English subtitles for clip: File:President Reagan's Address on the Program for Economic Recovery, April 28, 1981.webm

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April 28, 1981

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Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the Program for Economic Recovery

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You wouldn't want to talk me into an encore, would you?

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Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished Members of the Congress,

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honored guests, and fellow citizens:

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I have no words to express my appreciation for that greeting.

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[applause]

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I have come to speak to you tonight about our economic recovery program

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and why I believe it's essential that the Congress approve this package,

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qui je crois enlèvera l'écrasant fardeau que l'inflation fait peser sur nos citoyens

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which I believe will lift the crushing burden of inflation off of our citizens and restore the vitality to our economy and our industrial machine. 

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First, however, and due to events of the past few weeks,

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will you permit me to digress for a moment from the all-important subject

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of why we must bring government spending under control

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and reduce tax rates. 

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I'd like to say a few words directly to all of you

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and to those who are watching and listening tonight, 

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because this is the only way I know to express to all of you

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on behalf of Nancy and myself our appreciation for you messages and flowers

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and, most of all, your prayers,

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not only for me but for those others who fell beside me

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The warmth of your words, the expression of friendship and, yes, love,

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meant more to us than you can ever know.

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You have given us a memory that we'll treasure forever. 

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And you've provided an answer to those few voices

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that were raised saying that what happened was evidence that ours is a sick society.

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The society we heard from is made up of millions of compassionate Americans

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and their children, from college age to kindergarten.

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As a matter of fact, as evidence of that I have a letter with me.

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The letter came from Peter Sweeney. 

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He's in the second grade in the Riverside School in Rockville Centre

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and he said, ``I hope you get well quick or you might have to make a speech in your pajamas.''

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[Laughs and applause]

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He added a postscript.

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''P.S. If you have to make a speech in your pajamas, I warned you.''

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[Laughs]

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Well, sick societies don't produce men like the two who recently returned from outer space.

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Sick societies don't produce young men like Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy

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[applause]

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who placed his body between mine and the man with the gun simply because he felt that's what his duty called for him to do.

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Sick societies don't produce dedicated police officers like Tom Delahanty

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[applause]

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or able and devoted public servants like Jim Brady.

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[applause]

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Sick societies don't make people like us so proud to be Americans

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and so very proud of our fellow citizens.

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Now, let's talk about getting spending and inflation under control and cutting your tax rates. 

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Mr. Speaker and Senator Baker,

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I want to thank you for your cooperation in helping to arrange this joint session of the Congress.

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I won't be speaking to you very long tonight,

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but I asked for this meeting because the urgency of our joint mission has not changed.

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Thanks to some very fine people, my health is much improved.

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I'd like to be able to say that with regard to the health of the economy.

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It's been half a year since the election that charged all of us in this Government

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with the task of restoring our economy.

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Where have we come in this 6 months? 

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Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, has continued at a double-digit rate.

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Mortgage interest rates have averaged almost 15 percent for these 6 months,

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preventing families across America from buying homes. 

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There are still almost 8 million unemployed.

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The average worker's hourly earnings after adjusting for inflation 

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are lower today than they were 6 months ago,

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and there have been over 6,000 business failures.

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Six months is long enough.

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The American people now want us to act and not in half-measures.

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They demand and they've earned a full and comprehensive effort to clean up our economic mess. 

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Because of the extent of our economy's sickness, we know that the cure will not come quickly

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and that even with our package, progress will come in inches and feet, not in miles.

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But to fail to act will delay even longer and more painfully the cure which must come.

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And that cure begins with the Federal budget.

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And the budgetary actions taken by the Congress over the next few days will determine 

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how we respond to the message of last November 4th.

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That message was very simple. Our government is too big, and it spends too much.

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[applause]

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For the last few months, you and I have enjoyed a relationship based on extraordinary cooperation.

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Because of this cooperation we've come a long distance in less than 3 months.

