 The President of the United States, accompanied by Governor Orr. Well, thank you all very much. Governor Orr, I know that some place here is Secretary Bowen. I figured it was right to have a doctor. There he is. Proper to have a doctor as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. I brought him along not because I'm sick or anything, because we were coming to Indiana. But I thank you all, all of the public officials who are here, your congressman, John Myers. And I thank you for taking time from your busy schedules to spend a few moments with a fellow midwesterner. Driving into Danville today felt like coming home, so much as Hendricks County feel a remind me of growing up in Illinois. They're the beautiful homes so well cared for, the American flag on display everywhere, and of course, this wonderful county courthouse. I was especially struck when on the way in someone mentioned that Hendricks County was also the home of the famous Van Buren Elm, a magnificent tree named for President Van Buren when he visited nearby Plainfield. I thought that naming a tree in honor of a president was a fine thing to do, and I even daydreamed for a moment about having a tree named after myself. And then I found out a little more about the Van Buren Elm. Turns out that Van Buren was riding in a carriage when the driver took a sharp turn around the Elm, throwing Van Buren out of the carriage and into the mud. And in case you're wondering, the answer is yes, I've worn the Secret Service to be on the lookout for Elms. And I'm wondering how I ever got through my own college, Eureka College. The Alma Mater is beneath the Elms upon the campus. But some of you may remember the last time I spoke here back in 1985, and I was campaigning throughout the country for an historic tax reform that would make the tax code fairer and simpler, and that would reduce tax rates for most individuals. The pundits thought it could never be done, but today tax reform is the law of the land and will go into effect in the coming year. Indeed, the Washington Post ran a headline about tax reform that says the impossible became the inevitable. Now I'm campaigning throughout the country again. Last month to community leaders and business people in Florida, then to the people of a Connecticut city that has come back to economic life during this expansion and still elsewhere later this July. And this time I'm stumping for something I believe even more important, even more historic than tax reform. It's an economic bill of rights. I first announced this campaign on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial during the 4th of July weekend, outlining four essential guarantees for all Americans. The freedom to work, and that means eliminating government barriers to opportunity. The freedom to enjoy the fruits of your own labor, and that means bringing to an end once and for all excessive government borrowing, spending, and taxation. And the freedom to own and control your own property, including intellectual property like technological innovations. The freedom to participate in a free market, and that means government must work to foster not hinder economic growth. I'll be speaking about all of this in more detail downtown later this morning. In particular, I'll present our specific proposals for ensuring these four basic economic freedoms. But I asked to have you come here today because I wanted to be able to talk with local people like yourselves. You see, 200 and more years ago, when our Constitution and Bill of Rights were being debated, the debates took place in towns like Danville, in farming communities like the towns in rural Indiana, in virtually every community in America. The people themselves, the farmers, the craftsmen, and local officials were directly involved. It's this kind of involvement on the part of the people themselves that I'd like to see take place again. And so I'm asking you to help me start national discussion by taking up the issue of economic rights in your own communities. I just have to believe that if we get away from the lawyers and the lobbyists of Washington and away from the special interests that seem to dominate things so back there in the banks of the Potomac, if we get away from all of that and ask the people whether it isn't time at last to do things like pass a balanced budget amendment, the people will say yes. There's such a thing as common sense in America. And if you can't always find it in the Capitol building in Washington, isn't it good to know that you can still find it in places like Hendrick County Courthouse? Looking around this magnificent building, one final thought, the aim of our economic bill of rights is the same as that of the political bill of rights in the Constitution, freedom. And seeing those names on the wall, these names of everyday Americans who served in our armed forces for that great cause, I'll just remind you how deep the love of freedom goes out here in the heartland. I suppose that as they did with tax reform, the pundits are going to say on of our economic bill of rights, it can never be done. Well, I just happen to have an answer for those critics. Let them do what I've done. Just let them for a while travel here. In short, my friends, if anybody back in Washington wants to know what can and can't be done, let them spend one day among the good people of Indiana. If I could enlarge, this isn't about Indiana, but just let me tell you a little incident in my life has to do with the Midwestern state. We're all here in the heartland of the country, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa. This has to do with Iowa. I was in England the first time I had ever been there. And I wanted to see some of those English things like hubs that were 700 years old, and so took me and a couple of people with me, we were there over there, and that was back long before Governor Day's, that was back when I was making a picture. And this elderly lady was waiting on us and finally hearing us talk to each other. She said, you're Americans, aren't you? And we said, yes. Oh, she says there were quite a lot of your young chaps down the road during the war based down there. And she said they used to come in here of an evening and they'd have song fests. And she said, and they called me mom and they called the old man pop. And she said, it was Christmas Eve and we were all alone. And she said in they came burst through the door and they had presents for me and pop. And then by this time she wasn't looking at it. She was kind of looking off into the distance and there was a tear beginning to form in her eye. And she said, big strapping lads they was from a place called Iowa. Well, by that time I had a tear of forming right there also. Well, I know I've got to get downtown talking a little more detail in these. So I'll spare you anymore, but thank you all. God bless you. Mr. President, you're here. History is made. Words cannot express our emotions nor convey our high regard for you. Humbled, but proud. We the people, present you this momentum to a great America. God bless you, Mr. President. The artist. Right here. This is Earl from The Artist. You have honored me and I have a feeling very shortly I may want to hang this in an upcoming presidential library. We couldn't be more pleased to have you put the strength and the partnership between your level of the federal and us down at the grassroots. Let's keep working at that. Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. President, when he went past you and said, I fell out of the deer in the eye on the front level. His name is Noah. I come to you today with immense respect and respect for the hundreds and hundreds of, well, people that are hearing it. I was fooled how many would get 4,000, so I'd better say that instead of the hundreds. Day in and day out, you know what it is to be held responsible for government actions. You know what it is in short to do the will. This is why I want to enrich you in the campaign that I began and the third of the league we should always have. A bill of rights that will protect us and future generations from the means and wrongful encroachment of government on our lives to make known the safety. The danger is great and many in Congress are intended on returning to the days of unrestrained and irresponsible government. President, people's interest to the special interests. Indeed, a recent article in the Washington Post described how one member of the House, Public Works Transportation Committee, circulated a bill asking that this is so important for you and all the American people to understand that I'd like to give you examples. To begin with, there's the highway bill with its massive demonstration projects that give more to a new handle of that bill area this year by one vote Congress managed to override my veto. Why? Well, in part so that Congress could allow a certain major city to add an extension to its mass transit system. The system will be so expensive and for so few people that it would be cheaper to buy each rider a nuisance landowner who is neither American nor in need of public assistance. He's the crown prince of Licton style. But their days sitting in that open office with these bills trying to cross my debt when I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Now, I've been accused in recent days of campaigning for our economic bill rights in order to distract the attention from other events in Washington. Well, it so happens that I've been campaigning for economic rights for more than three decades and I intend to go on doing so for new unrestrained spending. And I'm convinced that the great majority of Americans believe simply this, stop the spending and no more taxes.