 Ladies and gentlemen Let us not just pledge our allegiance to the flag. Let us recommit our minds our souls and our bodies To the rededication to protectant Please join me in our pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God Indivisible with liberty and justice for all Thank You mr. Barnett will continue with the program in a little while, but as for now Bon Appetit enjoy your dinner pride and Honor That I present to you The president of the United States Thank you very much. Thank you Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you Reverend clergy Senator Hayakawa our party chairman dinner chairman and host Our toast master All the distinguished ladies and gentlemen up here and you ladies and gentlemen all distinguished out there Nancy and I thank you for a very great and warm, California. Welcome You know, it's always a pleasure to get home if only for a short visit And one of the best things about getting home is seeing old friends and we've been doing that tonight Many of us in this room have been toiling together in the political vineyards for more than 20 years We've shared victories and defeats Good times and bads. I made it 20 years and not more than that because any more than that. I wasn't a Republican We've shared the good times and bads what's most important, I guess is that we've never become complacent This magnificent display of unity and commitment will undoubtedly be remembered as One of the good times and I think we all owe a round of applause To David Murdock and the others for what they've done to make this evening a success that it is I remember not too long ago when a big fundraiser like this was only a hundred dollars a plate and I know The material cost of your being here tonight It's lucky. We've got inflation under control or who knows how much you'd be paid Tonight we kick off the 1982 campaign season for the California Republican Party Only a few years ago our party registration was dropping Our coffers were empty and we were in retreat If the Dodgers had doing that poorly Vince Scully would have been placing side bets on the visiting teams Thomas Edison once said I never did anything worth doing By accident nor did any of my inventions come by accident. They came by work Well, the current strength and vitality of our party didn't happen by accident either it took work and Each of you should be congratulated for what you've done Obviously many of you've been working extra hard But accomplishments also requires leadership and tonight I'd like to take this opportunity To thank Terso del hunko for the fine job that he's doing here in California Now there is one other person Who should be singled out for all that he has done to inspire and unite the California Republican Party? I'd ask him to stand and take a bow, but unfortunately Jerry Brown couldn't be with us tonight Once to raise taxes we left him a half a million million dollars surplus Well easy come easy go Seriously though, we've got tremendous candidates for the Senate and I can't see a reason why Any one of them will not be able to keep Jerry Brown right here where he belongs Here in California swatting med flies Or do I have that wrong does he raise them? a Sad thing is that come January a Republican governor is going to have an awful time straightening things out in Sacramento. It won't be easy I've had some experience in cleaning up after a brown But in a few days Californians will be going to the polls and along with determining the party nominations You'll be given a chance to register your opposition to a blatantly unfair redistricting plan The way the way to vote against back room political manipulation is to vote no on propositions 10 11 and 12 the maneuvering be Behind redistricting is just one more example of how we must remain vigilant if the sanctity of the ballot box is to be preserved Of course, none of us ever thought that making government work in a free society would be easy Teddy Roosevelt had an insight into this. He said the noblest of all forms of government Is self-government, but it's also the most difficult To put it another way if freedom were easy there'd be to great more many more free countries America during the last 20 years has been poised at a crossroads a Number of political forces as we should expect in a free society are trying to direct our Country down whichever path most closely conforms to their philosophy and worldview It will be the activists those who organize and vote who determine what America will be like Two decades from now It's our job to muster the forces of hope to inspire them with a positive program that will ensure that America remains a prosperous and a free country We're engaged in an epic conflict with the proponents of Negativism the advocates of no They offer the politics of no growth No take-home pay no neighborhood schools no incentives to work no incentives to save no protections for the family and No security for our nation or safety at home We are and must remain the bold proponents of yes Yes, we can have a brighter future Yes, we can make America work Yes, we can solve our problems and yes, we can have a safe and strong America Yes, we can live together in harmony no matter what our race or religion We say this because when it comes to our country. Yes is the only word we understand and I'm not just talking about Republicans The American people Republicans independence and Democrats alike want