 I want to thank you all very much my being here before lunch today I had a talk with Congresswoman Johnson and Mayor McNamara and 11 other distinguished citizens of New Britain and I know that some were Republicans and some were Democrats and they represented many occupations and backgrounds and we had a good discussion and I got to straighten out some things that I thought might be not straightened out some people's minds I don't know whether we agreed on everything everyone was very polite but I think I think we do agree on the principles of economic freedom that all of us cherish and while we were there I couldn't help being reminded of a story a lot of things remind me of stories these days I'm a I'm a collector of stories I really am that I can verify are told by the Soviet citizens among themselves they reveal that they have a sense of humor but also that they have a certain kind of cynical outlook on their system there and these stories give you an idea on what they're thinking and this one's very brief it's about two Soviets who were talking to each other and what a master what's the difference between the Soviet Constitution and the United States Constitution and the other one said that's easy the Soviet Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of gathering the American Constitution guarantees freedom after speech and freedom after gathering we had a lively discussion there go and the mayor can attest and today on the city steps I'll be asking new Britain to join a great national discussion the kind that our founders launched 200 years ago when they drafted our Constitution and submitted to the people for ratification the kind that the 14 of us had were having a few minutes ago if we didn't agree on everything well neither did the generation that gave us the Constitution but I'm here today because I believe that the outcome of this discussion will determine the strength and health of our nation and what it stands for in the decades to come I'll be talking out there about what I hope will be among the most important legacies of my presidency the economic Bill of Rights now you've heard a lot about this from our critics on one hand they say it's a ploy something I've cooked up to distract attention from whatever I don't know but on the other hand they say little it's new here which I guess means it's made up of things that I believed in and fought to achieve for years and now I'm working to make certain that America doesn't lose all that we've done but it can be one or the other not both and I'll plead guilty to the second charge I went to Washington to do a job lower taxes restore our defenses cut the size and intrusiveness of government tune up the carburetor and step on the gas of the greatest engine against poverty and for opportunity in the history of man the free enterprise system of the United States of America we've achieved a great deal of that we still have a government that spends too much and a deficit it's too large as long as we have those we can't be sure that growth that we've enjoyed these last four and a half years will continue today I'll talk about the way that things were before I came into office and the way they are now and about the role of economic freedom and the opportunities that America offers all peoples but I thought I'd make one especially important point to you it's about poverty in the years before we elected the breakdown of our economy hit the poor the hardest between 1979 and 1980 in the years before we were elected the breakdown of our economy hit the poor the hardest the poverty rates soared growing at the fastest rate even as three million people were pushed into poverty in that brief time with our recovery that rise has been stopped and poverty has dropped at the fastest pace in 15 years although today new britain's unemployment rate is 3.9 percent which is very much lower than the next gentleman the president of the united states a mr. president he never lost our belief in ourselves or in our country we kept up our chins and our hopes and we decided that we were going to make our city again mr. presidents and so very proud of our city there is a renewed feeling of optimism about our tomorrows buildings are going up and unemployment is going down all the united states has come calling and we could not be happier ever since river city was a family about some of the folks in congress but wanted to vote against again the congressman listened and then when the fellow was done he leaned back and said you're right you're right you're absolutely right so when the fellow left the congress wife went in and she said that first man wanted you to vote for the bill and you said he was right why of all the cities in the country i'm starting here in new britain well it's just that new britain is the place to be so fast that just about every time you shop for groceries or stop for gas prices have gone up and whenever the family made a lecture to keep up with the rising cost of living washington took extra in taxes and you ended up with less but young decouples had to forget the american dream of owning their own homes between high taxes and high enterprise zones and congress and congress want our enterprise zones for both and then you get the new britain that started on their own and we're sending in the enterprise zone right now our economic expansion of american history well it will be the longest economic peace time expansion in man-american history because i've learned that more people have held jobs this year than ever before in our history yes a bigger proportion i had to learn i don't know whether you know that the potential employment group of america is considered to be everybody male and female in other words do you want to go on to a future of more growth more jobs and more opportunity yeah i saw recently a scholar of their country who happens to speak flu in russia was going on a visit from russia he was in a cab going to the airport it's a true story and the cab driver was quite young actually decided yet so by coincidence when he got off a plane in muskau and got in a cab he had another young fella driver and the young fella said they haven't told me yet there's a difference in whether or not economic independence and growth just as our political freedoms need protection that's what the economic bill of rights is all about the people didn't give them hell i just told them the truth and they thought it was hell the american people have a right to the truth about federal spending a line item veto the economic bill of rights will also say that if the federal government wants to make sure that congress doesn't use a balanced budget amendment as an excuse for