Ronald Reagan

“ Here in California nearly a million children are growing up in the stultifying atmosphere of programs that reward people for not working, programs that separate families and doom these children to repeat the cycle in their own adulthood. ”

“ We are faced with a choice. We can be depressed by a seeming fiscal crisis, or we can recognize this as the opportunity it really is. Let those who will wring their hands and cry doom. They will not be typical of our people. ”

“ We have traveled that road since and with all my heart I believe we should continue. It turns away from increasing reliance on government and leads toward renewed respects for – and greater reliance on – the collective genius and common sense of the people. ”

“ Why shouldn’t California take this “giant stride for mankind?” If not us – who? If not now – when?
In recent months a few in our midst have raised the haunting spectre of panic and depression. It is time we inoculated ourselves against the contagion of fear they would spread
The national government has embarked on a campaign to slow an inflation which has threatened our economy. There has been an understandable cooling off in the marketplace and a loss of earnings and employment. I do not minimize the anguish of the man of woman whose vocation or career has been interrupted. ”

“ Mandated by statute and federal regulation, welfare has proliferated and grown into a Leviathan of unsupportable dimensions. We have economized and even stripped essential public services to feed its appetite. ”

“ A tax increase – even under the illusion that it would be a temporary expedient – will not resolve this problem. In the first place, temporary taxes have a way of outliving the problems that caused their birth. Government may protest that it never gets the money it needs, but it always manages to find a need for the money it gets. ”

“ But it is almost a cliché to remark that we live in a time of accelerating change. Events once measured against a lifetime are compressed into a decade or even a year. Space and time and distance have been both stretched and shrunk and yesterday is but a preview of tomorrow. ”

“ This slump in tax revenues, however, is not our greatest problem. It just aggravated a situation that has been growing worse year after year. Welfare costs have been increasing more than three times as fast as revenue and in this present year have escalated at an even faster rate. Californians do not have to worry about proving their generosity and compassion for their less fortunate neighbors. On a per capita basis, we spend more than double the national average for welfare. ”

“ Those of us who faced you from these historic steps then, and we today who have been elected to constitutional office or legislative position, are in that three word phrase. We are of the people, chosen by them to see that no permanent structure of state government ever encroaches upon freedom or assumes a power beyond that freely granted by the people. ”

“ Under the aid to dependent children program, incentives are offered to encourage mothers to take employment. There can be no quarrel with this unless we look closely at how the incentive and complex regulations actually apply. A recent survey of 3 counties, representing 48% of the welfare caseload in California (Monterey, Los Angeles and San Diego Counties) , showed the earnings or outside income of employed recipients averages $346 a month and the average grant from welfare, added to those earning, is $186 – for a total average of $532 a month. ”

“ It is not always an easy path because, by design, it demands as much from those who elect, as it does from those who are elected. This is of course the very reason it is a good road to follow. When those who are governed do too little, those who govern can – and often will – do too much. ”

“ By mandate of the people the power to govern will be shared. Control of the Legislature rests with representatives of one party and most of the constitutional officers and executive branch are of the other. ”

“ Since the tax increase of 1967, more than 40 pieces of legislation have been passed easing the tax burden. More than 5 percent of the annual budget is money returned directly to the homeowner.
The Creative Society has demonstrated its ability to reduce the size of government. The cost of actually administering state government has increased less than the increase in inflation alone. ”

“ Unhindered by party lines, one of the great engineering feats of all time, the California Water Project, is nearing completion. We have continued to add to our network of modern high speed highways and freeways and with every added mile we have saved the lives of our citizens. ”

“ It has done little or nothing to eliminate the cause of dependency and it has spread itself so thin that in spite of its overwhelming extravagance, many whose need is the greatest are provided less than a minimum subsistence. ”

“ We have lived for extended periods on the ocean’s floor and have walked on the surface of the moon. In fact I have been up in the air a few times myself and once or twice sought advice about living under water. ”

“ We have a higher percentage of professionals and skilled technicians, and more than double our share of scholars and scientists.
In the decade which we embark upon today, the average family income will go from a little over $13,000 to more than $18,000 per year. ”

“ Our rehabilitation policies and improved parole system are attracting nationwide attention. Fewer parolees are being returned to prison than at any time in our history and our prison population is lower than at any time since 1963. ”

“ However, the survey also disclosed mothers of dependent children who have no outside income receive average grants of $207 – only $21 more than the grant to those with outside income in order to increase our ability to help the totally dependent. ”