 Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, who's tend in the store? Well, it's always a pleasure to meet with the you the people who are implementing the strategies and the programs that advance the ideas that unite us and Speaking of meeting people. I have to tell you about the time when will Rogers first met One of our presidents who's fast becoming a favorite of mine as I learn more about him now and Switch in some of the historical record about him Calvin Coolidge and Will Rogers was to meet him and a friend bet him that he couldn't make Cal laugh in two minutes and Will said he'd make him laugh in 20 seconds and then came the introduction Mr. President, this is mr. Will Rogers mr. Rogers. This is president Coolidge will held out his hand said excuse me I didn't quite catch the name Now I only tell that because I know you don't get much of the glory and and much of which you deserve and Or enough of the credit, but I do want you to know how grateful I am for your loyalty and your hard work and your commitment Our future is a nation. I think looks bright and you can be proud of what we've accomplished Thanks to your help and the support of some American people out there We've come a long way in a short time Two years ago today in an interview with the New York Post The editorial board asked me and I quote do we have to accept the fact that the life of wine and roses is over? Well the editors said that they asked that kind of a question because that was the kind of question They were getting from their readers every day The American people were asking whether this good and mighty nation would rise from a decade of neglect and reclaim or noble heritage Our people had grown tired of empty promises and quick fixes that only made things worse Too many dreams had been shattered and too many doors of opportunity slammed shut And overseas we had the uncomfortable feeling that we'd lost the respect of our friends and and our adversaries The American people were ready to change course and together. That's just what we've all done There is renewed optimism and energy throughout the nation People are feeling good about America and they're looking to the future with confidence and they should Our economic expansion is bringing new hope and opportunity And I hope I won't be plowing ground. That's already been plowed when I report on a few things inflation is plummeted by About two-thirds or more to down around four percent The latest figures February's producer price index Indicate that we've clamped a lid on inflation and it's going to continue down In fact the recovery which has become an economic expansion and I had noted economists More than one of them write me just recently to say quit saying economic recovery. We're past that stage. This is now expansion It's been stronger than Was originally it predicted The index of leading economic indicators has been up 16 of the last 17 months Industrial production has risen for 15 straight months Last year retail sales surged and auto sales registered their best year since 1979 Incidentally the automobile industry has 83,000 more people Employed than were employed when we came here in January of 1981 Housing starts have climbed 60 percent in 1983 to the highest level in four years And last month housing starts reached an annual rate of 2.2 million units the highest since april of 1978 Building permits also rose last month by seven percent and that means more good news is on the way There's one way to describe our program. You could spell it j o b s Since the beginning of the dramatic upturn 15 months ago nearly five million people Have gone back to work in the united states We've had the steepest drop in the unemployment rate in more than 30 years And today the overall unemployment rate stands at 7.1 More people are working than ever before But we can't rest until every american who wants to a job has found one And that means we must continue to build an opportunity society The federal government and the budget must be brought under better control We need constitutional budget reforms Like the balanced budget amendment and to get that Like the line item veto Give it to the president And to make taxes more simple and fair and to provide better incentives To our people we must press for tax simplification A sweeping and comprehensive reform of the entire tax code And not the kind of simplification that our opponents have always talked about That's one that's a tax form with only two lines on it The first one says how much did you make and the second one says send it We want to go forward in foreign affairs and in our defense policy Where once again the world knows that america will stand up for freedom democracy and peace with human dignity America's new strength is making this nation more secure All of us have been laboring for america's future And together we've journeyed far in these three short years We've had some great victories as well as disappointing setbacks And you can bet that in the days to come some people will do all they can to place obstacles in our path There'll be times when you'll ask whether the personal sacrifices the long hours and the frustrations are really worth it Well, believe me, we all have those moments But then something crosses your desk and Any doubts quickly disappear? Could be a letter like I received from a 20 year old senior at the university of michigan One pessimist has described michigan today as the armpit of america Well, let me read you a few lines from that letter. He says three years ago. I felt terrible about this country I had absolutely no pride in the united states at all However, in the last three years my entire attitude has changed There is no way possible for me to explain just how intense my feelings are now for this country I love it dearly. Thank you for making me proud and invaluable gift Well, that letter should have been addressed to all of you Your hard work your dedication And your heart have made the