 of the United States. Thank you all very much and congratulations to all of you. I know what you had to accomplish in order to be here, and I am grateful to the First Press, the June very spent in all four, being here and making it possible for me to be with you. Now, you know there was a choice. I only had a limited amount of time. Every day there's somebody that puts a piece of paper in front of me to tell me what I'm going to be doing every 15 minutes for the rest of the day. I'll find them before I get out of here. There was a choice. I could have come in here and made a speech about how wonderful this is and it is, and how wonderful it is to look at some people like yourselves and know that when we go on stage, you will enter on the country will be in good hands. Or the Constitution and why this country of ours is so unique, but it just occurred to me that in this limited time, you're aware of a great many of those things or you wouldn't have made it all the way here as you have. And I thought that maybe some of you, and I know I wouldn't be able to probably take all of them because the time is limited and they'll be pulling me out of here for another meeting. But the some of you must have said to yourself at one time or another, if I had a chance to ask him, I'd say, and I've decided that that would be more fun than me making a speech. So, if you have, yes. I'm Michael Mayberry from the State of Oregon, Mr. President, and I was wondering with the way that the economy seems to be on the upswing and it seems to be directly from your programs and what you've accomplished in the office, do you feel that you need another term to keep these programs going? I have just left a press availability with the White House Press Corps. I must say you asked the question in a manner that was more subtle than they usually asked that same question. I can only tell you that, give the stock answer. No decision on that has been made. I don't think this is the time to make such a decision. And I think the people kind of tell you whether you should try to stick around a little longer. You know, this gentleman right here, there. Mr. President, I'm Jim Craboni from Massachusetts, and a week or two ago you mentioned that you'd like to have people who receive welfare benefits work on public service projects. Could you comment on that, please? Yes, we had in California, when I was governor, we saw such a runaway problem that we had what was probably the most comprehensive reform of welfare that's ever been attempted in the country. It saved in a period of two years. These figures don't sound so big when you're in Washington, but when you're governor of a state they were pretty big. We saved over a two-year period some $2 billion for the taxpayers. But we were able to increase the grants for the truly needy 43%. They hadn't had a cost of living pay raise since 1958, and I'm talking about around 1972 and 3 now, or when we did this. But the problem with the program was the laxity of enforcement. The loose manner in which individuals who weren't morally entitled to welfare were still able to be getting help at their neighbor's expense. And part of that was an experiment that the federal government, they wouldn't let us do it in any way except an experiment. They allowed us in 35 of California's 58 counties to require able-bodied welfare recipients to work at useful community projects in return for their welfare grant. Now, with two things. We made them submit to us what those projects would be. We made sure there were no boondoggles, that these were legitimate things. As we put it, we said to school districts, counties, communities, we said, what are the things that you would be doing if you had the manpower and the money? And then we said the manpower and the money is available. It is the welfare grant and the welfare recipient. And to the welfare recipients, the able-bodied, we said you would only have to work 20 hours a week, not a 40-hour week, because the other half can be used either in job training or in looking for work. And then we assigned some Labor Department personnel to groups of these people. Well, the first thing that happened was thousands of people never reported for work. And we stopped sending their welfare checks. And we never heard a word from them. I've called them paper people. What we discovered in our reforms was that no one in the country knows how many people are on welfare. They only know how many checks we're sending out. There is really no hard and sure way to intercept the cheaters. Well, this was the first gain. The second gain was we assigned these Labor Department employees and said, you're job agents. You watch this ex-group of people. Here are your list of names. You watch them in what they're doing. Get to know them and see what is their background and see how quickly you can get them out of that public job into a private enterprise job. In the 74-75 recession, which was the worst recession up until this one, since World War II, we funneled 76,000 people in California through those jobs into private enterprise jobs. And therefore, I think that nationwide that this is a proper answer. Most of the people on welfare want that. They're not sitting out there idle and happy and rocking on the front porch. They'd like nothing better than to be out in the working world, taking care of themselves, and no longer beholden to case workers from the welfare department. I better come over to this side. There's