 Thank you, somebody, somebody's been in Iowa or Illinois. I don't hear that much anymore outside of those two places. Dutch is me, that's my nickname. I don't know why, I'm Irish and English, but it started when my father bestowed that on me and having an older brother, it stuck. And for five years as a sports announcer, I found out that, well I thought that it would sound better if I used Dutch Reagan than Ronald Reagan. So every once in a while I run into that again. Thank you very much. Well on the way in, I've just learned how to make a space shuttle, and since I got in the door, now I want to say seriously, I'm a little in awe being in this place and knowing all that has been produced here and thinking back over the years as we've waited and watched as you have waited and watched for the results, for that first step on the moon, you left your fingerprints on that and then a gentleman left his footprints on the moon because of you, the space shuttles, the Apollo, the space lab, and who knows what more to come. And I'm here to talk to you about a few little problems we have in Washington just for a few minutes and then we'll have a dialogue instead of a monologue, I understand there's a couple of microphones and I can take some questions and I'd rather do that than make a speech and you'd rather have me do that than my make a speech. But this is a, well it's always great to get back here to California, as a matter of fact I keep looking for excuses to get here. California is a hard place to leave and there are some days in Washington when I want to get here more than others. Right now you've probably heard a rumor to the effect that they're discussing a budget up on the hill and we've been trying to keep it a secret. No, it's very serious and I think for all of us, just as you represent something and a great new development for all of mankind, we're trying to do something new we think in Washington, D.C. We think it's time, has been high time for a long time, that we got government back to the place where it didn't spend any more than it took in and it didn't take any more than it had to out of your pockets and we think we've made some progress. When we, about a year and a half ago when we started the interest rates were 21 and a half percent, the government was increasing spending by 17 percent a year and inflation was 12.4 percent and that was the second back to back year of double digit inflation, the only time it had ever happened I think in peacetime history and of course unemployment was climbing and it's continued to climb and we've continued on to the point that we now have a recession. But as of this present year's budget we've cut that 17 percent rate of increase in half. The inflation figure for the last year if you take 12 months back would run at 6.6 percent but to show that we're making progress, if you take it for the last three months, for three months now inflation has run at less than 1 percent. And that is the, and you've had that first little bitty instalment of it on the tax cuts but that's one of the thing in the budget battle that's going on. I've insisted on two things for sure, that, well in addition to reducing unnecessary government spending, the other is that we must stay with our defense budget as closely as we can so that we don't send anymore the wrong signal to the rest of the world. They must know that we're prepared to do whatever is necessary. The other thing is there is a 10 percent income tax cut scheduled for July 1st and another one scheduled for July 1st, 1983 and then we index the income tax brackets. And just to explain if someone hasn't heard that term before or what it is we're trying to do, you've gotten down through the year's cost of living pay raises to try and keep even with the increased cost of living with inflation. But because of the number of dollars that you increased your earnings, very often that pushed you into the next tax bracket up and you found yourself paying more, a higher percentage in tax and the result was that you were worse off, not better off, after having gotten that cost of living raise. Indexing means that we index from there on the tax brackets the same as the cost of living is indexed and you don't move up into another bracket. They also are at the same level. Last year we got that program and we got the cuts that we thought were necessary in spending for that one year. Now the budget for 1983 because into effect October 3rd is there and the Congress is debating seven versions of the budget. I only like one. I got a favorite in there and it's a favorite that will reduce the projected deficits for the next three years by some $390 billion. And it won't, as some have suggested, take away those already scheduled tax cuts. And while there will be some minor trims in defense, their trims that the Secretary of Defense, another Californian, Cap Weinberger, tells me they can take without setting us back in our plans for rebuilding our defenses. I think you people here know better than probably most groups that I would talk to. About a year and a half ago when we got in there, we found out that on any given day half our airplanes couldn't fly because of a lack of spare parts. Ships couldn't leave harbor. And we had a morale problem among our men and women who were in service. And I'm happy to tell you not only have all those things been corrected but so has that. You'd be very proud as I am if you could hear from and talk to and see