 Well, I hope you've all been well fed. We usually say it about this time that I just called and asked if I could bring a few friends home for lunch. And we didn't know it was going to be 103 degrees in the room, but aside from that, it worked out very well. There are a couple of people in this room that you won't have an opportunity to meet throughout the rest of the day, all the rest of our participants that you will visit with either have this morning or will this afternoon, but I'm sure that you would like to offer your greetings to some very important people. And the first, of course, is one of the neatest ladies in the world, Mrs. Barbara Bush. And of course, the neatest lady in this house who makes all this possible because this is her domain. And when you say luncheon in the White House, there is only one person who is responsible for that. And that is the first lady, Nancy Reagan. And now without further ado, your host for lunch this afternoon, who I'm sure has some interesting things to tell you, the President of the United States. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Welcome to the White House. It's always good to see some old friends, but to have a chance also to make some new ones. And it's always a pleasure to be joined by two of the most important women in my life, Nancy and Maureen. We don't often have lunch together. But it may be September, but here in Washington, it's still hot and muggy as you have discovered. They don't know whether we're going to break the record. The record is seven straight days of this kind of a heat wave. And I think we're up to five now, or maybe I haven't counted them all. But I remember as a boy, a preacher in our church one Sunday and the dog days of summer told us that because of the heat, he was going to preach the shortest sermon that we had ever heard. And he said just seven words. If you think it's hot now, wait. So I'm going to follow his example. I'll run a little bit over seven words, but I'll try to keep it short. I'm sure you've heard of our plan to completely overhaul the federal tax structure. This is the most burning issue facing the American people, I think, in this decade. I'm going to be out in the stump all fall, bringing our case for tax fairness and economic growth to the American people and rallying their support. I'll be in many of your states, possibly many of your communities. And I'll be looking for your help because it's at the grassroots level that our tax proposal will find the energy, determination, and willpower needed to topple the status quo. Now I used that term because every place I've been going, like yesterday to the students of North Carolina State University, I identify, I explain status quo, that that's a Latin term for the mess we're in. And the present system is a mess. As state legislators, I'm not going to tell you about the pleadings of lobbyists. You're very familiar with that. The siren songs of special interests are heard in every legislative hall. But this time, we can work for the special interest of all the American people to create a fair and equitable tax system, one which will be a double boon to the economy because it will both close wasteful loopholes and cut tax rates. It's time for Americans to take their money out of tax shelters and invest that money in America's future. Every day we live with the present tax code, we're slowing economic growth, sacrificing jobs that could have been created and unfairly burdening families and perpetuating an unjust system that only breeds cynicism and resentment in the American people. I was out on the road twice this week. I was in Missouri on Labor Day and yesterday at North Carolina State, as I told you, State University. And talking to those college students brought home the urgency of this issue. The room was just electrified with their hope and energy and enthusiasm. I just sat at the table and will repeat. The 21st century is going to be in good hands. How unfair it would be to chain them to the failed policies of the past. One of our proudest accomplishments, as Republicans, is the way we've been able to draw more and more young people into our ranks. I've repeatedly said that I can remember back a time talking to Republican fundraisers and so forth when I've come home and say the only young people present looked like they couldn't join anything else. But not anymore. We've swept aside the pessimism and the resignation that gripped the elected leadership of this country not too long ago. And we've opened up the doors to the future. Like the American people, we Republicans believe that America is still young, still vital, and still strong. And what we've accomplished goes beyond just words. We've backed our words, I think, with decisive and dramatic action. Our 25% across the board tax reduction gave new life and substance to the American spirit of optimism. And entrepreneurial renaissance is spreading across our land. A powerful economic expansion is lifting America out of the devastation of a decade of high tax policies and enabling us to build on a solid base of non-inflationary growth. Here's a piece of good news you may not have heard about, but then knowing some of the people in our team that have been talking to you so far today, maybe they mentioned it, the Democratically Controlled House Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families rated all the different tax plans that are floating around and found that ours was by far the most pro-family of all of them. By raising the standard deduction to $4,000 for a married couple filing jointly and nearly doubling the personal exemption to $2,000, we'll make it so that a family of four doesn't pay one penny in federal income tax on the first $12,000 of earnings. We're also giving non-wage-earning spouses equal access to the IRAs, those non-taxable savings accounts. And this coupled with the pension reform that was passed in the last Congress will go a long way toward alleviating poverty by allowing women the means to take care for themselves in their retirement years. Another report may be of special interest to you is state legislators. Our proposal to eliminate the state and local tax deduction beginning a lot of flak from some quarters. I'm talking about it here at this table. Well, it turns out that the New York state government has a study by its controller that found that taxpayers in New York would save $588 million a year in taxes under our proposal. And that's the point. If the individual taxpayers in your state's benefit, your states and localities as a whole benefit, there's no logic to fighting tax fairness, fighting a plan that would increase economic growth, create jobs, give families a much needed break, and take the weak working poor off the tax rolls altogether. Of course, we still have a job to do in Congress getting spending under control. In that connection on the revenue side, I'd like it known that I could immediately deposit $1.2 billion in cash in the Treasury if Congress will support this administration's decision to sell Conrail back to the private sector where it belongs and get the federal government out of the business of owning a railroad. I was only a kid the last time the government tried to run the railroads. That was in World War I. And it was a disaster for the country and for the railroads. Everett Dirksen might have said