Documents / Official release
This file from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library holds press releases and statements that House Republican Leader Gerald R. Ford issued between January and April 1966. Most cover Vietnam policy, the war on poverty, inflation, foreign aid, the federal budget and changes in his press staff. An April 21, 1966 statement says the Air Force told Ford it would contract a university with no close Air Force ties to have scientists study unexplained UFO sightings and make the report public. According to Ford, his call for congressional hearings led to this study.
“The Pentagon”5 pages
CONGRESSMAN GERALD R. FORD HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER fOR. RELEASE WEDNESDAY P. M. APRIL 20, 1966 NEWS RELEASE STATEM!Itt BY HOUSE MINORITY LBADER GERALD B.. fORD, R-MICHIGAN. President Johnson today asked Congress to give its blessing to a government debt refinancing scheme that resembles a gigantic crap game with the taxpayer the only ooe wbo loses. What the President proposes to do is to dump $4.2 billion in government loans into a pot at the federal National Mortgage Association (lNMA) and invite inveatmeat firma to grab a piece of the action--put some money into a government revolving fund and get paid off with interest by the taxpayer for their trouble. The conventional way to handle this kind of debt is to sell g~vernment bonds. But this would show up in Presiden~ , Johnaon's budget. It also would be subject ~l'o-u.- l.G\ to t~e 1df!bt l~it.l&Copg~ess ~efusetfs. to approve the Pr~iden t 1 s refinancing (A""'"" ~ l,u.~ Z\..~-~ (.f ,..,.. 12_ ' ~ cheme~lFbe projectea ohnson deficit for fiacal 1967 u~ not $1.8 billion .f\ but $6 bUUon. It costs more in interest to refinance as the President proposes. If Congress rubber-stamps the President's refinancing bill, the taxpayer will pay off to private investors to the tune of up to $210 million more over the 10-year life of the refinancing game. The lid also will be off the national debt. Why ia Mr. Johnson wUlins to IQ&ke a goat of the ta~ayer with his refinancing scheme? He wants to tpend more but ma~• it look like less. He wants a budget that looks smaller on the outside but is bigger on the inside. And he wants to get out from under the debt ceiling •ith government agency loans. This 1a the Great Deception of the Great Society. Mr. Johnson found himself with a $6 billion fiscal 1967 deficit--not a $1.8 billion red ink figure--until hla budget director tucked the ball under his jersey and pulled a sneak run around the budget. Congrea1 baa to stop this run around the budget before it crosses the goal line. This devious financing scheme is just another handle for backdoor spending. Mr. Johnson ie trying to treat the taxpayer like the spendthrift husband who keeps his debts hidden from his wife. That chap runs up a lot of bills,con~dates his debts by borrowing fresh money from a finance company at higher rates and then blithely resumes his role of the big spender. Unless Congress rejects the President's r~g pl an, the road to greater inflation will be wide open. Congressional 'app •••~~~ommittees will have no no say in future lending operations of the agencies involved. The eommittees will not be standing in the way to say this is as far as you go. They may as well ~g up a "gone fishing" sign over their doors. # fl #
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 55 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.