SPEECH AND FACT SHEET ON THE BUDGET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M00539R000100010023-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 18, 2009
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: April 24, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

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EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT
ROUTING SLIP
ACTION
INFO
DATE
INITIAL
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DCI
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DDCI
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EXDIR
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D/ICS
X
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DDI
X
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DDA
X
7
DDO
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DDS&T
X
9
Chm/NIC
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GC
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IG
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Compt
x
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D/Pers
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D/OLL
X
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D/PAO
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SA/IA
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AO/DCI
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C/IPD/OIS
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NIO
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VC/NIC
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E4e utive Secretary
25 ri1 1985
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THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
CABINET AFFAIRS STAFFING MEMORANDUM
Date: April 24, 1985 Number: 175374CA Due By: --
Subject: Speech and Fac heet on the Budget
ALL CABINET MEMBERS
Vice President
State
Treasury
Defense
Justice
Interior
Agriculture
Commerce
Labor
HHS
HUD
Transportation
Energy
Education
OMB
CIA
UN
USTR
Chief of Staff
GSA
EPA
NASA
OPM
VA
SBA
REMARKS:
RETURN TO:
CEA
CEQ
OSTP
Executive Registry
- 1712
85
Action FYI
^ ^
^ ^
^ ^
^ ^
^ ^
^ ^
a ^
Deaver
Mc Farlane
Svahn
Chew (For WH Staffing)
Executive Secretary for:
CCCT
CCEA
CCFA
CCH R
CCLP
CCMA
CCNRE
Attached are the speech and fact sheet on the budget. Please
instruct your speechwriters and briefers to focus on this issue
for the next five days in any and all television, radio, press
appearances, etc.
Many thanks..
a Alfred H. Kingon
Cabinet Secretary
456-2823
(Ground Floor, West Wing)
^ Don Clarey
^ Tom Gibson
^ Larry Herbolsheimer
Associate Director
Office of Cabinet Affairs
456-2800 (Room 129, OEOB)
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR RELEASE AT 8:00 PM EST
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1985
TEXT OF AN ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON THE TAXPAYERS' PROTECTION PLAN
The Oval Office
My fellow Americans, I must speak to you tonight about a serious
problem that demands your immediate attention. I need your help.
Today the United States Senate began a rendezvous with history. The
threads of our past, present, and future as a Nation will soon
converge on the single, overriding question before that body: can
we at last -- after decades of drift, neglect, and excess -- put our
fiscal house in order? Can we assure a strong and prosperous future
for ourselves, our children, and their children by adopting a plan
that will compel the Federal Government to end the dangerous
addiction to deficit spending and finally live within its means?
Throughout our history, we Americans have been willing to meet great
challenges and do what is right when our destiny demanded it.
Just 4 years ago this week I asked your support for our bipartisan
recovery program. That was the program the spenders said wouldn't
work and they called it Reaganomics. You might remember April 1981
-- a time when our defenses were weak, inflation still in double
digits, and economic growth almost dead from a Government that taxed
too much, and spent even more than it taxed.
We knew it would take a great effort to turn that around; we knew
that letting you keep more of your earnings to get our economy
moving again would be resisted by the Old Guard in Washington. But,
we also knew the answer to a Government that's too fat is to stop
feeding its growth. We wanted America to rediscover opportunity.
We asked for your help then, and you gave it to us.
You turned America around: turned around her confidence, turned
around her economy, turned around over a decade of one national
nightmare after another. We're into our 29th straight month of
economic growth, with inflation staying down, and more of us working
than ever before -- that's 8 million new jobs. Now that our program
is working, you may have noticed they're not calling it Reaganomics
anymore.
Once again, the United States is the flagship economy for the world.
A new generation of entrepreneurs is coming up, pointing us toward a
21st century full of amazing change and vast new opportunities.
We must seize this historic moment to shape America's future -- to
completely overhaul our tax code, changing it from a source of
confusion and contempt, to a model of fairness and simplicity, with
strong, new incentives for even greater growth. So many good things
lie ahead for America.
And yet -- all our progress, all the good we've accomplished so far,
and all our dreams for the future could be wrecked -- if we do not
overcome our one giant obstacle.