difference So all americans owe you a debt of gratitude On their behalf and from the bottom of my heart. I thank you all god bless you and now I understand that Maybe we've got a few minutes where you can ask some questions and I'm sure there must have been moments when you said boy I'd like to ask him So go ahead Don't tell me Yes, what do you see working out of the budget situations up on the hill? What do you see the dynamics of that whole situation to be well? We're going to have a tremendous battle There's nothing we would have liked better than to have approached this without polarizing in the econ or in the election year The proposal that we have made and we've now have republican Leadership unity on this Is about a hundred and fifty billion dollar Down payment on the deficits and incidentally that doesn't mean that we're going to ignore then the rest of the deficit that's remaining It means that the rest of the deficit is going to take the time That will be required to study and then make the practical structural changes in government That will once and for all get us back within our revenues Uh, this is made up of about Forty three billion dollars in domestic Reductions what it really amounts to is about freezing the domestic spending budget to where it has been for the for the present year Fifty seven billion dollars in budget authority further reductions in defense now this This we had to to dig hard because cap Over there had reduced The original budget by sixteen billion dollars before he sent it to us And this represents another sizable reduction They want to reduce on the other side the budget or the defense budget by simply saying how much will we spend? You can't do that You have to say what is necessary to maintain national security what Training do we need what readiness posture do we need what Weapons systems and then say how much do these cost so what we did with the republican leadership was sit down and with cap present And work out all right Yes, it means some slowing down of the progress we've been making But it is an acceptable risk It isn't beyond a point that puts us back to where we've opened a window of vulnerability and because of the Need to get at the deficit we'll we'll go for this and the third Is an increase in revenues not with any increase in tax rates But simply closing some loopholes that A number of them would be things that we'd probably want to do in tax reform even if there was no deficit And that'll be about another 45 billion dollars Now the democrats have already sent up a warning signal That they now seeking to use the deficits as a campaign issue Are going to say that isn't enough Except that the two places where they want the change is they want an increase in tax rates They want to go back and that's the very thing that brought us this recovery we're talking about of the tax cuts and they want Huge slashes in the defense budget And i was able standing in front of group of senators yesterday all of our republican senators up on the hill And with dave stockman there to confirm what i said That we couldn't reach The figure that has been hinted by our opponents in defense cutting We wouldn't even reach that on top of our present cuts if we stopped If we eliminated every one of the major weapons systems that we're presently Trying to implement If we stop the mx stop the b1 bomber stop the m1 tank All of those things which incidentally i have to tell you And i can't I wish i could take everybody in my confidence, but I have some information every once in a while i can't talk about But i can tell you this i saw a demonstration the other day. We're getting our money's worth in defense We are technologically superior to any other nation in the world right now and if someday God forbid we should ever have to send those wonderful young guys of ours out there We'll at least know they've we've given them the best possible weapons That anyone can have Mr president i understand that you've made significant progress toward reducing the number of people Employed uh in the bureaucracy toward your campaign promise in this conference However, i've learned that one of the uh statements i hear very often from people in the bureaucracy that work for us Is that a lot of those how slots however are now being used in defense? Approximately 30 000 of them. How are you going to address this problem and how should we address? Accusations that it indeed does not meet the campaign promise The we have been keeping up the other it is true that there was Uh an increase in the civilian workforce in defense But it can be explained That is that the what we did was replace uniformed personnel that were performing functions that could be performed by civilians And believe it or not when you add up all the total cost of the military You find out that a civilian employee doing that job Is an economic is a savings cost savings to the country instead of having a man in uniform doing it In other words, we've tried to get as much of the military as possible out there in the In the combat forces instead of uh flying desks Like i did during world war two Now mr president in this election year, are you Optimistic that one of your major initiatives that you've been pushing on the domestic side for the past Several years has a chance of passage. I'm talking about enterprise Enterprise oh That's two years now. We've been trying for that and I listened to some of the campaign promises that are filling the news today Over there in the primaries that are going on and I hear some of them hinting at programs Uh that if they would only analyze it, uh are sitting up there waiting for them the the enterprise zones Using tax incentives not costly make work programs. Let me tell you about one of those that difference Yes, we're going to keep on and I don't because eight states already Haven't waited for us. They've gone out on their own and started statewide programs to the best of their ability and they're working tremendously