a young lady. President Reagan, I'm Corey Orridge from Department of Defense Schools overseas. And my father is a member of the Air Force overseas. And naturally, we're concerned about everything to do with the military, particularly pay raises. And I was wondering if you could tell us whether or not the prospects for a future pay raise are good or bad for the military. For a future pay raise, yes. But it was for this one year of 1984 that we have asked or are asking Congress to approve that all federal employees, all beneficiaries of pension plans and as well as the Social Security recipients, forgo the cost of living pay increase, which would be about 4%, for this one year, the Social Security people we've said for only six months, but all the others. And so, regretfully, we included the military because I say regretfully because the military for so many years was held so far back below everyone else, as you well know, coming from a military family. And we have begun to catch up and it's made a great difference. But we felt that if we were going to go across the board, we had to go all the way. But then we will be back to what should be done. But this is for 1984 in that budget to get us on a basis that will help us defeat this ongoing increase in deficit. You have heard the news this morning, haven't you? That the unemployment rate for January has dropped from 10.8 to 10.4. Scott, you'll look at the message. She says, I was just wondering, which hat of the presidency do you least enjoy wearing? Which hat of the presidency do I least enjoy wearing? Oh. I hadn't thought about it that way before. They provide nice quarters. And incidentally, this is your house too. That's one thing that I think anyone in this job has to remember. You don't become the president. You are given temporary custody over an institution known as the presidency. And your responsibility is to preserve that institution the way you found it. You can't go running off selling Camp David or something. Not that I would do that. I suppose probably the hat that you don't want to wear would be the hat, if necessary, that you ever had to ask our men and women in uniform to embark on hazardous duty. I believe that there have been four wars in my lifetime. None of them started because we were too strong. And one of my reasons for the build-up that we have been attempting in the military is that they are the peacekeepers. If we make it plain that we value our freedom and what we have in this country to the point that we would defend it, then I have a feeling we won't have to defend it. It's sort of like the fireman. He isn't there because he likes fires. He's there hoping to prevent them and put them out if they start. And the thought that you might someday, I think of it every time I see them, I think how could anyone, as some have unkindly suggested that I might be one who's a war monk or something, anyone want to send those young people out to something like that? We face a very difficult time economically at this time and probably it's the most similar time to the Depression we saw in the 1930s. After that time, President Roosevelt came out with a new deal, his new economic programs, and certainly we have as many or more complexities now with the economy and with the programs we're struggling with. Your administration, what do you see as what people will look to as the Reagan administration, the balancing of the defense and social programs, the new deal of your administration? What do you think will ultimately come of it and what will be our ultimate recovery? Well, a lot of people, in fact, tomorrow I'm going to do my radio five minutes on this subject. A lot of people have already named our plan Regonomics and they suggest that it has failed. And what I'm going to explain tomorrow is that our plan, all of the bad things were happening before our plan went into effect. It only started into effect 16 months ago and still has some of the installments to go, the tax cut in July and so forth. What we're trying to do is restore the economy. We have had, prior to this one, seven recessions since World War II. And back over the years in those recessions the government has stepped in with what I call a quick fix. They've stepped in with an artificial stimulant to the economy with printing press money, deficit spending and so forth. And government has taken too big a share of the private sector funds. And yes, temporarily it's stimulated the economy. But a few years later there was another recession and each time if you look at them on a chart you'll find that each time inflation did not come back down as far as it was before. Unemployment did not come back down as far as it was before. Now this present recession started in 1978-79. It started with a great influx of the money supply. In fact it grew in 1980, the fastest that has ever grown in our history. And with it interest rates went up to 21.5%. Inflation for 79 in 1980 was in double digits, reached 14. By the time we got here it was 12.4. And the recession and the growth in unemployment when I campaigned in 80 in Flint, Michigan unemployment there was 20%. Unemployment was 18% in Detroit. It was 23% in an Indiana town that I was in. I went over into Ohio to campaign and there the steel mills were closing because the automobile plants had closed. So the recession was on. And then by July of 1981 and we were in office then but you come in after the fiscal year has started the first year