The simple truth is, no matter how hard you work, no matter how
strong this economy grows, no matter how much more tax money comes
to Washington, it won't amount to a hill of beans if Government
won't curb its endless appetite to spend. Overspending is the
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subject we must now address -- how budgets got so far out of balance
and, yes, what together we can and must do to correct this.
Sometimes the big spenders in Congress talk as if all that money
they spend just kind of magically appears on their doorstep, a gift
from the I.R.S. They talk as if spending were all giving and no
taking.
There is no magic money machine. Every dollar the Government spends
comes out of your pockets. Every dollar the Government gives to
someone has to first be taken away from someone else. So it is our
moral duty to make sure that we can justify every one of your tax
dollars, that we spend them wisely and carefully, and, just as
important, fairly.
Unfortunately, hardly anyone could honestly call Federal budgets
wise, careful, or fair.
Is it fair to ask one small business to help subsidize its
competitors?
Is is fair to ask workers in the private economy to pay for civil
service pensions that are much more generous than the retirement
benefits they receive?
,Is it fair to ask low-income families to help pay for the college
education of children from families with incomes as high as $100,000
a year?
Is it fair to ask taxpayers to help pay billions for export
subsidies to a handful of America's biggest corporations?
Well, it isn't fair, and you know it. But that's the law of the
land right now, just part of the legacy of 50 years of trying to do
good things for all by treating your earnings like Government
property.
The time has come to decide what benefits we can properly expect
from the Federal Government for ourselves, our neighbors, and those
in need; and what Government can take from us in taxes without
making everyone worse off including those who need our help. The
one thing we cannot do is to stay on the immoral, dead-end course of
deficit spending.
Today, our national debt amounts to nearly $8,000 for every man,
woman, and child in America, and it's increasing by about $1,000 per
person each and every year. Just to cover the interest on that
debt, the Federal Government will spend $155 billion this year alone
-- more than its entire budget as recently as 1966.
Despite your worries and all the warnings, the trend has continued
year after year. We have had only one balanced budget in the last
quarter century. As a Nation, our debt has grown and grown and
grown until now it totals $1.7 trillion -- a number so big that it
is nearly unimaginable. A single billion is 1,000 millions. A
trillion is a million millions.
This is not just my problem; this is not just Congress' problem;
this is our problem -- and we must solve it together as Americans.
Tonight I am asking all of you -- Democrats, Republicans, and
Independents -- to give me your help to put our financial house in
order so that our tax, spending, and monetary policies will not
hinder growth, but encourage it; not send inflation and interest
rates shooting back up, but keep them heading down; and not drown us
under a tidal wave of debt, but protect us in the safe harbor of
financial stability, with a sound and powerful economy.
Not surprisingly, some still want to raise your taxes. They say we
cut your taxes too much in 1981, when we ended years of bracket
creep and lowered rates for every American taxpayer. This is simply
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untrue. And it implies Government has a right to take from you all
that it needs to satisfy the demands of special interest groups.
Surely there is no faster way to see our prosperity vanish than to
yoke the decent, hardworking, taxpaying citizens of this great
Nation to an automatic spending machine in Washington, D.C.
Government should tax to meet Government's needs -- not Government's
wants.
Nine days ago, I received a very welcome gift -- a letter with 146
signatures. One hundred forty-six Members of Congress have pledged
to uphold what -- I repeat tonight -- will be my certain veto of any
tax increase Congress sends me, no matter how cleverly it's
disguised.
Is it too much to ask the spoilers to give up their hidden agenda to
increase taxes, which would only slow the economy, throw people out
of work, and, yes, make the deficit worse? Do they still not
understand how generous you've been, paying heavy taxes to defend
freedom around the world, ease starvation in distant nations, and
help the needy, the elderly, and the sick and handicapped here at
home?
As you can see, the rising blue bar shows that the taxes you paid in
the last 20 years increased by over $620 billion. If you think
that's a staggering sum, you're right. But look at this rising red
bar showing Government spending. In that same 20-year period, the
red bar went up even more. It went up by over $840 billion.
Government spending -- that's the real Washington Monument.
Taxes are too high, but spending is even higher. During the 20
years when inflation, steep Federal income tax rates, and rising
State, county, and local taxes, were pushing you into tax brackets
once reserved for the wealthy, Congress was writing checks and
spending your money even faster than you could earn it.
