Editing 79-09-A6 (section)

=== Transcript ===
From time to time on these commentaries I've pointed out the shortcomings
of CETA (the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act). This is the multi
billion dollar program intended to train the unemployed for useful jobs.

The main criticism is that it simply has been used by local governments
all too often to put people on the public payroll. But now comes a new twist
right there in the nation's capitol, exposed by the seven month effort of
Nebraska's Congressman John Cavanaugh.

The District of Columbia paid more than $200,000 last year in job
training funds to 27 convicted felons at Lorton Reformatory . Now I realize
it is desirable to rehabilitate prison inmates with the hope that they will
turn to honest labor when they are released from prison but the District
seems to have gone a little beyond that.

One of the prisoners earned $9,858 as a plumber but he won't be released
from prison until the year 2003. Three others received $11,066 each as
laborer - warehousemen. Others were paid to work as clerks, cartographers,
trade helpers, warehousemen and one as a dairy janitor.

The District collects $2 a day from these working prisoners for room
and board. This charge did not increase even though the prisoners received
a five and a half percent cost of living pay raise. They also earned paid
vacation time.

The City of Washington official figures show 25,000 unemployed actively
seeking work in the city. The prisoners were being paid to do prison tasks .
Before I leave the District of Columbia here is a little cost item
revealed by North Carolina's Senator Jesse Helms. The Federal Food and Drug
Administration's budget is now 21 times as great as it was in 1960. And
what do you think we're getting for that increase? Well in 1960 and before,
an average of 43 new prescription drugs came into being each year. The
average now is 13. It used to cost about a million dollars and about two
years to develop a new prescription drug. Now thanks to FDA regulations
the figures are $20 million and eight to ten years. That adds about 50 cents
to the cost of every prescription written.

One last item. You'll remember the Alaskan Pipeline was delayed several
years and it's cost increased from $1 billion to more than $7 billion because
of engineering changes to meet the demands of environmentalists mainly concerned
about the migrating habits of Caribou.

In a number of places the pipe had to be put under ground to create gates
for the Caribou and special measures were taken to keep heat from the pipe
melting the permafrost. All of this to keep the Caribou from being unhappy.

Guess what? The Caribou have never been happier. They love the
pipeline -- not the specially created gates etcetera. They enjoy it's
warmth, sleep under the pipe and jump over it just for exercise.

Do you ever get the feeling that nature is laughing at us? 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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