76-17-B2
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Laxalt[edit]
Transcript[edit]Most of us are sadly aware that. government -- like Topsy -- just keeps on growing. Even more sadly, a great many of us don't think we can do anything about it, which is probably why fewer and fewer Americans bother to vote. The percentage who do has been growing smaller for almost 50 years. In the 1976 election, 47 percent of Americans eligible to vote didn't. If you are among that group, you really have no right to complain about taxes or how the country is being run. Our constitutional Republic, based on a democratic procedure of majority rule, has become rule by a minority clique. And it's safe to say this clique has a vested interest in government, using its police power to take your money away from you for things it thinks government should do. The present administration and Congress were elected by 27 percent of the citizenry. About 26 percent voted for the losers, but the real losers were the nearly 47 percent who didn't vote at all. The winners favor a government that will do even more than government has done in the past -- so the empire building goes on. Take one example: All the anti-poverty spending at the federal level amounts to three times as much as it would take to raise all who are below the poverty line about it, if you just handed them the money. Which means very simply that an army of government employed caretakers get $2.00 for every $1.00 that goes to the poor. Multiply that by the hundreds of bureaus, agencies and programs and you begin to see the reason for a budget which next year will be in excess of $460 billion, and a debt of more than $600 billion. There is something else you should know. There are spending programs outside the budget referred to as "non-budget" items and there are obligations not included in the national debt. Those obligations actually total about 10 times the so-called national debt or better than $6 trillion. That pro rates out to about $130,000 for your family's share of the debt -- a mortgage you didn't know you had. Now there is something you can do about it. Government still belongs to us and will reflect our views and desires if we'll use the power that is ours to elect and to make our wants known to those we elect and to help those who are trying to help us. Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada has proposed a program of good, sound common sense. We've talked tax limitation for quite a while, putting a limit on the percentage of our earnings that government can take. But, Senator Laxalt is coming at it from the other direction -- put a lid on how much government can increase spending each year. We've increased federal spending $100 billion in two years. It amounts to more than one-third of the gross national product. At this rate, in about 20 years government will account for half the gross national product. Senator Laxalt has introduced an amendment prohibiting either house of Congress from approving (in peace time) a budget in which government spending increases by a greater percentage than the average annual rate of growth in the gross national product. This average to be taken over the preceding three years. Taking the figures for the five years, 1972 through 1976, there was a 61 percent growth in the size of the federal budget. Had the Senator's proposal been in effect there would still have been growth to meet the demands of population increase and other priorities, but the taxpayers would have saved $60 billion. That's about $1,200.00 for the average family. Why don't you plan on voting in 1978? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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