 President of the United States, accompanying by Governor Branstad and Senator Jepsen. On the road again, never bad. Things that I may never see again. We're the best of friends. Here's on the road again. I just can't wait to get on the road again. The life I love is making music with my friends. I can't wait to get on the road again. On the road again, like a bad engine. We go down the highway. We're the best of friends. Here's on the road again. I just can't wait to get on the road again. The life I love is making music with my friends. I can't wait to get on the road again. The life I love is making music with my friends. Here's on the road again. The life I love is making music with my friends. Mr. President, Mr. President, welcome to Iowa. I understand that this is the first time Cedar Rapids has had a presidential visit since another great Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower, came here in 1958. We're proud to welcome you and have you with us today. A few days ago I was contemplating what kind of a gift we might present to you today. I sent my press secretary down to Winterset, Iowa, which is the birthplace of John Wayne. We were able to find one of the 500 special edition photos of the Duke and the home in which he was born. I had him bring that back and secure it. I wrote on it to the Gipper. Here's another local boy who rolled out of Iowa and made good. You'll note, Mr. President, I thought it uniquely appropriate that the picture of the Duke and his home and the flag to be given to you today because you are the one who has made us proud again. You'll notice that the flag is flying in front of his home. And you're the one who has made us proud again. Flags are flying on the front porches of homes all around America today. Yes, America is back. And thank you, Mr. President, for leading us there. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, of you so very much. Thank you. It's great to be in Iowa again. Before I begin the remarks I'd intended to make today, I know that some of you were at the airport and it won't mind having to hear it again. I feel that I should, the others of you, tell you that, say a few words about the Cowardly Terrorist Act that occurred this morning early in Beirut. The suicide attack against our embassy annex in East Beirut I think has saddened all Americans, of course. And it's another painful reminder of the persistent threat of terrorism in the world. I had an opportunity on the way here on the plane to talk to Ambassador Reg Bartholomew, who, although injured himself, expressed to me his pride on behalf of the dedicated Americans serving with him. And then he was in the hospital and he said to me, we mustn't let things like this push us out of doing what we must do throughout the world. I know in this moment of anger and sorrow our prayers are with those who are bereaved and our commitment to peace remains firm. And I'm proud that our Americans in the Foreign Service who are serving all over the world are of the caliber and the quality that they are. Now, I know this morning at the airport I mentioned some schools and it had nothing to do with some of the charges that had been made against me. It was just an oversight that I didn't in naming some of the fine schools there, named the two parochial schools of La Salle and Regis, I believe. Do I have it right? Well, all right, I apologize for the oversight. And I know also that I'm only a few miles away from some place and just want you to know that I know that in addition to all the great agricultural products and everything of Iowa, this button says to those of you who are too far away that I'm a number one bodicor fan. I guess I don't have to tell any of you who that is and what he is. But I stopped counting a number of years ago, the number of times that I've been in your good state, including a tenure of some five years that were very happy years in my life. But I can tell you, however, instead of all those times about the time I didn't come. In fact, I'll never forget it. It was the caucuses in 1980 and I was feeling pretty bouncy, I guess, and pretty sure of the outcome. And I didn't realize so many people had grown up that didn't know Dutch Reagan. And you handed me something of a surprise for which I'm ever grateful. You reminded me that no matter what the polls and the pundits say, run hard. And that's what I mean to do this year. I also want to congratulate you on being a most discerning state because the Republican you did support in 1980 is George Bush and he's the best vice president this country has ever had. I've been following how things are going here and what your triumphs and travails have been and I want you to know that I'll always agree with the journalist Harrison Salisbury who said, Iowa, the land and the people, I would match it against the world. And I stand with another writer who said, there are few more beautiful sites in America than Iowa's farmlands in early autumn. The most pertinent thing that I've read about Iowa is a report from a journalist who said just a few years ago, Iowa is graced by absolutely marvelous people. They are clean, brave, thrifty, reverent, loyal, and honest. I've decided something. Air Force one is pretty big and maybe if we all squeezed and everything I'd like to take all of you back to Washington because we need more of your kind. Be sure when you see me running out of here which I'll have to do because we're doing Michigan pretty quick that you'll fall in line. But seriously I'd like to talk to you about how things are going nationally and about some local problems that I'm aware of and which I want very much to address. Nationally I think it's fair to report that the country's economy is recovering and economic expansion has begun. The fight against inflation continues and now inflation is less than one-third of what it was in 1980 and if it continues at the rate of just the last couple of months or so it's under 3%. Interest rates have gone down though not enough by any means and the employment picture is very good. We've created 6 million new jobs in this country in the past 20 months. 600,000 businesses were incorporated last year and that's a record in our entire history and none of this happened overnight and none of it happened by accident. Our economic success is a direct outgrowth of the practical application of a practical philosophy. We believe that the way out of the economic morass of the 1970s was to let all the American people keep more of their hard-earned money instead of sending an ever larger amount to support federal spending programs that were out of control. We cut tax rates for individuals and we cut taxes for business and what we said would happen happened. The economy recovered and then expanded. Now all of this is good news but it's not enough, not by a long shot. We've got to do better. Here in Iowa farmers are still feeling the effects of years and years of bad government policy and neglect. When the federal government wanted to make a foreign relations point when they wanted to make a point with the Soviet Union they cut off the grain sales and left you holding the bag. When interest rates hit the highest point since the Civil War they made it impossible for you to operate. When inflation gouged you they didn't hear your cries and on top of all that is if that weren't enough estate taxes on your farms were so high that you couldn't even keep the family farm in the family anymore. Well I know about your problems and as I see it there is no America without the American farm. You not only feed the country, you feed the world. We owe you a lot and you're the last