 Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much it's wonderful to be here in Sydney how do you like our Heartland special here you know Harry Truman rode this state in his whistle-stop tour of 1948 and he spoke some very blunt truths and that's what I'm going to do he we're now three and a half weeks away from election day and the American people are getting the full flavor of the clear choice that's facing them it's a choice between two fundamentally different ways of governing and two different ways of looking at America my opponent Mr. Mondale offers a future of pessimism fear and limits compared to ours of hope confidence and growth now I don't I don't fault his intentions I know his intentions are good and that he means well but we see things differently he sees government as an end in itself and we see government as something belonging to the people and only a junior partner in our lives they see people merely as members of groups special interests to be coddled and catered to well we look at them as individuals to be fulfilled through their own freedom and creativity my opponent and his allies live in the past they're celebrating the old and failed policies of an era that has passed them by as if history had skipped over those Carter Mondale years on the other hand millions of Americans join us in boldly charting a new course for the future from the beginning their campaign has lived on promises indeed mr. Bondale has boasted that America is nothing if it is not promises well the American people don't want promises and they don't want to pay for his promises I think you want promise you want opportunity and workable answers it's fitting that we're campaigning today on Harry Truman's train following the same route he took 36 years and one day ago he was the last Democrat that I voted for indeed I campaigned for him in 1948 yes I spent a great deal of my life as a Democrat I respected Harry Truman's ability to stand for what he believes his consistency of principles and his determination to do the right thing mr. Truman could also make very plain the differences between himself and an opponent and that's what I'm going to try to do today let's start with the record the record of the administration in which mr. Mondale carried a full partnership he mr. Carter himself said there wasn't a single decision I made during four years in the White House that Fritz Mondale wasn't involved in well in those four years they took the strongest economy in the world and they pushed it to the brink of collapse they created a calamity of such proportions that we're still suffering the consequences of those economic time bombs that was no fresh faced well-fed baby they left on our doorstep in January of 1981 it was a snarling economic wolf with sharp teeth the suffering of America the deep and painful recession and the outrageous and frightening inflation these things didn't start by accidental ignition or spontaneous combustion they came about through the concerted mismanagement of an administration of which mr. Mondale was apart and his liberal friends who controlled the Congress they gave us five in little more than a year five anti-inflation plans five different economic plans and with them they managed to give us the worst four-year record of inflation in nearly 40 years while it took them five plans to nearly triple inflation it's only taken us one to cut it down by two-thirds senior citizens were driven into panic by higher rents exorbitant fuel cost dramatically increasing food prices and a federal health care costs which went up in those four years 87 percent and they call that fairness they punish the poor and the young who struggled as prices of necessity shot up faster than others millions of Americans led a life of daily economic terror fueled by these unrelenting costs well let's look at interest rates my opponent has referred to something he calls real interest rates well people don't pay interest rates based on some academic smokescreen or foggy economic theory what they know is that when Jerry Ford left office the prime rate was six and a quarter percent and when mr. Mondale left it was 21 and a half percent the highest in 120 years all right okay you talk me into it but in that time the average monthly mortgage payments more than doubled young people couldn't buy homes car loans were hard to get and expensive the auto and the home building industries were brought to their knees it's little wonder that the American people were yearning for leadership back in 1980 after all this economic punishment our opponents blamed you for living too well said that's what was at fault and that you had to sacrifice more well I found that it's not so much that our opponents have a poor memory of this ruin has passed they just have a darn good forgettory and one of the things they like most to forget is the misery index you remember that that was where they added the unemployment rate and the inflation rate together and in 1976 in that campaign the misery index was 12.6 and they declared that Jerry Ford had no right to seek reelection being responsible for that kind of a misery index 12.6 but now came the 1980 campaign and they never mentioned the misery index and I don't think my opponent will mention it in this campaign possibly because when he left the vice presidency the misery index was more than 20% and now it's only 11.6 he's done a little slipping and slagging and ducking away from this record but here in Ohio during the primaries senator Gary Hart got his message through by reminding the Ohio voters of the true record and I quote senator Hart said Walter Mondale may pledge stable prices but Carter Mondale couldn't cut 12% inflation. Walter Mondale he added has come to Ohio to talk about jobs but Carter Mondale watched helpless as 180,000 Ohio jobs disappeared in the period between 1976 and 1980. Those are Gary Hart's words. Well those disastrous consequences didn't come about by accident they came through the implementation of the very policies of out of control spending unfair taxation and worship of big government that my opponent still supports. His philosophy can be summed up in four sentences if it's income tax it if it's revenue spend it if it's a budget break it and if it's a promise make it. All this year he has lavished his campaign with promises that staggered even his own democratic opponents in the primary. Your own senator Glenn was heard to say in frustration that Mr. Mondale and I quote has just promised everything to everybody with no thought of how it's going to be paid for and then he said Fritz you cannot lead this country if you've promised everybody everything. But of course there is a predictable answer by one who makes so many promises. His answer is higher taxes and massive new tax increases are precisely what he proposes. A few weeks back he called his new plan pay as you go. What it is of course is nothing but the old plan you pay and he goes. Those tax increases to pay for his promises add up to the equivalent of one thousand eight hundred and ninety dollars per household. If Harry Truman had to apply a motto to this radical taxing