79-01-B7

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Miscellaneous III

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.		Details Batch Number 79-01-B7 Production Date 01/??/1979 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
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