What went wrong? Where has all the money gone? Well, during the
strong, prosperous Eisenhower years in the 1950's, and through the
Kennedy years, we kept spending in check. During those Kennedy
years, there was a tax cut proposed similar to our cut. It was
enacted in 1964 and the economy grew then as it has grown now.
But others in Government did not take the next logical step and say,
"Look, freedom and incentives are working. So let's reduce tax
rates further, let's transform our ghettoes into havens for
enterprise, give families new incentives to save for their
children's education -- let's make every citizen a shareholder in
America's future."
Government did the opposite. Government began to take over America.
In the name of the Great Society, it began doing things never before
felt possible or desirable. Government took over passenger
railroads. It began contributing billions to 39,000 local
government budgets. Its spending on agriculture subsidies soared to
a level higher than the total net income from every farm in America.
Let me interject something here, and I'll state it plainly and
simply: the enormous weight of Federal spending and runaway
deficits has gone far toward placing in jeopardy one of every seven
family farms in the United States. This is not simply an economic
statistic; it is a great social tragedy that should command the
concern of every American. Control of this runaway engine of
Federal spending has become crucial to the survival of the family
farm in the United States.
The new programs started after 1964 cost $16 billion by 1966, $78
billion by 1975, and $148 billion per year by 1981.
Today, Government puts a dime into the fare box every time somebody
boards a local bus or transit line. Today, Government subsidizes
loans for every imaginable purpose -- from education, to aircraft
exporters, to luxury waterfront developments and hotels -- so that
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Government's lending business is bigger than Chase Manhattan and the
Bank of America's combined -- and the spending line keeps going up.
To be sure, much good has been done. In health, education, and food
assistance, we are spending more than ever before in our history.
But, in many areas we are spending where we should not be, and
spending what we can no longer afford. And so much of what we spend
goes not to the individuals needing help, but to thousands upon
thousands of bureaucrats, researchers, planners, managers, and
professional advocates -- who earn their living from the great
growth industry of Government. It is no accident that some of the
wealthiest communities in America are the communities surrounding
the Federal Government in Washington, D.C.
My fellow citizens, the time has come for Government to make the
same hard choices your families and businesses do. The time has
come for your public servants to bring spending down into line with
tax revenues.
Accomplishing this -- bringing the spending line down to our incomes
-- is the heart of our deficit reduction plan that we put together
with Senator Dole and his colleagues. We call it the Taxpayers'
Protection Plan, and that's just what it is: it will reduce
deficits by $300 billion over 3 years, bringing us within reach of a
balanced budget by 1990, and it will do this not by raising your
taxes, but by reversing 20 years of overspending.
Our plan attacks excessive spending across the board. No part of
the budget is spared, and a shared effort will be asked of all. But
unlike a spending freeze, which would not reduce deficits nearly
enough, and which would make no distinction between worthy and
wasteful programs, our plan recognizes that all spending is not
created equal. Some programs are vital to our national security and
domestic welfare and must be given first priority. Others are no
longer affordable, or were not proper Federal responsibilities to
begin with.
Our plan establishes clear national priorities: it keeps what
should be kept and cuts what should be cut.
Our first priority must always be our national security. The Soviets
are far more dangerous today than during the fifties and sixties --
periods in which we devoted far more to our defense. And they
continue arming well beyond the defense needs of their country.
Because of that threat, we must maintain modest but steady growth
each year. Three percent is the rock bottom level we must maintain
for effective deterrence to protect our security.
As I've said, even with this small increase, we'll spend a smaller
share of our budget on defense than we did 20 years ago. Cuts we've
proposed in projected defense spending will contribute $100 billion
-- a full one-third of our proposed budget savings for the next 3
years. This will require cancelling some programs. Some
nonessential military bases may be closed or cut back. But mainly
we will continue to identify and eliminate waste and crack down
harder on excesses in contract costs.
Waste in the Department of Defense must and is being eliminated as
is fraud in defense contracts. The stories you've been reading and
hearing about, $400 hammers and such, are things that we have
discovered were going on before, and that we're correcting.
Padding of expense accounts, overcharging for weapons, profiteering
at the expense of the public -- these should be, and will be,
prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Men who illegally line their pockets with dollars the American
people have contributed to our defense are stealing from the arsenal
of democracy the very weapons our young men need to defend freedom.
