75-04-A4

- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1975

<< Previous Broadcast

Next Broadcast >>

National Debt # 1

Transcript Talk about the national debt may make you nod off but the size of the debt may mean you will need a wheelbarrow to cart your money to the grocery store before long. I'll be right back. Right now the national debt stands at $495 billion. The treasury department estimates that it will go up to 604 billion by June 30th 1976, just 16 months from now. This means the federal government intends to spend a $109 billion more than it takes in between now and the middle of next year. Even this figure assumes that Congress will add no new spending beyond that already proposed, an assumption that probably isn't too realistic. In fact it's contrary to the very nature of Congress. During this period the government will be adding to its debt at the rate of nearly $200 million day. Imagine, one-sixth of our total national debt will have been accumulated between now and the middle of next year. Some members of Congress are aware of our danger. Senator Harry Byrd, the Virginia independent Democrat in a speech on the senate floor told why he'd vote against the administration's request for a new increase in the national debt ceiling. He said quote "The massive deficits proposed for this year and next will lead to more inflation and higher interest rates. They'll cut the purchasing power and erode the value of every American worker's paycheck and every housewife's grocery dollar." Unquote. The senator is right, the United States is paying and will continue to pay a massive price for government's inability to control its spending. The figures he cites tells the story of a government running wild. Listen to these facts. The government has failed to balance its federal funds budget for seventeen straight years. In nine of the last ten fiscal years the deficit has been more than thirteen billion dollars per year. Ten years ago the interest we were paying on the national debt was 14.2 billion. Next fiscal year it will be 36 billion. That means that nearly 15 cents out of every tax dollar goes for interest. Deficits were relatively small through the first half of the 60s. The trouble began in the Johnson years when it was decided that we could afford both guns and butter. As the Vietnam War heated up, the fiscal year 1967 budget showed a deficit triple that of the previous year and the next year the deficit was nearly double that. The inflation we've suffered ever since, with some brief intermissions, was set in motion back then. Unfortunately the administration which succeeded Johnson wasn't so successful at bringing spending under control. Starting in fiscal year 1971 the first budget of the Nixon Administration had deficits totaling more than 100 billion dollars. In four years this was more than 22 billion dollars above the previous eight deficits. In his fiscal 1974 budget, called the termination budget because of its ambitious plan to amend or consolidate more than 100 federal programs, President Nixon made a strong attempt to reverse the trend, an effort that was largely aborted by Watergate. Now the current administration is accumulating deficits at twice the rate Mr. Nixon did and Congress, which is responsible for about eighty percent of what goes in the budget, wants even more spending. When you spend beyond your means or a business does you face bankruptcy, but the government just jacks up the taxes to pay for its profligacy. If these deficits aren't brought under control, we'll see inflation in a few months which will make the last round look like a parlor game. Tomorrow I'll examine those deficit figures in more detail. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 75-04-A4 Production Date 02/27/1975 Book/Page N/A Audio Yes Youtube? No
		Added Notes