78-09-B8

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Miscellaneous

Transcript I have just read a little statement by the majority leader of the House. He said, "Last year the House was in session on 24 of the 38 Fridays when the House was in session." How's that again? The public affairs department at the Interstate Commerce commission has formed a group to simplify government talk. But, even though they call themselves, "The I.C.C. Zero Base Gobbledy Gook Commission", it's hard to be optimistic about their chances. Not when you read in the same news story a U.S. postal service memo containing the following, "if you are going to process under the old procedure, it better be done under the old procedure, otherwise the position will have to be reannounced under the new procedure". Is there a clue as to why postal rates went up? Or is it just that postal employees are asking for more annual holidays including all state and local holidays, Inauguration Day, Martin Luther King's birthday and a day off for each employee to celebrate his own birthday? What! No more office parties? Here is a little inflationary item you might have missed. The Senate is going to have another new building. This will make it three. Now, so far as I know, we still have the same number of Senators -- two for each state -- totaling 50. This new building, it is said, will cost $105 million. That's $2,100,000 per Senator, even if they do build it for the estimated cost, which Congress hasn't been able to do since the British burned Washington. In the last one they built, the y had to remove every door and shorten it. It seems that none of the doors would open or close after the carpet was laid. This new building will have a T.V. studio, recreational facilities and a rooftop care, which you can bet won't break even without a subsidy. Now the members of the House say they need a new building also, and there are almost 10 times as many of them. To change the subject, the bill to grant an income tax credit for private school tuition was killed in Congress. Some of the arguments used to kill it were a little more than demagogic. It was charged that private schools were expensive; therefore, only for the rich, and they are against the minorities -- a touch racist. Private schools spend from one-sixth to one-third of what public schools spent per pupil in their areas. In 1975 almost half (42%) of all private schools, elementary and secondary students, were from families earning below the median income. Twelve per cent came from families with incomes below $7,500. Only one-and-a-half percent of Catholics are black, and one percent are Lutherans. In Catholic schools, seven percent of the students are black and in Lutheran schools, 10% in elementary and 18% in high school. That averages higher minority enrollment in private schools than in our public school system. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-09-B8 Production Date 06/27/1978 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
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