money back to local governments, the idea that sometimes we get that if you return it back to the state, that that solves the problem. Very often we find, I think, gas-saving taxes, example, $84 million going back to the state of Tennessee, and none of it going to local government, all being used by the state government. I would like to hear your comment on this. Well, no, we have called for mandatory pass-throughs of funds that have been an unblocked grant but that have previously been distributed to other echelons of government. If there'd be a mandatory pass-through on those, and then I think we have some of the grants that are going directly to local levels of government. We're aware of that, that problem, and we've heard this before, I can tell you. So we're going to make sure of that. The other thing is that over the long haul, the whole theory back of federalism, in my mind, has been to not only get the funding back, but eventually transfer that in the line of tax sources so that the level of government that is then responsible for the program is responsible for also for the raising the money, because I've believed from my own previous experience that part of the fault has been the federal government and why it has to now turn money back in grants is because the federal government usurped so much of the taxing authority that you at the local and the state level didn't have tax sources that you could call upon. But I think that that would be better and then I think that it even ought to continue through the state level because we also tried to do this in California before it got here, and that is that there should be a constant study and review of what level of government is best qualified to perform certain functions. And that's the dream of federalism and where I hope it winds up. And I know that he's going to tell me this is the last question I can take. Mr. President, I'm Bill Gorman. I'm the mayor of Madden, Kentucky, and president of the Kentucky Municipal League. In Kentucky and throughout the nation, we've had this deregulation of natural gas and I would request that you have your administration look into it. The price of natural gas, for instance, has gone up 400% to our people. And we're in Appalachia, we've got a lot of people who have a few problems and I request that of you, sir. We think that we remember the storm that was raised when we proposed a deregulation of oil and it turned out the prices didn't multiply and double as everyone said they would, they went down. And we think that if regulation of natural gas was doing what it was supposed or designed to do, no opposed to what it was supposed to do, not designed, it was designed like a camel that was made by a committee. The idea that the gas prices increased so many times and so substantially under control, I can't believe the decontrol couldn't be an improvement. The natural gas pipelines are controlled by monopolies in the areas such as ours. There's two gas lines and all of these to conduct and we have no chance to buy from other sources. It's not like buying gas at the corn filling station. But you do have some controls through your own statewide and local public utilities commissions, don't you? Well, at least you must say that in our decontrol we have provided for that there's not going to be any, they're not going to be allowed to pass increased costs through to the customer. We're protecting the customer against that in the decontrol that we've proposed. Well listen, they've told me that I can't take anymore and I have to go. Just for whatever you may need sometime in my discussion here or my mention of the federal government and the proper echelons of government, I have a little story that you might use at some time in speaking to a Rotary Club or a Kiwanis Club or something of your kind and that is the local community that was going to raise its traffic signs, warning signs from five feet above the turf to seven feet above the turf because they'd be more visible then from automobiles and for traffic and the federal government came along and told them they had a program that they'd do it for them, wouldn't cost them anything, the federal government had paid for it. The federal government's program called for lowering the payment two feet. All right, thank you. Okay Mark. Thank you.