78-03-B2
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Economy[edit]
Transcript[edit]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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