the young men and women in our service and the pride that they now have in wearing the uniform and how willing they are to serve. That's enough about my business. Now, who wants to use one of those microphones? There they are right in front. Yes, sir. Maybe you don't need them. Maybe. Yep. My wife said this morning, if I could be in your presence, if I could shake the hand of the president, I'm missing the grand of Farms, California, I'd probably be a couple. If you could shake the hand for my wife, sir, this is Lee Grant. I'm her husband. Yes, fellas. I would probably let this gentleman through here. This request, this wasn't a question. This is his wife wants him to shake my hand as a Republican. Next time, bring your wife. Yes, yes, I would, but I think maybe I've started something here. All right, if you come out and I will, but somebody ask a question while this is happening because this can't be of much interest to those who can't see. Who has a question? Am I going to increase the space budget? I guess that's a question that you're kind of interested in. We have budgetary restraints, but we are going forward with four of the space shuttles, as you know, and in that defense budget, as you also know is the B-1, that is in space. That's another part of the program. I know that there is talk for a fifth, and that is under consideration, but we'll have to wait now as to see whether that can be added on or not. But yes, we are going forward with the four that are scheduled, the four space shuttles that are scheduled. What's that? Do I think I'll meet with the Russians? Yes, I do, because I've received a message from President Brezhnev and suggesting a meeting, and we are now our people at the Secretary of State's level and the Foreign Minister and so forth. They're getting together to try and arrange the exact place and date for that, and we will be talking about what we've called the START program. You know, SALT was Strategic Arms Limitation, except that they could double under the life of the treaty just about what they've got now. We call our START. It is Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. We think we ought to have fewer nuclear missiles than there are in the world. Good question about what plans do we have since we scrapped the mode that had been talked about earlier for the Mx missile. That was to out in the Utah desert. They were going to build a whole lot of holes connected by a track, and then they were going to keep moving the Mx around. Supposedly the Soviets wouldn't know which one of those holes it was in at any given time. Well, it was a tremendously costly operation, and we didn't think that it actually offered that much protection. Granted, it would force the Soviet Union to build more warheads, put more warheads on, but all they had to do was just increase the number of warheads, and in the event of trying to bomb our missiles or destroy them, just hit every hole whether it had a Mx in it or not. Right now, the last part of the question is, what are we thinking about doing about that? Well, the first ones we have asked, and we're talking to the Congress about it now, is the first ones come off the line. We're researching several methods of placing them that have been considered, but in the interim of putting them in some of the existing Minuteman III missiles, and now there has been a new plan that has been advanced and that is getting a lot of attention from the military people, and that is what's called a cluster plan, that you actually, instead of scattering them to hide them, you pick an area and put them all in that limited area, and the idea being that the oncoming missiles would have to come in to such a point that they would probably, could very, probably detonate their own missiles before they got there, as they had to funnel in to hit this very small target, plus which in any form of anti-ballistic defense, it would give us a better targeting chance at them. But that none, what we have is an agreement with the Congress that we're going to come back with a recommendation on one of the plans that's being considered later this fall. There's a hand, oh, can, can somebody relay that, because that didn't carry up here. Oh, yeah. Oh, how does the indexing plan differ from what we'd offered the state of California? Well, no, the plan that we had tried to get in in the state of California my last year, and we lost, and now about 16 other states have done it, and we were just ahead of our time. No, that was one which would have set a limit on how much percentage of the total earnings of the people that the state could take in taxes. It would set a limit beyond which the state could not go. And the closest thing now in Washington to that is the thing that I have advocated and intend to support, and that is that we set a date down the road as we begin to reduce the deficits. We set a date down the road we can make and have a constitutional amendment that says the federal government has to balance the budget. It's kind of embarrassing. He didn't ask a question. He just said he wants me to know he thinks I'm doing a good job. Thank you. This one is that on TV they've seen so much about an evacuation plan in the event of a nuclear disaster and want to know are we getting that close. No, I think we still have a deterrent. There's no question but that they have a superior military force than we do now. It's been built up while we've let ours lag over the years, but I think