And our tolerance of this selfish behavior was long ago exhausted.
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The Senate will face demands to cut defense even more -- but here we
must draw the line. Federal overspending is not caused by meeting
vital security needs. And, even our critics know that further
reductions would jeopardize our security. Our strategic programs,
our 600-ship Navy, our conventional weapons modernization, and our
readiness programs must go forward.
Our plan will freeze the defense spending share of our gross
national product at 6.4 percent for the next 3 years -- a share well
below the 8-9 percent at the time of Eisenhower and Kennedy. The
remaining two-thirds of our deficit reduction can and must come from
other parts of the budget -- from domestic programs that are no
longer necessary or in need of basic reform.
Let me give some examples of the sort of programs we intend to cut
back.
When Amtrak was begun in 1971 for a 2-year trial run, we were told
it would soon turn a profit. Fourteen years and nearly $9 billion
later, Amtrak is still running on taxpayer subsidies. Every time a
train leaves the station, it costs taxpayers $35 for each passenger
on board. In some cases it would be cheaper just to hand them plane
tickets. Eliminating Amtrak will save $8 billion over the next
decade.
We'll also save billions by eliminating taxpayer subsidies to some
of America's biggest corporations through Export-Import Bank loans,
and by abolishing the Small Business Administration's lending
programs, which are not only costly and unfair, but unneeded in an
economy creating over 600,000 new business incorporations a year.
Supporters of programs like these always ignore the big, hidden
costs all of us eventually have to pay. If programs like these
can't be cut, we might as well give up hope of ever getting
Government spending under control. If Congress can't bring itself
to do what's right -- well, they should at least give me what 43
Governors already have -- a line-item veto. Then I'll make the
cuts; I'll take the responsibility -- and the heat.
One area we will not touch, however, is the safety net for needy
Americans. Programs that provide income, food, housing, and medical
aid for the neediest Americans were reformed in 1981 and are now
targeted to genuine need. But these programs only make up 8 percent
of the budget, so we need everyone's help to get spending under
control.
The burden will not be great if all of us help carry the load. We
are asking the 46 million Americans who receive a retirement,
veterans, or Social Security check to accept a guaranteed 2-percent
increase over the next 3 years, in place of the existing
cost-of-living adjustment. If, however, inflation should rise above
4 percent, the amount above 4 percent would be added to the 2
percent.
These programs now total nearly $250 billion per year, 25 percent of
our entire budget. They cost 30 times more than they did just three
decades ago. Our veterans, disabled workers, and retired citizens
have earned their benefits. They deserve an adequate and dignified
standard of living, and we will never renege on that pledge.
All of us together have a shared interest in a healthy, expanding
economy: it means jobs, opportunities, and rising incomes for our
younger citizens, and a steady flow of tax payments into the funds
that support our retired citizens.
A small effort now will mean big gains for all Americans later. If
we can keep our economy on track, 16 million more Americans will be
working in 1988 than were employed at the end of 1982. With that
much growth, with that many new jobs, there will never be any doubt:
the retirement checks that 46 million Americans depend on will be
-more-
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secure -- the economic base that supports them will be strong, and
the tax payments that fund them will be abundant.
If we want to continue trying to make these the best years of our
lives -- if we want to protect our retired and disabled, boost small
business, create jobs, strengthen our farm economy, our exports,
improve our cities and help your families send your children to
college -- there is one sure-fire way to do it: we're all going to
have to pitch in together. But if we refuse, if we go back to the
old pattern of business as usual, then let there be no mistake:
business as usual will eventually destroy our prosperity and all the
blessings it has given us.
My fellow citizens, you remember the words of young John Kennedy,
words of challenge to America in 1961, "ask not what your country
can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." In those
days, Federal spending was only a fraction of what it is today.
Since then, Government programs have grown to the point where they
touch almost half the families in America.
Today, his question is more relevant than before. All of us are
being challenged again to ask what we can do for our country,
challenged to work together, 237 million strong, to build a secure
and lasting foundation for the American Dream.
Even with all our cuts and reforms, our plan still provides $560
billion for non-defense programs next year -- the highest level in
history. Congress has before it a budget that doesn't mortgage our
future to higher taxes and expanding debt. It is a fair program; it
is a balanced program; it will protect the neediest among us; it
will stop the worst abuses of overspending; and it not only deserves
your support, it must have your support to pass.
