Ford Press Releases, January - April 1966: 12130682

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FORD STATEMENT - APRIL 14, 1966
are wrecking the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's earnest efforts to economize
and head off higher taxes. The President pleads with us and with the housewives
and businessmen and the farmers and labor leaders to sharpen our pencils and help
him halt inflation.
Well, I have sharpened my pencil on my income tax forms, so let me show you
a little simple arithmetic:
At this moment, there are 293 Democrats and 140 Republicans in the House.
That is a two-to-one majority with 13 votes to spare. Even the liberal
"Democratic Study Group" in the House of Representatives boasts enough members
to outvote the Republican minority.
In the Senate there are 68 Democrats, including Wayne Morse, and 32
Republicans. That's also a two-to-one majority with four votes to spare.
In short, this is a Blank Check Democratic Congress which can do virtually
anything it pleases, or anything President Johnson pleases, whether the
Republican Loyal Opposition likes it or not. Such lopsided legislative majorities
can spend your money, raise your taxes--and that's exactly what this Blank Check
Democratic Congress is doing.
And remember, no matter what President Johnson says or how fervently he
pleads with the housewives to stop buying steaks, the responsib~lity for federal
spending and for federal taxing rests with the Congress. This Blank Check
Democratic Congress will have to face the Ameri.can voter in November, anc the
people will know who are the spenders and who are the savers.
They will know because there will be roll calls on every spending bill that
comes to the House of Representatives which offers any hope of saving a single
wasted dollar of your money.
We asked President Johnson at the outset of this session to put wartime
priorities on bt• wartime budget requests. So far he has refuGed. We have gone
along with our elected commander in chief on everything he has asked to support
our fighting men in South Vietnam--but when I read what is happening over there
and how we are running short of bombs despite all the billions we have voted
for defense, I wonder how long we can underwrite shocking mismanagement in the
name of national unity.
We are certainly going to take hard second looks at all the rest of the
Johnson-Humphrey spending proposals when the Congress resumes.
Now here is the record on nondefense spending rolled up by the Blank Check
Democratic Congress thus far this session: On six key money measures, an
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