a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon it adds up. Well, some in Congress seem to think that they can proceed as usual in discriminately spending taxpayer dollars. And sooner or later, they'll be bailed out with a tax hike. Well, not for at least three and a half years. They won't be bailed out with a tax hike. Using Navy terms, I'll say as many times as I have to, there will be no tax hike on my watch. We Republicans have always looked for long-term solutions. This tax plan is one of those which will be working long after we've left office. As state legislators, you know that programs closer to home are more cost-efficient, better planned, and offer more assistance. But the gluttonous federal tax system has robbed you of the base for local programs. We must continue to move this wheel of government in the interest of what's right for America. And this is the time for which all of us have worked. The moment in which, together, we can build a partnership between the levels of government with a growing economy to give America the momentum for the next century. And with that, I'm going to say thank you, and God bless you all. And we're going to eat dessert. Thank you all. May I have the envelope, please? I haven't done this since I was on the stage at the Academy Awards. Not getting an award, opening an envelope. You all understand that I've only got time for three questions. And then we're all going to have an opportunity to meet individually, which some of us are looking forward to. And so three names were pulled out of a bowl for questions. And one of them is Sheila Roeberge from New Hampshire. Do you have a question? Do I feel there will be any? I can't tell you that because of the study that we've been insisted on. And it hasn't been stalling the further research that we're doing. We discovered some things in some of the research that was going on that made us realize that we could go forward with billions and billions or hundreds of billions of dollars of imposed on industry and business in this country and maybe not solve the problem. Now, one of the things we learned, for example, that we thought needed more study is that in our forests, that layer underneath, it's composed of tree leaves. And if it's that kind of forest pine needles and all of this actually contains far more acid than any acid rain. And when it rains, and the water falls, and then goes through that and finally finds its way into streams, unless it has gone through enough limestone on the way to offset this, it will go into the stream with far more acid than anything that's falling from the skies. On the old days, the reason things didn't happen like lakes dying was because there wasn't anyone around to put out the forest fires. So every time there was a forest fire, that was all burned up. And then for a long period of time until it accumulated, you didn't have that acid effect. Well, we think some things like that need to be studied to make sure that we don't spend all of our effort on, say, smokestacks and then find that we haven't done anything to stop the killing of the lakes and streams. So I can't tell you when we'll have the information that we need, but we're determined to get at it. And of course, those of you who might not know, there is another thing that can be helpful. Lakes that have supposedly been killed by acid rain can be restored by liming. Putting lime in those lakes will eliminate the acid and clean them up. So we're after it. We're not neglecting it. Now, Judith Ann Miller from Michigan. In Michigan, we're very concerned about the Great Lakes and have been very concerned that the research labs there are being closed in terms that are helping us keep those Great Lakes viable in the line. I'd just like to know what you would like to do about that problem that we've got in Michigan, keep the Great Lakes viable and the research coming so that we can keep them viable. Well, I can't tell you what's specific right now. I don't have something of that kind in mind. But I can tell you that we are determined contrary to the information that has been spread about me supposedly to be an enemy of environment. When I was governor of California, we started the whole thing in California about protecting the environment. And I'm not going to change my mind now. I can promise you that I will look into that. And maybe in some of the briefings we're going to have, there will be someone that knows some specific that we might be doing about it. But being a native Illinois-ian myself, I have to tell you that I don't think anyone in this government or any other of our administration will ever allow the Great Lakes to be anything less than what they presently are. They're too much of a great asset and a beauty for our country. So I'll make sure that we have something in mind and are doing something about it. And the third one, is this your writing, Maureen? Oh, yeah. Have I got it right? Shirley Duke of Tennessee? Dewey. Dewey. Dewey. They look like a K to me. I bring you grace from Tennessee to give you an answer. We love you. I have a question having to do with nuclear waste. We've been informed in Tennessee that we will probably be selected as the site, or a temporary site, for storage of nuclear waste. And I want to know what the federal government is going to do to assist us in assuring that we have the transportation that would be necessary to bring that into our study and that we have the technology to handle nuclear waste? I believe that I can say and I know every state that has been named as a possible. And incidentally, the states weren't just picked out of a hat like these names. The states were picked because of terrain features and so forth in which they offered the best opportunity for safe storage. And I know that there are a number of things that can be done. We know, for example, that that kind of nuclear waste can be encased in ceramics, a glass, things of that kind, and last for, I don't know how many, hundreds of years, perfectly safe, but also the terrain that is picked will be picked on a basis of offering the greatest safety that can be offered. You've named another one, of course, the transportation thing, but all of those are prime considerations in wherever the final sites are that no one in this country must be endangered by the need to do this. We were talking a little bit about it over here. I wish big rockets were cheaper so we could shoot them out into space and let them keep on going forever. But I don't think the waste is that dangerous. Certainly it does not offer an explosive danger as some people fear about atomic power plants or the fuel. Those people who have terrified that a nuclear power plant could someday become a bomb, that's impossible. It cannot be. But I can assure you that there won't be a decision made until we have everything protected. I can just tell you that some of the things I've been associated with directly are protection of nuclear plants and nuclear weapons. We're constantly updating that with every new step in technology to make sure that they would not be subject to terrorist attacks or thievery or anything of that kind. As I say, I'm quite sure that there won't be any problem anyone will have about it. It's going to be easier than finding some of the ashes from the coal we're burning. Well, yes, thank you. Well, we'll see you all in the next room.