Editing 79-01-B7 (section)

= Miscellaneous III =

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=== Transcript ===
On December 18 -- the Monday following President Carter's surprise
announcement about China -- Godfrey Sperling's article on public reaction
to the announcement appeared in the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR.

Among other things Mr. Sperling quoted White House aides as saying telephone
calls coming into the White House were "only a little more than normal."
He went on to say, "On Friday night the call-ins were described as moderately
heavy and mostly negative; but by the end of the day on Saturday, the
flow for the previous 24 hours was being described as 'fairly light' with
the 'pros and cons' running about even."

The wording of that last sentence is interesting. The aides didn't
actually say what the call-ins were on Saturday. They said "by the end
of the day on Saturday the flow for the previous 24 hours was fairly light."
That means adding in Friday night's calls after the President's telecast with
what came in on Saturday the traffic was "fairly light". That's like
the fellow who drowned trying to wade across a river whose average depth
was only three feet. You see, there were no calls on Saturday at all.

The White House aides were rather inaccurate if not downright devious
in their story to Mr. Sperling. I know people who called in to complain
about our betrayal of Taiwan Friday night. Those taking their calls asked
only what state they were calling from, so obviously the White House
was listing the pros and cons. I also know people who tried to call in
on Saturday. They were told they would have to call back Monday between
nine and five. Does anyone remember a time under previous administration
when Americans could not register their opinion with the White House?

Another subject: An owner of an ordinary-size gas station has totaled up
the time he spends completing forms required by government, federal,
state and county. It canes to 610 hours. That's 15-and-one-fourth
weeks out of the year or more than one-fourth of his total work time.
That does not include filling out his tax forms.

Here is an encouraging item. Los Angeles County has found that the
county-operated alcoholism out-patient program costs $62 an hour for individuals and
$14.50 for group treatment. By switching to a private contractor, the costs
were reduced to $22 for individuals and $6.70 for groups. That is less
than half the cost for county operation.

One county agency contracts with the county garage and with a private
garage for vehicle maintenance. The county charges $18.68 an hour for
a mechanic as compared to $14.00 an hour in the private garage.
In landscape maintenance, private contractors under-bid the county cost
by as much as 67 percent. Proposition 13 makes a lot of sense when you
look at it under the right light.

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>01/??/[[Radio1979|1979]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[rrpl:public/2024-07/40-656-7386263-014-013-2024.pdf#PAGE=16|Online PDF]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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