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I want to thank the leadership of the Congress for helping in setting a fair timetable for consideration of our recommendations.

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And committee chairmen on both sides of the aisle have called prompt and thorough hearing.

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We have also communicated in a spirit of candor, openness, and mutual respect.

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Tonight, as our decision day nears and as the House of Representatives weighs its alternatives,

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I wish to address you in that same spirit.

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The Senate Budget Committee, under the leadership of Pete Domenici,

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has just today voted out a budget resolution supported by Democrats and Republicans alike that is in all major respects consistent with the program that we have proposed. 

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[applause]

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Now we look forward to favorable action on the Senate floor,

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but an equally crucial test involves the House of Representatives.

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The House will soon be choosing between two different versions or measures to deal with the economy.

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One is the measure offered by the House Budget Committee.

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The other is a bipartisan measure, a substitute introduced by Congressmen Phil Gramm of Texas and Del Latta of Ohio.

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On behalf of the administration, let me say that we embrace and fully support that bipartisan substitute. 

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[applause]

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It will achieve all the essential aims of controlling government spending,

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reducing the tax burden, building a national defense second to none, 

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and stimulating economic growth and creating millions of new jobs.

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At the same time, however, I must state our opposition to the measure offered by the House Budget Committee.

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It may appear that we have two alternatives.

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In reality, however, there are no more alternatives left. 

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The committee measure quite simply falls far too short of the essential actions that we must take.

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For example, in the next 3 years, the committee measure projects spending $141 billion more than does the bipartisan substitute. 

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It regrettably cuts over $14 billion in essential defense spending, funding required to restore America's national security. 

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It adheres to the failed policy of trying to balance the budget on the taxpayer's back.

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It would increase tax payments by over a third, adding up to a staggering quarter of a trillion dollars. 

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Federal taxes would increase 12 percent each year.

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Taxpayers would be paying a larger share of their income to government in 1984 than they do at present.

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In short, that measure reflects an echo of the past rather than a benchmark for the future.

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High taxes and excess spending growth created our present economic mess;

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more of the same will not cure the hardship, anxiety, and discouragement it has imposed on the American people.

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Let us cut through the fog for a moment.  

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The answer to a government that's too big is to stop feeding its growth.

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Government spending has been growing faster than the economy itself.

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The massive national debt which we accumulated is the result of the government's high spending diet. 

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Well, it's time to change the diet and to change it in the right way.

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[applause]

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I know the tax portion of our package is of concern to some of you.

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Let me make a few points that I feel have been overlooked.

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First of all, it should be looked at as an integral part of the entire package,

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not something separate and apart from the budget reductions, the regulatory relief, and the monetary restraints.

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Probably the most common misconception is that we are proposing to reduce Government revenues to less than what the Government has been receiving.

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This is not true.

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Actually, the discussion has to do with how much of a tax increase should be imposed on the taxpayer in 1982.

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Now, I know that over the recess in some informal polling 

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some of your constituents have been asked which they'd rather have, a balanced budget or a tax cut,

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and with the common sense that characterizes the people of this country,

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the answer, of course, has been a balanced budget.

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But may I suggest, with no inference that there was wrong intent on the part of those who asked the question,

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the question was inappropriate to the situation.

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Our choice is not between a balanced budget and a tax cut. 

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Properly asked, the question is,

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''Do you want a great big raise in your taxes this coming year or, at the worst, a very little increase with the prospect of tax reduction and a balanced budget down the road a ways?''

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With the common sense that the people have already shown, I'm sure we all know what the answer to that question would be.

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A gigantic tax increase has been built into the system.

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We propose nothing more than a reduction of that increase.

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The people have a right to know that even with our plan they will be paying more in taxes,

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but not as much more as they will without it.

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[applause]

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The option, I believe, offered by the House Budget Committee, will leave spending too high and tax rates too high.