you're here or the bulk of the year until October isn't your budget. It's the budget that was passed before you got here. And most of our several months were spent trying to get our economic plan passed which was based on reducing the rate of increase in government spending to make government take a smaller share of the people's resources and to reduce taxes to create a stimulant an incentive for an economic recovery. And now we're seeing inflation which was 12.4 was 3.9% for 1982 under our economic program. The part that they say has failed had all taken place before our program started in October of 81 the beginning of the fiscal year. Interest rates have come down to around half of what they were and as a result automobile sales are up housing starts are up 30% over last year. These are the two industries I named them because these are the two that can start a recession and these are the two that are usually the ones that start to bring you out of a recession. You've seen we're in the last few days General Motors has announced they're going to be calling back 21,000 workers. I was in a Chrysler plant outside of St. Louis just a few days ago. They are calling back 3,000 more workers. Ford plant nearby is working a single shift today. They're going to go to two shifts which will mean calling back more workers. And now today these unemployment figures reveal that it is beginning to work. The answer to our problem is to get the economy moving again not try one of these quick fixes that will give us a worse problem a few years down the road. And let me say something because I was a New Deal Democrat, an enthusiastic one. But the thing that ended the Great Depression and I was looking for my first job in that Great Depression finally got one at $100 a month. Things were different. The thing that ended it was World War II and that's not exactly the way we'd like to end a recession or a depression but that is what actually happened. First of all, when Mr. Roosevelt ran for his third term he ran pointing out that he had cut unemployment from 25% down to 14%. Well, it had been cut because we had become the arsenal of democracy. We were called. We were building the weapons and the ships and the tanks and the airplanes for the allies who were already in the war. And then we went into the war and that's when Rosie the Riveter was born when we needed so many people at work that ladies began going to work as riveters and doing work that had never before been thought of as women's work in our defense factories. So what we're doing is sticking with this program of continuing to reduce government's expense and that's why we've asked this year or for 1984 to hold the line and have a budget that in total amount is no greater than the budget of 1983 except for the 4% of inflation to account for that. This young man and then the young lady. I know you're here telling me I've got to quit. Kevin Schinkel from Arizona. If you run for a second term in our elected do you think you'll be able to balance the budget by the end of the second term? Do I think we would have a budget balanced budget at the end of the second term? I will warn you I'm an optimist but we believe if Congress will cooperate with us on the budget that we've submitted we are then embarked on a declining pattern of deficits that I believe by the end of the decade with even a modest recovery can bring us a balanced budget. But we are deliberately using a very modest projection of recovery. We're basing our figures on a 3% a year recovery. The Congressional Budget Office which is usually kind of pessimistic. Alice Rivlin this morning has announced that she believes the recovery will be 5% and there are others outside who even believe it might be higher. A more optimistic rate of recovery, yes we would balance the budget that much sooner and I would think by the end of the second term which would be 1988. Now I said that I'll call on this young lady they tell me yes it's true. See that's one of those fellows that tells me what I'm doing every 15 minutes. Presently many cities across the country face a major problem of retraining their respective workforces. I was wondering what you felt if you could elaborate on what you felt about federal sponsored group training programs? Of job training programs. Yes right now in the 73 budget we have passed a program that is called a Job Training Act and it will be training about over these next few years about 3 million people. It is a program in which our idea of this is that we will work at the community level in cooperation with community officials and with community business and industrial leaders that people be trained for the jobs that are available in that area. Most of the federal job training programs in the past and I saw this when I was governor only about 18 cents out of each dollar went to actual training and the rest was spent in administrative overhead and so forth and the government has a large carrying charge on many of its activities. This program will spend more than 70 cents of every dollar on actual training but in the present budget that's being considered now for 84 we have much more of that and more programs in which we're going to join with others and where we're even asking for the states where they pay a goodly share of the unemployment insurance to give them the right to use unemployment insurance for job training and even use it for relocation of people who are in an area where let's say a welder