a positive alternative Something our opponents with all their criticism have yet to offer The Washington establishment may think it sounds corny, but we still believe in the people and so do Americans a study Conducted by the Gallup Organization has recently found that among all the industrialized nations Americans are the most willing to fight for their country The proudest of their national identity the most likely to find achievement in their work They are also deeply religious and behind only the Irish and the English in viewing themselves is happy You suppose that makes us Irish Americans the happiest of all It does tonight These findings shouldn't surprise anyone We've always believed that you can count on the American people You can count on them to handle their own affairs much better than the government can do it for them You can count on them to spend their money more wisely than government can spend it for them You can count on their courage when the cause is just and you can count on them to do what is right When they are given the facts and that's our responsibility We've got to work with all the energy we possess to let the people know about the choices. We face as a nation We've got to make sure that our people have the opportunity to hear our message We'll also do our utmost to see That they won't have to be called on to fight for their country because our goal is peace now recently I've Been through some serious negotiations with a gentleman named Tip O'Neill a man who's concerned about deficits is legendary I tried to meet him halfway and on his own turf We bid our did our best to reach a compromise that would have started the budget process moving again and reassuring the nation Instead of compromise. He wanted surrender Instead of progress. He wanted to cancel the election of 1980 Well, I can pledge to you tonight will be constructive. We're open to new ideas. We'll go the extra mile But we will never shelve the mandate of 1980 and return to politics as usual The people have spoken the old days of ever bigger taxes and uncontrolled government spending are over The speaker told reporters after our negotiations that philosophical differences separated us. Well, he's absolutely right. I Just don't believe the philosophy of no the profligate spending of My liberal kingpins in Washington Represents the aspirations of many Democrat members of Congress of the rank and file of their party Every demand they made in that meeting was based on increased spending and higher taxes Now we tried our best to reach a reasonable understanding Now it's time for responsible activists in both parties to get on with the business at hand And that's exactly what we intend to do. That's why the members of the house aren't here tonight that we're supposed to be here Because they're facing right now on the floor of the Congress and they've been up for late hours on this Having eliminated five of the budget proposals already. They're facing 68 amendments To the two remaining budget proposals The liberal philosophy represented by those still in leadership positions in the Democratic Party has had its chance and failed 30 years ago Speaker O'Neill already a political veteran was elected the Congress. I Was still in movies back in those days And believe me bed time for Bonzo made more sense than what they were doing in Washington During the coming election. We cannot let the legacy of the big spenders and big taxers be forgotten You forgive me if I offer some reminders in the years prior to the 1980 election Our economy was on the skids our people were demoralized indeed a voice from the White House Told them they suffered a malaise Overseas our friends and allies alike saw us as a nation in decline Government spending was out of control growing at an annual rate of 17 percent in the year 1980 alone Taxation was strangling any chance of progress dollars that could have been used for business expansion Individual savings their consumer spending were spent on government expansion taxes actually doubled between 1976 and 1981 They went up 300 billion dollars and there were 318 billion dollars in that same period in deficits For all their talk about compassion They created one of the most brutal inflations in our nation's history In 1980 it was running at budget double digit levels for the second year in a row Robbing from those unfixed incomes attacking the well-being of the poor in the middle class Stifling savings and shooting interest rates sky high Anyone who questions the responsibility for these miserable conditions Should only compare what we inherited with what our current opposition was handed four years earlier My predecessor and the liberal hierarchy in the congress Started in 76 with an inflation rate of 4.8 By 1980 they had run it up to 12.4 now some of you May have heard of senator kennedy and others in the liberal hierarchy complained about interest rates recently Well, this is going to make you cry In december of 1976 the last full month of the last republican administration The prime interest rate averaged 6.4 percent By december of 1980 interest rates were 21.5 percent Prior to the 1980 election productivity was down for the third year in a row and unemployment was heading up again I remember campaigning in the midwest during the 1980 election in towns with 18 and 20 unemployment then Where the collapse of several important industries had already begun When