Ford Press Releases, January - April 1966: 12130682

CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 21, 1966
NEWS
RELEASE
STATEMENT BY HOUSE MINORITY LEADER GERALD ~. FORD. R-MICHIGAN •.
The rise in the cost of living for March, the second consecutive monthly
jump, is in line with my prediction that consumer p~ices will cltmb 3 to 5
per cent this year as compared with a 2 per cent rise in 1965.
It also is proof that the jawbone technique the President is using to
try to halt inflation--talk, talk, talk--just isn't working. He ia going to
have to make a choice ~~thin perhaps the next six months on asking Congress
for an income tax increase or cutting back substantially on the level of
federal spending.
I urge that he resolve to reduce spending and pass that word to Democratic
members of Congress. If this is done, there will be no need to impose a
second tax increase on the American people this ~aar--a~d no excuse to do so.
The consumer price index rose four-tenths of 1 per cent in March. In
February, it went up fi~e-tenths of 1 per cent. There. ~as no change in January.
The trend is unmistakabl.e. Inflation ~ hue. Ayerag~ng in the no-change
month Df January, we find that consumer prices rqse at an annual rate of
3.6 per cent for the first quarter of this year. If there are no more no-change
months during 1966, the rise f~r the year may be considerably greater than that.
It's t~e the President stopped talking about inflation and did something
about it.
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