scheme he'd have to say that not your buck stops here your buck never stops. When the centerpiece of his economic program is back breaking tax hikes you can see why my opponent spends so much time using outrageous scare tactics. Now that's not my opponent's only tax extravaganza he came up with still another one in our debate. He said and I quote as soon as we get the economy on a sound ground as well I would like to see the total repeal of indexing. Now this tax is even worse because it would be a dagger at the heart of every low and middle income taxpayer in America. It would mean bone crushing new levies against those who can least afford them. Indexing was a reform that we passed goes into effect on January 1st this coming year to protect you from the cruel hidden tax when government uses inflation to force you into higher tax brackets when you've maybe just gotten a cost of living pay raise trying to keep even. Under his plan here's what would happen to a family struggling on ten thousand dollars per year by nineteen eighty nine they would be paying over seventy three percent more in income taxes for families making thirty thousand dollars a year this tax would take over five hundred dollars more in eighty nine nearly nine hundred a year more for those making forty thousand and these assume modest inflation if we had their higher double digit inflation rates back then all those tax collections would more than double and we're told that he misspoke that he actually meant to say just the opposite but on several occasions since nineteen eighty two he has expressly proposed the repeal of indexing he's done this quite often in politics they call this sometimes flip flops in this case forgive me I'm going to call it a fritz flop indexing is one example but there are many others yesterday he wanted to give a two hundred dollar tax break to every family dependent today wants to raise taxes the equivalent of eighteen hundred and ninety dollars per household you know he's done a lot of talk lately about that there's a new and an older Reagan and he doesn't mean my age when he's talking about he means that the old Reagan said things differently than the new Reagan is saying them well the old Monday and Bale said that tightening the budget and reducing deficits would worsen a recession and the mood in New Mondeo thinks higher taxes lead to a healthy economy the old Mondeo publicly supported Jimmy Carter's wrong-headed grain embargo and a new bar Mondeo claims he opposed it privately awful privately no one else ever heard him the old Mondeo sponsored National Bible Week in the United States Senate I think that's fine the new order Mondeo says there's too much religion in politics the old Mondeo called the space shuttle a horrible waste a space extravaganza and led the fight to kill it in the Senate the new Mondeo praises American technological achievement but just when you're beginning to lose faith you find there is some constancy the old Mondeo increased your taxes and a new Mondeo will increase them again you know you know in our debate I got a little angry all those times he distorted my record and on one occasion I was about to say to him very sternly Mr. Mondale you are taxing my patience and then I caught myself why should I give him another idea that's the only tax he hasn't thought about well from now until November 6th we're going to make sure that the American people know about this choice on which their future depends we have two roads to tomorrow we have the road of fear and envy that he proposes and on his roads you frighten the elderly with false statements you strive to divide Americans against each other seeking to promote envy and promote and portray greed Franklin Roosevelt warned us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself well sadly and tragically I think the only thing my opponent has to offer is fear itself when I said the elderly citizens being frightened again these repeated charges that somehow we're nursing a secret plan to undercut the people who are on Social Security reduce or remove their benefits I said it on Sunday night and I will say it again there is no one in this administration and if there was they wouldn't be here long that has any intention of taking Social Security away from those people who have it and who deserve it we see things differently as I said because we see ourselves in a springtime of hope ready to fire up our courage and determination to reach high and achieve all the best we see a life where our children can enjoy at last prosperity without inflation we see a life where they can enjoy the highest of creativity and go for the stars not have their hopes and dreams crushed by politicians are taxed away by greedy governmentalists the American people are walking in tomorrow into tomorrow unashamed and afraid and again I have to say something that I've been saying so often across this country and I mean it with all my heart one of the most thrilling things is to see so many young Americans present at these rallies let me let me tell you let me tell you you you are what this campaign and this election are all about there's one thing that the rest of us and the people of my generation have to do before we leave the scene and that is restore this country as I think we've begun to do so that one day you will find the same America of unlimited hope and opportunity that we were promised and found when we were young that had been left to us by our parents you know I know you're ready for great opportunity and I know this may gall our opponents but it's time for the train to move on and I think maybe you'll all agree with me when I say just one more line we've we think we've made a good beginning but you ain't seen nothing yet thank you very much thank you thank you let me just add a little post script and then I've got to get on that train I know in a crowd this size there must be many of you who are Democrats as I once was and I must say this you're not only welcome but if you are here I think you're here because like happened to me once you no longer can follow the policies of the leadership of your party it's true for millions of patriotic right-thinking Democrats throughout this country well I say to all of you if you are here and don't be alone come on along with us and between the two of us between all of us we'll get this whole thing straightened out day after tomorrow thank you very much thank you mr. president the people of Sydney and Shelby County work hard and as you can see they enjoy life the people here today and those not able to be here are the kind of people who make their own way in the world and pay for it themselves is our pleasure to present to you this plaque representing products produced by the working people of our community industry commerce and agriculture mr. president it is an honor to welcome you to our community the gardener spot of the world and also the logo of the city of Sydney Ohio USA thank you mr. mayor and thank you all very much very honored to have this and honored by all of you thank you mr. Reagan I know your trade has to leave thank you for joining us here in Sydney Ohio today