people in this country who deserve to be taken for granted or taken for a ride. So first we ended the grain embargo. You know as we do that if we refuse to sell the Soviets grain they simply go to other suppliers and that's what they did and the only ones who suffered from that kind of light switch diplomacy were America's farmers. So we ended the embargo and negotiated a new and expanded grain agreement with the Soviets. Since last October they have bought 23 million metric tons of grain and as you may know I have proved raising the ceiling so they can buy an additional 10 million metric tons in the next year. By bringing down inflation we went from one of the largest two-year increases ever in prices farmers paid in 79 and 80 to the smallest two-year rise in 15 years in 82 and 83. As for interest rates we've cut the prime from a high of 21.5% in 1980 to 13% today. I know that operating loans are a point or two higher and that's still too high but it's an improvement. As for estate taxes we fought hard and finally succeeded thanks to the help of your Republicans, Congressman in the House and your two Senators and now the estate tax exemption is to increase to $600,000 by 1987 and we've seen to it that there will be no estate tax for a surviving spouse. So once again families have a chance to keep the family farm and I want to add here that I see this estate tax business as crucial to the interest of the Farm Belt. All of those taxes taking a farm right from under a family. When I think about it it's like a scene from the grapes of wrath with a fellow in the bulldozer being the tax man knocking down the farm that a family had lived on for generations. Well we've tried to stop that bulldozer dead in its tracks and keep the farm intact. We've been working for some time on the problem of farm debts and land values so many farmers have been struggling with debt burdens. In the last three years the Farmers Home Administration has doubled its regular operating loans for farmers and to provide further assistance Farmers Home will now permit a deferral of up to 25% for up to five years of the principal and interest payments owed by farmers who need breathing room to return to a sound financial footing and this will be done in a case-by-case basis and for those who do not participate in the FMHA programs Farmers Home will make available up to $630 million in guarantees of loans by private banks as part of rescheduling plans for troubled farmers. Now let me be very clear about one thing. A partial recovery and a partial expansion isn't enough. We won't be happy until the American recovery stretches across this country like a blanket with the Midwest safe and warm inside. Until the farmers recover then, our recovery is not complete. In the past few years you've known droughts and other natural disasters and we've tried to make sure that our programs provide a helping hand. You know, speaking of disasters of that kind, I remember when a previous Secretary of Agriculture some years ago went out on kind of a tour of the farm belt and had been some problems at that time and one fellow has given him a really bad time and he turned to an aide and he looked at some notes that he had there and then turned back and said, well now wait a minute, things weren't all that bad. He said, you had 29 inches of rain last year and the farmer said, yeah, I remember the night it happened. So we've tried to... Well, we've introduced some soil conservation initiatives that will help ensure that our bread basket will feed the world not only today but tomorrow and we've targeted a larger portion of our federal funds to states such as Iowa where the soil erosion is a major concern. And let me add that no one has helped us more in our efforts than Roger Jepsen, your terrific senator and Chuck Grassley, another hero of the cause. And in the house we have the help of Tom Talkie and Cooper Evans. Iowa sent some very fine people to Washington and they're fighting for Iowa every day and there's probably no group in this country for which I feel a more natural affinity than America's farmers and not the least because the very qualities it takes to work and run a farm are the very qualities it takes for a citizenry to run the country. I'm talking about the decent and enduring values of hard work and thrift and planning for the future and investing in the future. You know it can be said that investing in the future is the most faithful act a man or woman can make. And when you invest your hard work and your money, your effort and your time you show an extraordinary faith in our system, our culture and our country. This is the faith of the heartland and it's what our future is built on. Just a few years ago in 1979, Pope John Paul II came here to Iowa and he surveyed the rolling fields of autumn and he spoke of the future. At the farm museum near Des Moines he was greeted by 350,000 people who opened their arms to that man of peace and hope and he told them of the importance of agriculture and how with agricultural abundance comes special responsibilities to human needs. He said, conserve the land well so that your children's children will inherit an even richer land than was entrusted to you. And after he spoke there was a moment that was described as a hushed unison as the vast crowd began the final hymn of the day. Those opening lines were oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. And a person who was there said at that moment the visit achieved a union of spirit beyond sentimentality. It was a special moment but such moments aren't uncommon in America. Despite our differences we're all of us in America in 1984 part of a great hushed unison, a great unspoken unity. And as I travel the country in my quest for reelection I think may it ever flow unbroken. How many of you weren't at the airport rally today? Then I'm going to tell you those who were there are going to have to hear something again. I hadn't told it, I just thought about it. For the first time in many, many years, a little personal experience I had in 1948 I'd go into England to make a picture called The Hasty Heart. And on the weekends, never having been there before I'd hire a driver in a car and have him show me the countryside outside of London. And quiet. Is that his campaign train? But he stopped one evening as the sun was going down and one of those weekends a pub that he said was 400 years old. And we went in and a matronly woman, a very nice lady was serving us and down some tables down was an elderly gentleman and they were the only two evidently running this place. And when she heard us talk for a while she said, you're a medic, aren't you? And I said, yes, we are. And then she said, oh, there were a great number of you at Chap Station just down the road from here during the war. And she said they used to come in every evening and they'd have a song fest. And she said they called me mom and they called the old man Pop. And by this time she's not looking at me anymore she's looking kind of out into the distance with memory and there's a tear on her cheek. She said it was a Christmas Eve, we were here all alone. And she said the door burst open and in they come and they had presents for us. And then she said, and this is why I'm telling you the story. She said, big strappin' ledge they was from a place called Iowa. And then I had a tear on my cheek. Well, I thank you so much for your very wonderful hospitality and for the warmth and kindness that comes so naturally to Iowans and I want you to know that I enjoyed both the beef and the pork for lunch. No argument about that. Thank you all and God bless you. Thank you.