we still have enough of a deterrent for protection. But as a part of the defense buildup to make sure that we have a deterrent, we had to face a thing that our country overlooked for a number of years. You know, we had what was called the MAD program, Mutual Assured Destruction, that we could have peace if both sides knew that they could blow the other side up. And part of that was that we would do nothing to protect our people. And then we found out that the Soviet Union for years has had a very expensive and a very efficient civil defense program. Shelters, evacuation plans, everything. In other words, they have set out to protect their people. We feel that it is a part of our defense in order to let them know that we have a deterrent, because we've got to show that, and we've got to go forward with some plans for the protection of our own people. Now so far, the budget constraints and all, we've only gone through with studying a plan of evacuating our cities. That of course would mean that you would have to, there'd have to be enough strain in advance that you would think you'd have some warning that you better get the people out. There wouldn't be any protection in that for a surprise attack if they just pushed the button, because you've only got about 28 minutes and that's all she wrote. But we, this is all part of our preparing to sit down with the Russians this time. And instead of them looking across the table and knowing that we have been letting our own disarm, or our own arms decline, that, well I can cover it better this way, a cartoon a few days ago. We know how the Soviet Union has been building up. Now we have a defense program, including this that you've asked about. The cartoon was of two Russian generals, one of them was saying to the other, I like the arms race better when we were the only ones in it. Well this question is one that that I just don't think I can comment on. This question is that we've read that the Soviet, in the papers that the Soviet Union has satellites, communication satellites, or surveillance satellites down over the Falkland area, and do we have anything there watching them? And I have to stick with my first answer there. I just can't comment on matters of that kind. I know that you make the finest in the in the whole wide world. And just rest assured that we're using them. Mr. President, we have time for one more question. Oh dear. Here's a young fellow standing right here, looks like the youngest one here. This, well this is a question about a church, and you say it's the IRS that's the SC, oh the FCC, all right, and you want me to check in and see if this is so and what's behind it, or do we have any justification for doing this? That's easy to do, I can do that, and I will. Now could I, could I maybe, they've sent me, we have a little presentation for you. Oh, there's a, there's a lady here. And this one, he runs the place and he tells me I've got to quit now. Yes. You want me to read the question from the gentleman in the back who said, I'm proud of you because you visit us, I've been wanting to see you for a long time. Now it is my first life to see you, first time in life to see you. Well, you never stayed up for any of the late, late movies? This is, this is awful, I've, I'm sorry they tell me that I've, I've taken up all the time and I can't, what? Oh, oh these are, oh these are, these are people with a hearing problem and who are seeing me for the first time. I, well thank you very much, I, I didn't understand. I, I have to conclude now, but let me just say he made me think, I've told him many times, I've gotten questions sometimes about what is it like to see yourself on the late, late show in one of those old movies. And my only answer has always been, it's like looking at a sun I never knew I had. I'm sorry that I can't take anymore. Thank you very much. Mr. President, you're the first president that we've ever had that has been at Houston at Mission Control during a mission on STS-2. You're the first president that has ever visited this home of the Rockwell men and women that made the Apollo and now the shuttle spacecraft. You're the first president that's ever had a miraculous technological feat such as the shuttle performed for the first time. The only president that's had three flights on such a reusable machine. We expect there are going to be a lot of space firsts in your administration and we at Rockwell are going to try very hard to make that happen. We have a little memento for you that is in appreciation, our appreciation of your visit to us today. I'd like to thank you for all the men and women of Rockwell for visiting us. Thank you all very much. I'm very proud to have this and it is true, I was in Mission Control. There's only one complaint that I have. They were out over Honolulu, some place coming around and think about the next time or two around was supposed to to land at Edwards out there and I asked him if the next time around would they stop in Washington and pick me up and take me to California too. They said they would but they didn't. But I, this is a proud moment for me and I thank all of you very much and God bless you for what you're doing. Thank you for that. And to those nice things that you were saying about me and the space program. Also, and I suppose this is true of other presidents so I can't claim a first, but I also assure you that this president believes in the space program and its importance to this next one.