So let me stress, as strongly as I can, this shared effort we are
asking you to make now will be our best assurance of avoiding
painful hardship down the road.
We stand at a crossroads. The hour is late, the task is large, and
the stakes are momentous. I ask you to join us in making your
voices heard in the Senate this week, and later in the House.
Please tell your Senators and Representatives by phone, wire, or
mailgram that our future hangs in the balance, that this is no time
for partisanship, and that our future is too precious to permit this
crucial effort to be picked apart, piece by piece, by the special
interest groups. We've got to put the public interest first.
My fellow Americans, I hope history says of us that we were worthy
of our past, worthy of our heritage. We can seize the moment, we
can do our best for America to keep our future strong and secure and
free. Our children will thank us -- and that's all the thanks we'll
ever need.
# # #
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
EMBARGOED FOR WIRE TRANSMISSION April 24, 1985
UNTIL 8:00 p.m. EST
FACT SHEET
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON THE COMPROMISE BUDGET REQUEST FOR FISCAL 1986
The President delivered a televised address from the
Oval Office beginning at 8:00 p.m., on Wednesday, April 24,
1985.
In his remarks, the President discussed the compromise
budget proposal for fiscal year 1986 agreed to on April 4th
by the President and the Senate Republican leadership. He
urged public support for the compromise, which he termed the
Taxpayers' Protection Plan.
I. General Themes of the Address:
The President said the plan "will reduce deficits b
$300 billion over 3 years, bringing us within reach o a
balanced budget by 1990- and stressed this wou be done
without higher taxes.
He spoke of the challenge facing Congress and noted
that "(t)oday the United States Senate began a rendezvous
with history" to see if we can "compel the Federal
Government to end the dangerous addiction to deficit
spending and finally live within its means." He urged
Americans to make "your voices heard in the Senate this
week, and later in the House."
On the compromise budget plan itself, the President
said that it meets these important tests:
o it reduces the deficit without increasing taxes in a
way that "will not hinder growth but encourage it";
o it is fair and balanced, and "attacks excessive spend-
ing across the board ;
o it protects the neediest among us, preserving the safe-
ty net of programs as "one area we will not touch";
o it sets clear national priorities; contrary to a freeze
which would make no distinctions between "worthy and
wasteful" spending, the plan "keeps what should be kept
and cuts what should be cut."
II. Elaboration of Specific Points About the Taxpayers'
Protection Plan:-
a.) Enhancing Economic Growth -- Cutting Deficits without
Higher Taxes:
The President said that bringing sending into line
with revenues. was "the heart -37' 1 our deficit reduction an."
In fact, the compromise w1 cut substantially from spending
planned in current law and save:
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-- $52 billion in fiscal 1986;
-- $296.8 billion through fiscal 1988;
-- more than half a trillion dollars through 1990,
when the deficit will be less than 1% of GNP and
the budget will be virtually in balance.
The deficit reduction effects of the plan will fulfill
the President's original goal of a deficit at 2% of GNP or
less in 3 years -- easing substantially the burden of
federal borrowing on financial markets. In contrast to this
year, when Federal borrowing absorbs 78% of net private
savings, by 1988 the Treasury will be taking only 30% of
such available credit.
In the same year, if this deficit reduction package is
enacted, we can expect by Administration estimates:
another 7 million American jobs, bringing total employ-
ment to nearly 115 million;
continued moderate inflation;
economic growth in the range of 4% annually for the 6th
straight year.
As the President said in his address, "the task is
large, and the stakes are momentous."
The President pointed to the progress made since pass-
age four years ago of his program for economic recovery:
-- inflation of 4% or less for three years in a row;
-- 29 straight months of growth in the GNP;
-- highest employment rate in history at 60.3%;
-- record number working, at over 108 million and 8
million more Americans working than 29 months ago;
-- interest rates down from record highs.
Giving much of the credit for the economy's turnaround
to his 1981 tax rate cuts, the President renewed his commit-
ment to a "veto of any tax increase Congress sends me" and
to completely overhaul our tax code, "changing it from a
source of confusion and contempt, to a model of fairness and
simplicity."