any of you remember the misery index? That goes back to 76 my predecessor invented that as a candidate He added the rates of unemployment and inflation together And then said of the incumbent president That no man had the right to seek reelection as a president who had a misery index of 12.5 And he won He was in office and after four years with a democratic majority in both houses of the congress The misery index stood at 19 and a half But he ran for reelection Well in this election year, they haven't mentioned the misery index Yes, we have a recession they've mentioned that And we have an unemployment rate which i'm as concerned about as anyone could be But that 19.5 misery index we inherited Is for the first quarter of 1982 Only 9.8 percent We figured that what america needed was a commitment to tackle the basic problems holding our country back And a willingness to stick with it until the job was done And that's what we've set out to do Our program has four basic points Most of you can probably recite them with me because it's not my program. It's our program And together we've accomplished much of it first. We called for getting government spending under control Well, we've cut the rate of growth in that spending nearly in half in the first year Our programs called for a tax rate reduction. We've set in place a tax program That will leave hundreds of billions of dollars in the pockets of working people that would have been grabbed away by built-in Tax increases indeed the biggest single tax increase in our nation's history was passed in 1977 And for the first time ever We have managed to eliminate government's hidden tax increase caused by inflation By indexing which will start in 1985 We called for the elimination of wasteful and counterproductive regulations And vice president bush has been leading this fight heading a task force with spectacular results By the end of this fiscal year, the american people will be spared the expense Of 200 million man hours of non-productive paperwork required under those previous regulations now That savings can go into investments which create new jobs The federal register the book which lists new regulations Was 23 000 pages smaller last year due to the efforts of that task force The last part the last part of our program is a commitment to work with the federal reserve system to ensure a stable money monetary policy And we've done that and along with the rest of our program. It's dropped brought a drop in the inflation rate totally unpredicted by the way If you remember our critics just a short time ago And some of the so-called experts were telling us it would take a decade To ring inflation out of the economy Well inflation for the twa past 12 months hasn't been running at 12.4 It's been running at an annual rate of 6.6 But for the last three months The consumer price index has been running at less than 1 Very early in the administration over shrill voices that predicted skyrocketing prices We decontrol the price of oil And decontrol unleashed a stampede of exploration promoted conservation Contributed to the oil glut and reduced prices Here again our policies are pumping vast resources into our economy Which were evaporating under the previous administration There was one problem we met head on in the early months of the administration Which could have brought havoc had had not been dealt with quickly and firmly I think everyone who depends on government from social security to recipients to businessmen Can rest easier now that we've reaffirmed That federal employees do not and will not have the right to strike We brought we brought tough professionals into this administration. We're taking our goals of efficiency seriously The campaign against fraud waste and mismanagement is showing results For example calls and letters to hotlines Where someone has to call in with something some tip that they can give us as a saving As more than doubled in some of the federal agencies last year and one phone call alone last september to the department of labor Resulted in a ten thousand dollar savings It was the american taxpayers who brought to our attention films pamphlets and magazines that the federal government Produced by the truckload We call it the federal flood of flicks flax and foldouts Well, one of our projects is aimed at stemming the tide And due to those efforts you're no longer paying for a pamphlet called imaginative ways with bathrooms Or a coloring book that costs a hundred and forty five thousand dollars Or a photo guide to employees of the bureau of land management So they could find their way around the country Furthermore agriculture found it didn't need a series of recipe books costing over thirty three thousand dollars Which among other things instructed taxpayers on how to stuff hard boiled eggs with crab meat HUD discovered it could reduce the size and cost of its annual congressional report From four volumes to one from a thousand pages to a hundred and fifty and that was a savings of fourteen thousand dollars commerce eliminated nine Internal newsletters and that saved a hundred thousand dollars a year I'm convinced that we've created a momentum for change The previous administration acted helpless before the federal monolith But the federal government is composed of individuals almost all of them our solid patriotic citizens anxious to do their job It's just that most of them have never been asked