 Well, ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States Thank you. I know I'm a little late, but I have to tell you that I Figured it out that on the average over these last three and a half years by about 10 o'clock in the morning I am running behind But and particularly if I'm meeting with congressman, which I've been doing all morning Well, I thank you very much. We're delighted to have you all of you with us here Join an observing older Americans month How come you all look so young? I Know you're receiving the full treatment from our staff. So I won't talk for long. I Just like to make one request that you Take back the message of our determination to keep faith with America's senior citizens Our determination to do everything we can to make sure the future of our older Americans Can be as sweet as the memories of their youth Thomas Carlisle once said that the work of unknown good men and women is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground secretly making the ground greener so To I think have been the lifelong contributions of America's elderly to their families communities and country With quiet courage and little fanfare. They've given far more to all of us than we could ever repay But we can keep faith with them and I think the first and most fundamental way is by shielding them from the monster of inflation Only four years ago. This sinister thief was Devouring the savings and pensions that our senior citizens had faithfully built up with a lifetime of hard work And we were told there was no real solution in sight well, they forgot about an old-fashioned remedy called common sense and Thanks to prudence in spending and taxing the inflation rate today is less than a third of what it was in 1980 and We're determined to keep the nightmare of double-digit inflation from ever coming back problems For the elderly have long been a political football They some have suggested that this administration is somehow not supportive of programs which help elder Americans But did you know that our budget for this year? Provides for two hundred and thirty eight billion dollars in programs that help the elderly Which averages out to seventeen thousand dollars for every senior? couple in America You know if we do any better by my generation, I'll be suspected of having a conflict of interest America's economy is strong public optimism is high Businesses are being formed at record rates unemployment has fallen faster during the last 15 months or 16 months than at any time in the last three decades and More people are now working in America than at any time in the nation's history America's future Does look bright again, and if we make up our minds to go forward together with courage responsibility and Fairness for all then we can and will complete the job that we've begun and we can make America the source of all our dreams and the dreams of That I think put this blessed nation here on earth The dreams to provide and now before I get carried away by I know I've only got a few minutes here to spend with you But you must have some questions Yes Do I find? Well, you know I haven't had an opportunity to look at that act as yet And I never talk about whether I'll sign or whether I'll veto something before but As a senior citizen, I'll be looking at it from a particular viewpoint my own I Have always said this first of all is the second part first about taxes That I don't believe we have even approached What we can do about bringing the cost of government down As a matter of fact the deficit right now would be 40 billion dollars less than it is if we'd gotten just the reductions that we asked for We've only gotten about half of those But once that we feel we've gotten government practically down to The maximum As to what it should be spending and doing performing the functions that it should perform Then if we find that the percentage that we're taking from the gross national product in Taxes is smaller than the percentage that the that the spending requires then there's no question You have to then bring those percentages up to the point that they're equal, but we haven't reached that point There's no way now To say art more taxes higher taxes necessary Now with regard to social security I have said for about the last 15 years that there are things that need to be done about that program, but We must never Pull the rug out from under the people who are dependent on that program And I would never support anything that is going to reduce and take away from those people who are dependent on that program when we came here that program was Facing bankruptcy and in the 82 election it became a political football and Many people still up there on the hill Declared that I was absolutely false in stating that social security would be out of money from meeting the checks by July of 1983 and The minute the election was over those same people joined with us in a Bipartisan task force to make social security fiscally sound and get it passed July 1983 and we the program was passed and Signed and has certainly made Social security fiscally sound for way past or way into the next century so I think that all of the partisan Politics that have been played with it have been proven kind of false that we're determined that Program is going to be there for the very purpose of his creative And it's a philosophical question Whether should be means to test it or not as long as I am able to afford Medical insurance which I have and so forth. No, I would not I would not call upon that because I think the need Needs of that kind are always greater than the means to pay for them And so I would just that'd be my personal feeling of what I would do So I wouldn't depend on it. I do think that this program This whole situation of medical care Has been complicated by much of Government's approach to it there has to be some reason why Medical costs in the country are far in excess of the normal inflation rate They have gone up much farther than the normal inflation rate and have created some of the The problems that we have But I don't knock on wood. I don't foresee any any need for it Says I can't take any more questions here Could I just finish with one little anecdote here with regard to my own generation I And I realize I'm talking to many of you who were as I said earlier are much younger than this It's true that every generation looks at the one that went before and thinks that it failed them and that it had some rules and Some traditions that were no longer Meaningful and yet I've always cautioned young people don't throw aside everything of all the values of the past they've been tested by time and Just don't throw them aside because they're old But I have to tell you I will never apologize for our generation we've lived through Four wars and we survived a great worldwide depression that unprecedented in in history and I will just tell this little anecdote. I enjoy telling it Once when I was governor of California and the generation of that day were rioting on all the campuses and I was very disappointed because I couldn't go to a campus to talk to the young people without starting a riot and so one day when the Elected school officers student officers of the 9, California University of California campuses demanded a meeting with me I was delighted and in they came and typical of that particular Rebellious era most of them were in torn t-shirts and some of them were barefoot And they sat down in the office and then the spokesman teed off and he said governor it is impossible for you to understand our generation and I tried to pass it off. I said well, we know more about being young than we do about being old and He said no, I'm serious. You can't understand your own sons and daughters He said you didn't grow up in a world as we have instant elective of communication of electronic Devices computing in seconds what it used to take months and even years to compute of jet travel of journeys to the moon And he went on and on with all of this Well, you know, usually the answer only comes to you after the meeting is over and you're alone But the Lord was good to me and he talked long enough that when he paused for breath once on that I Interrupted and I said you're absolutely right We didn't have those things when we were young We invented them