The President received a tax simplification plan from
the Treasury Department in December of 1984. Discussions
since then between Treasury officials and Members of Con-
gress will yield a final Administration plan next month.
b.) Attacking Spending Across the Board:
The President said "no part of the budget is spared" in
the compromise plan. In fact, the plan saves $97.5 billion
from defense over the next 3 years and $175.8 billion from
domestic pro rams. There's an additional 3 year saving of
$23.6 billion in-lowered debt service (interest payments).
Overall, the plan:
terminates or phases out 20 programs;
substantially reforms 40 others;
freezes most of the rest;
reduces the defense spending request to 3% real
annual growth -- the bare essential to meet
security needs (and about 1/3 the growth rate of
the last 5 years).
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In calling for elimination of some programs, like
taxpayer subsidies for Amtrak, for small business through
SBA loans and for big business through Export-Import Bank
loans, the President said that "if programs like these can't
be cut, we might as well give up all hope of getting
Government spending under control."
The President renewed his call for the line-item veto
saying, if Congress won't do it, "then I'll make the cuts;
I'll take the responsibility -- and the heat." He has asked
for this authority consistently, and called in his 1985
State of the Union Address for passage of the Mattingly bill
that would legislate a two-year test, in which the President
would have temporary authority to reject specific spending
items without vetoing an entire appropriations package.
Governors in 43 states have line-item veto power and it has
been sought for the President periodically since 1876.
c.) Preserving the Safety-Net:
The President pointed out that safety-net programs
providing income assistance, food, housing and medical aid
were reformed in 1981 and "are now targeted to genuine
need." These programs, he added, make up only 8% of the
budget.
Programs affecting needy and non-needy alike, such as
Medicare, for example, will be reformed in ways that speci-
fically protect the needy. In the case of Medicare, provi-
sion is made in the budget compromise for adequate Medicaid
funding to assure continued full health care coverage for
needy. The elderly poor can be protected from any adverse
impact of higher premiums through Medicaid coverage, already
automatically provided in 48 states.
Similarly, needy elderly and disabled recipients will
be guaranteed real growth in their income through additional
SSI benefits. (supplemental Security Income benefits will
be fully indexed for inflation and, in 1986, the nearly 3.7
million elderly or disabled poor receiving them will get an
additional $10 a month, $15 for needy couples.)
d.) Setting Clear Spending Priorities:
"Our plan recognizes," the President said, "that all
spending is not created equal. Some programs are vital to
our national security and domestic welfare and must be given
first priority. Others are no longer affordable, or were
not proper Federal responsibilities to begin with."
The plan brings excessive federal spending growth to an
abrupt halt. The rate of spending growth, over 17% just
five years ago, shrinks to a negative rate next year.
Fiscal 1986 spending will be down 2.2% in real terms under
the plan and there would be virtually no growth in 1987-88.
By 1988, total spending will be down.from this year's
level of 25% of GNP to 21% -- and will be trending lower.
The plan emerged from months of work and program review
culminating in agreement between the Administration and
Senate leaders on three basic questions:
should the federal government do it?
does the current federal approach work?
can we afford it now?
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The President cited several examples of inappropriate
federal spending. He condemned these and others on grounds
of e 5u t and asserted "itisn t fair and you know it. But
that's tie law of the land right now, just part of the
legacy of trying to do good things for all by treating your
earnings like Government property."
Identifying national security as our first priority,
the President said the 3% real annual growth which the plan
provides is the "rock bottom level we must maintain."
That represents a savings of $18.5 billion next year
and $97.5 billion by 1988 from the "Rose Garden compromise"
agreed to on March 15, 1984. It brings nominal defense
spending to a level $25 billion less than projected in
President Carter's last budget which assumed higher infla-
tion. While 3% growth is acceptable, a freeze on defense
spending is not; and would likely require cuts in manpower
and program delays that would jeopardize some vital systems.
The defense share of total spending will be less in
fiscal 1986 under this plan than it was 20 years ago.
III. Conclusion
The President said that the "hour is late" and "the
stakes momentous." He asked Americans to make their voices
heard and to tell their representatives in the House and
Senate that the future health of the economy hangs in the
balance.
In the President's words, the healthy economy this plan
can ensure "means jobs, opportunities and rising incomes for
our younger citizens, and a stead flow of tax payments into
the funds that support our retired citizens."
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