So I have Hope that we are going to finally get this program that as I say uses tax incentives We prevented them from passing a program That had to do with economic recovery some time ago It was a three and a half billion dollar program that was to provide 300,000 of their typical make work jobs and we got it stopped because We have been averaging for the last 15 months just through the recovery Putting 300,000 people on the average each month to work out there in the economy And their program if we'd passed it wouldn't have been actually implemented for almost a year And that's almost a year of the time that we were already putting 300,000 people a month to work And there's total figure would be 300,000 so we We must get at the enterprise zone program We have the support of governors in every state democrat and republican And they've just they're just dragging their heels over there on the on the house side Mr. President, who do you think your appointment is going to be in November? A democrat I just I'm just reluctant about I don't want to do anything that might help them in the decision they have to make We'll just take what comes Mr. President, there's something I've been wanting to tell you and I hope you don't mind. I say we're very very proud to work for you Are you ready for the next election? Mr. President in my job as your executive director of the White House initiative on historically black colleges and universities Part of that job. I work with the private sector. Just last evening. I was told to tell you if I ever had the opportunity Thank you for your tax incentives. Tax incentives, and I want to bring that to you personally. This is from corporate people Well, thank you very much Thank you very much I don't think I've got that turned up enough here. I'm going to get a call with you The I thank you and the and the private incentive thing I'm sure that many have had the returns on that You know that over there we've got an office now and we've got about 3,000 Programs in the computer there that people have tried Out throughout the country at the community level to stay in the state Out throughout the country at the community level to state levels and so forth And we can put anyone Out there who wants to solve some problem in their area or community. We can put them directly in touch with people that have already Created a program to solve those problems. But beyond that You know, I I'm called on regularly by the people who head up our big charity programs from United Way all the way to the various like Easter Seals and all of those things Every program in spite of the recession that we've been going through breaking all records with regard to the Charitable contributions that are being made to these programs the American people Aren't griping anymore about their own hardships in a recession. They're out there doing more than they've ever done before with programs to help And now I know I have to go. I just I'd like to share a letter with you that I got I Mentioned one here When I mentioned defense and all you probably haven't had much time to pay attention to this but three years ago, you know Our military was at such a low ebb The lack of reenlistment The lack of recruitment Was such that people were saying we'd have to go back to the draft Well, I never have liked the the idea of the peacetime draft And we set out to try and restore the morale of our military and one way it was to For heaven's sake start giving them something commensurate in Return in pay for what we're asking them to do Well, that morale is so sky-high today that I just I've fallen in love with all those young men and women that are out there in uniform The their esprit de corps their willingness and the other day this was a story that was Totally out of line with any military undertaking they might have I got a letter from a man. He was a vietnam veteran former marine On christmas day his wife died of cancer His son who is a basic training with the rangers in the army Home for christmas and it was as we can well imagine a very tragic christmas for all of them He wrote to tell me the son went back to training That he went into a state of depression Out of his grief in which he was actually contemplating suicide As far as he was concerned his life was over and then he said one day The mail began arriving And he said all these young people that I don't know and have never seen But every man in the second platoon The drill sergeants the whole bunch all the way from cal south carolina where they were training to torrance california Wrote him letters and said hey, we know how tough it is, but you're a marine stand up there fight back And he Wrote me and he said I felt like I was standing on the parade ground with the band playing behind me and he said The depression is all ended and he said I don't know where we find them these these wonderful young people But this and I thought about a few years ago when they were burning draft cards and so forth And I think we've returned to a time in which world war two general marshal was asked once If we had a secret weapon and what it was And he said yes Just the best damn kids in the world Well, I think we've got the best damn kids in the world again, and they're out there in uniform all over the country So I'll just finish up with one that I delight in telling I know I'm making everybody nervous Oh good lord Now I'm nervous because I'm due 12 minutes ago Had a luncheon But let me just tell you this one of our marine pilots who was at granada and then went over to bay root Wrote back to the armed forces journal after he got to be root and he said every news story about the granada operation Contained a line that said granada produces more nutmeg than any other spot on earth And he said I decided that was a code It was so regular and he said I've broken the code six points Granada produces more nutmeg than any other spot on earth Soviets and the cubans are trying to take granada number three