Ronald Reagan

“ I have no intention of leading the Republican party into next fall's election on a platform of higher taxes and cut-rate defense. If our opponents want to go to the American people next fall and say, "We're the party that tried to cut spending, we're the party that tried to take away your tax cuts, we're the party wanted a bargain-basement military and held a fire sale on national security," let's give them all the running room they want. ”

“ We cut the rate of growth in federal spending almost in half. We lowered inflation to a single-digit rate, and it's still going down. It was 8.9 percent for all of 1981, but our January figure, at an annualized rate, is only 3 1/2 percent.
When they talk of what should be done for the poor, well, one thing alone, by reducing inflation, we increased the purchasing power of poor families by more than $250. We cut taxes for business and individuals and index to inflation. ”

“ In the dicussion of federal spending, the time has come to put to rest the sob sister attempts to portray our desire to get government spending under control as a hard-hearted attack on the poor people of America. In the first place, even with the economies we've proposed, spending for entitlements—benefits paid directly to individuals actually increase by one-third over the next five years. ”

“ We can be proud of the fact that a conservative administration has pursued these goals by confronting the nation's economic problems head-on. At the same time, we dealt with one other less publicized but equally grave problem: the serious state of disrepair of our national defenses.
The last Democratic administration had increased real defense spending at a rate of 3.3 percent a year. You know how much inflation was, so they were actually losing ground. ”

“ Americans in their millions. They come in all sizes, shapes and colors—blue-collar workers, blacks, Hispanics, shopkeepers, scholars, service people, housewives, and professional men and women. They are the backbone of America, and we can't move America without moving their hearts and minds as well.
Fellow Americans, our duty is before us tonight. Let us go forward, determined to serve selflessly a vision of man with God, government for people, and humanity at peace. ”

“ They're coming from the very people whose past policies, all done in the name of compassion, brought us the current recession. Their policies drove up inflation and interest rates, and their policies stifled incentive, creativity, and halted the movement of the poor up the economic ladder. ”

“ But our real concerns are not statistical goals or material gain. We want to expand personal freedom, to renew the American dream for every American. We seek to restore opportunity and reward, to value again personal achievement and individual excellence. We seek to rely on the ingenuity and energy of the American people to better their own lives and those of millions of others around the world. ”

“ We live today in a time of climactic struggle for the human spirit, a time that will tell whether the great civilized ideas of individual liberty, representative government and the rule of law under God will perish or endure. ”

“ We must approach the upcoming elections with a forthright and direct message for the American people We must remind them of the economic catastrophe that we faced on January 20th, 1981: millions out of work, inflation n double digits for two years in a row interest rates hovering at 21 1/2 percent, productivity and the rate of growth in the gross national product down for the third year in a row, the money supply increasing by 12 percent—and all this due to one overriding cause: Government was too big and had spent too much money. ”

“ Inflation and interest rates, according to several studies, would be heading toward 25 percent — levels that would stifle enterprise and initiative plunge the nation into even deeper economic crises.
At this point last year, much of the smart money in Washington was betting, as it is today, on the failure of our proposals for restoring the economy, that we could never assemble the votes we needed to get our program for economic recovery through the Congress. ”

“ We must ask ourselves tonight how we can forge and wield a popular majority from one end of this country to the other, a majority united on basic, positive goals with a platform broad enough and deep enough to endure long into the future, far beyond the lifespan of any single issue or personality. ”

“ He said: "I favor a policy of economy, not because I wish to save money but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the government. Every dollar that we save means that their lives will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form." And this is the message we cons rvatives can bring to the American people about our economic program.
Higher productivity, a larger gross national product, a healthy Dow Jones average - they are our goals and are worthy ones. ”

“ We must reach out and appeal to the patriotic and fundamental ideals of average Americans who do not consider themselves "movement" people, but who respond to the same American ideals that we do. I'm not talking a out some vague notion of an abstract, amorphous American mainstream. ”

“ We must with calmness and resolve help the vast majority of our fellow Americans understand that the more than one and a half a million abortions performed in America in 1980 amount to a great moral evil an assault on the sacredness of human life. ”

“ For in this century, within the next decades, will be divided for generations whether all mankind is to become Communist, whether the whole world is to become free, or whether in the struggle civilization as we know it is to be completely destroyed or completely changed. ”

“ In fact, in 1946, our national product dropped 15 percent, but by 1947, the next year, it was holding steady in 1948 it increased by four percent. Unemployment began a steady decline. And in 1949 consumer prices were decreasing. A lot of the experts underestimated the economic growth that occurs once government stops meddling and the people take over. ”

“ We must not become too comfortable with our new-found status in Washington. "When the walls of order are breached, the vigorous conservative must exclaim: "Arm me, audacity, from head to foot." It was Napoleon, master of the huge battalions, who once said: "It is imagination that rules the human races" and Disraeli who mentioned that "success is the child of audacity." ”

“ We're cutting the size of the federal payroll by 75,000 over the next few years and are fighting to dismantle the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, agencies whose policies have frequently been exactly the opposite of what we need for real energy growth and sound education for our children. ”

“ And this cannot occur at just the federal level It can really occur only when a society as a whole acknowledges principles that lie at the heart of modern conservatism. Right and wrong matters, individuals are responsible for their actions. Society has a right to be protected from those who prey on the innocent. ”

“ Ours is only 6.3 percent. The Soviets Union outspends us on defense by 50 percent, an amount equal to 15 percent of their gross national product. During the campaign I was asked any number of times: If I were faced with a choice of balancing the budget or restoring our national defenses, what would I do? Every time I said, "Restore our defenses." And every t me I was applauded.
So, let me be very clear. We will press for further cuts in federal spending. We will protect the tax reduction already passed. We will spend on defense what is necessary for our national security. ”

“ Last year I pointed to these principles as the real source of our strength as a political movement, and mentioned some of the intellectual giants who fostered and developed them — men like Frank Meyer, who reminded us that the robust individualism of America was part of deeper currents in Western civilization, currents that dictated respect for the law and the careful preservation of our political traditions. ”

“ Now, there are those who will always require help from the rest of us on a permanent basis, and we'll provide that help. To those with temporary need, we should have programs that are aimed at making them self-sufficient as soon as possible. ”

“ This administration has moved in its appointments to the federal bench and in its legislative proposals for bail and parole reform to assist in the battle against the lawless. But we must always remember that our legal system does not need reform much as it needs transformation. ”

“ Well, I would suggest that no one should have a vested interest in poverty or dependency, that these tragedies must never be looked at as a source of votes for politicians or paychecks for bureaucrats. They are blights on our soc ety that we must work to eliminate not institutionalize. ”

“ Even now, less than five months after our program took full effect, we've seen the first signs of recovery. In January, leading economic indicators like housing permits shown an upturn. By 1983 we will begin bringing down the percentage of the gross national produce consumed by both the federal deficit and by federal spending and taxes. ”

“ Perhaps more than any group your grassroots leadership, your candidate recruitment and training programs, your long years of hard work and dedication have brought us to this point and made this agenda possible. ”

“ But let's also understand that some of their criticism comes from those who have a vested in erest in a permanent welfare constituency and in government programs that reinforce the dependency of our people. ”