how to make things better even though they've had plenty of good ideas Well, we're asking and we're following through It's a slow process as is all lasting change in the age of television and instant gratification I know it's not easy politically You know, there's an old story about the impulsive child who realized he had a problem Because of being impulsive and decided to pray about it and he got down on his knees and he prayed dear lord Please give me patience and I want it right now I'm convinced that the american people will respond if dealt with materially and honestly They're willing if we tell them the facts to give our program a chance This recession has made our task difficult, but gloom and doomers notwithstanding I believe we're on the verge of a tangible and lasting recovery The savings rate is up Up for the second quarter doff employees are already being rehired Construction of office building is up business travel is up home mortgage rates are declining We still have a long way to go But we're on our way back Finally, I'd like to speak with you about a vital area of accomplishment One we must never permit to be politicized Yes, it's something of which we can be rightfully proud A few years ago america was still suffering from what has been referred to as the vietnam syndrome self-doubt Vassalation and confusion a company to decline in our military strength Our allies and our adversaries alike thought of us as weak and indecisive The dedicated men and women in our armed forces reacted as one might predict Professionals whose skills were badly needed left the service in droves I say to you tonight We can be proud that aside from everything else in these last 16 months We have restored the confidence of the united states of america Today our allies know that we're not afraid to lead Our adversaries are beginning to get the idea that we're a force with which to be reckoned The men and women of our armed forces know now that we're proud of them They're grateful. We're grateful for the job they're doing and we'll back them up if they're called upon And let me give you an example Our ambassador to luxembourg wrote me a letter He'd just returned from a visit to one of our armored cavalry regiments up along the east german border And as he was leaving went over to his helicopter a 19 year old trooper stopped him And he asked the ambassador if he by any chance could ever get a message to me And being an ambassador, of course, he could and he said so and the young fella said well Will you just tell the president? We're proud to be here and we ain't scared of nothing We may not have taught him much in english, but I sure like his attitude In just one week i'll be leaving for my first trip to europe as president of the united states My utmost goal second only the preservation of our freedom Is as I said maintaining world peace Our nation is in a much better position to date and negotiate and achieve meaningful arms reduction Because of the commitments that we've made Permitting our defense posture to erode did nothing to further the cause of peace We have two arms reductions proposals on the table Proposals which will bring both sides into balance rather than freezing either side into a position of inferiority and vulnerability But like prosperity peace comes from commitment and hard work And in any forthcoming arms reduction talks The soviets know this time The alternative to reducing their arm strength is to try and match our industrial capacity A cartoon the other day told it all Two soviet generals were pictured one of them was saying to the other I liked the arms race better when we were the only ones in it Well in the in the coming months In the coming months our people will again have to make a judgment of the polls We must state our case clearly. We must get our message to the people Together we can and will keep america the great nation that god intended it to be And tonight for the first time you reminded me of Something that I quoted at the republican national convention in 1980 And you really did remind me of tom pain statement 200 years ago When he said we have it in our power To begin the world over again Thank you and god bless you Thank you, mr. President Ladies and gentlemen, and I realize you have just sat down But may I ask you to stand now and remain standing for the benediction And then for the departure of the presidential party And for the benediction, I would like to call upon the pastor of the belair presbyterian church the reverend don mumow the preacher In ecclesiasties Road in his wisdom There is a time For everything and a season for every activity in heaven A time to be born in a time to die A time to plant and a time to uproot A time to kill and a time to heal A time to tear down in a time to build A time to weep and a time to laugh A time to mourn and a time to dance A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing A time to search and a time to give up searching A time to keep and a time to throw away a time to tear and a time to mend A time to be silent and a time to speak A time to love and a time to hate A time for war and a time for peace And my prayer in this benediction Is that god will give us all A sensitivity Of knowing what time it is May the lord bless you and keep you May the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you And give you peace Now and forever more God bless you Good night, mr. President