Editing 78-03-B2 (section)

=== Transcript ===
The federal budget for the fiscal year beginning next October first will top
half-a-trillion dollars. That's some 60 billion dollars more than expected
revenues. That isn't the entire story. There have come to be, in recent years,
a number of programs outside the budget and they, too, have deficits. To put
it briefly government spending continues to accelerate, eating up scarce capital
resources and fueling inflation, plus recession. It is impossible not to believe
that ahead lies a big economic bellyache.

Writing of this one economist, Hans F. Sennholz, says--QUOTE-- "our economic
situation is very precarious. World trade and commerce which are important
pillars of the working and living conditions of all peoples are held together
by a thin dollar wrapper that may tear at any time. If it should burst because
it is getting thinner with every turn of the United States printing presses,
the world may fall into an abyss of a depression, deeper and longer than the
Great Depression."--UNQUOTE--

I know it's hard for many of us who knew the dollar when it could be turned
in for gold or silver to think of that familiar green bill as so ailing and
anemic. But since 1933 when the government took our gold from us and replaced
it with paper unredeemable in gold we've had printing press money and history
records no nation as ever making imitation money work over a long period of time.
The temptation to speed up the presses without considering the consequences is
too much for most politicians to resist.

Sennholz says that the present administration has, in its first year, planted
the seeds for a serious recession. He cites the new minimum wage; the new
social security tax increase and the tight controls on the energy industry, plus
the acceleration of government spending. "Many economists," he says "are
convinced that the international paper-dollar standard is destined to lead to
worldwide hyper-inflation and economic disintegration." And he adds, "The
coming year may bring us one year closer to the catastrophe."

He also says this does not have to be. He means we still can be the masters
of our own destiny, if you and I will insist that we live as a nation within our
means. The integrity of the dollar can be restored if we'll cut through the
Washington doubletalk and demand that the budget be balanced. Stop and think
for a minute--the proposed budget is more than 500 billion and the deficit about
60 billion dollars. Can anyone honestly believe that we can't find 12 percent
fat in that Federal budget? The government spenders usually counterattack by
saying, "which program would you eliminate?" What if we reply, don't eliminate
any (although there are plenty we can do without) just make every department,
every bureau, agency and program reduce its expenditures by 12 percent. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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