and there's no use for him here but you know another place where there are jobs open for welders but this is most vital and we're looking at it as a high priority because we are undergoing a structural change. Many people unemployed today will never return to the jobs that they left because those jobs will no longer exist. The modernizing in some industries will require fewer employees. Some industries will never be up at the peak that they were because of international competition but by the same token I offer to you who have a metropolitan paper available a big city paper on any given Sunday turn to the classified ads I usually throw them away on my way to the funnies but no I've started doing this turn to the classified ads and you will be amazed at how many pages of help wanted ads there are right now with more than 10 million people unemployed but as you read them you realize their jobs that require particular skills and what we have to do is begin training our workforce and retraining to meet the new jobs that are coming on. I was in Los Angeles at the beginning of January and on a Sunday there looked at the help wanted ads in a paper there were 45 and a half full pages but what impressed me more than just the ads was that instead of just saying opening for an experienced person in this or that the companies, the high technology companies that were advertising in those pages literally selling themselves and saying please come if you are an engineer if you are a computer technician, if you are this or that please come to us and telling them all the advantages of working for their company so there is a market out there that is open for people who have the right training and the right education. That is why I am so delighted to see high schools going more and more into training in computer sciences and many of the industries are providing the equipment for that. I was in a high school that is a very significant one out in Chicago just recently I am filibustering I know I should go but I hate to leave I have enjoyed this and I know I have missed this I knew I would, most of your hands that went up but this high school is a Providence St. Mel high school in the south side of Chicago kept open literally by one man when it was supposed to close lack of funds and I called a man after I visited the first time and saw what he was doing, what they were accomplishing there I called a man in Chicago and the next thing you knew there was a new board of governors for that school they are raising six and a half million dollars to help keep it in business but they are training their students to be computer technicians as a required course no matter what else the student might want to do and incidentally last year's graduating class every student went on to college from that school but they will graduate as computer technicians in addition to all the other things they have to take but this is a step in the future the other thing and I am going to go and just tell you this we started a thing and I want you to know about this because it's going to be your turn one of these days soon to do things like these gentlemen from the Hearst Papers are doing and others we started a private enterprise task force and there were hundreds and hundreds of very successful people in this country that joined, volunteered in addition to their own work to find out and to do and what could the private sector do to help with these problems and the result after one year has been that thanks to that task force we have a computer here in Washington in the White House with 2,500 different kinds of programs treating with every problem you could name most of which government thought was its province and where in various communities and cities throughout the country they have put these programs into effect and any town, any county, any state can call and get the names and phone numbers of people and a description of the program and call the people that are running it to find out how to put it into effect in their town the examples are just amazing they are programs to end dropouts high school dropouts, to prevent dropouts they are programs to put young people to work summer jobs and so forth they are programs with regard to the needy and helping the elderly Midland, Texas has something they call Christmas in April and every April all year long they have been collecting it every April the people, merchants provide the equipment and the materiel and then people they may be doctors, lawyers or whoever that's got it, it's handy with a hammer or a saw they go out to the homes of the aged the handicapped, the poor and they re-roof them if the roof leaks they put in new plumbing if that's what's needed they rewire the houses, they paint the houses that are becoming run down and that's their Christmas in April and it happens every April there are other towns in which believe it or not they now have private enterprise fire departments that are in like any other business that are protecting and they're doing the job so well that in many of those communities the rates for fire insurance have gone down so well, I just said that to you so that you'll remember and when it's your turn and when you're up and you're out here in this other part of the world that you'll see that the generation that's following you the younger people will have someone doing for them what these people have done for you and what is going on in the country today and God bless you all