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At the same time, I think it cuts the defense budget too much,

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and by attempting to reduce the deficit through higher taxes,

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it will not create the kind of strong economic growth and the new jobs that we must have.

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Let us not overlook the fact that the small, independent business man or woman

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creates more than 80 percent of all the new jobs

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and employs more than half of our total workforce. 

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Our across-the-board cut in tax rates for a 3-year period will give them much of the incentive and promise of stability they need

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to go forward with expansion plans calling for additional employees. 

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Tonight, I renew my call for us to work as a team,

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to join in cooperation so that we find answers which will begin to solve all our economic problems and not just some of them.

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The economic recovery package that I've outlined to you over the past weeks is, I deeply believe, the only answer that we have left.

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Reducing the growth of spending, cutting marginal tax rates, providing relief from overregulation,

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and following a noninflationary and predictable monetary policy are interwoven measures

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which will ensure that we have addressed each of the severe dislocations which threaten our economic future. 

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These policies will make our economy stronger, 

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and the stronger economy will balance the budget which we're committed to do by 1984. 

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[applause]

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When I took the oath of office, I pledged loyalty to only one special interest group -- ''We the people.''.

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Those people -- neighbors and friends, shopkeepers and laborers, farmers and craftsmen -- do not have infinite patience. 

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As a matter fact, some 80 years ago, Teddy Roosevelt wrote these instructive words in his first message to the Congress:

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''The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled, it burns like a consuming flame.''

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Well, perhaps that kind of wrath will be deserved if our answer to these serious problems is to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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The old and comfortable way is to shave a little here and add a little there.

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Well, that's not acceptable anymore.

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I think this great and historic Congress knows that way is no longer acceptable.

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[applause and standing-ovation]

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Thank you very much. Thank you.

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[audience sit]

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I think you've shown that you know the one sure way to continue the inflationary spiral is to fall back into the predictable patterns of old economic practices.

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Isn't it time that we tried something new?

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[applause]

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When you allowed me to speak to you here in these chambers a little earlier,

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I told you that I wanted this program for economic recovery to be ours -- yours and mine.

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I think the bipartisan substitute bill has achieved that purpose.

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It moves us toward economic vitality.

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Just 2 weeks ago, you and I joined millions of our fellow Americans

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in marveling at the magic historical moment that John Young and Bob Crippen created in their space shuttle, Columbia.

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The last manned effort was almost 6 years ago, and I remembered

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on this more recent day, over the years, how we'd all come to expect technological precision of our men and machines. 

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And each amazing achievement became commonplace, until the next new challenge was raised.

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With the space shuttle we tested our ingenuity once again,

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moving beyond the accomplishments of the past into the promise and uncertainty of the future.

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Thus, we not only planned to send up a 122-foot aircraft 170 miles into space,

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but we also intended to make it maneuverable and return it to Earth,

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landing 98 tons of exotic metals delicately on a remote, dry lakebed.

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The space shuttle did more than prove our technological abilities. 

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It raised our expectations once more.

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It started us dreaming again. 

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The poet Carl Sandburg wrote, ''The republic is a dream. Nothing happens unless first a dream.'' 

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And that's what makes us, as Americans, different. 

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We've always reached for a new spirit and aimed at a higher goal.

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We've been courageous and determined, unafraid and bold.

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Who among us wants to be first to say we no longer have those qualities,

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that we must limp along, doing the same things that have brought us our present misery?

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I believe that the people you and I represent are ready to chart a new course.

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They look to us to meet the great challenge, to reach beyond the commonplace and not fall short for lack of creativity or courage.

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Someone you know has said that he who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers. 

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Well, we have much greatness before us.

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We can restore our economic strength and build opportunities like none we've ever had before.

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As Carl Sandburg said, all we need to begin with is a dream that we can do better than before.  

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All we need to have is faith, and that dream will come true

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All we need to do is act, and the time for action is now.

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Thank you. Good night.

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[applause and standing-ovation]