78-05-A5
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Bill Simon
TranscriptI'm plugging a book that I think every American should read. Listen to what two Nobel Laureates have to say about it. Milton Friedman--QUOTE--"This is a brilliant and passionate book by a brilliant and passionate man . "--UNQUOTE--. F.A. Hayek says of the author;--QUOTE--"If we learn from him and the few people who think like him, we may still avert the threatening collapse of our political and economic order." --UNQUOTE-- The "him" he is talking about is William Simon, former Secretary of the Treasury and that "brilliant and passionate book" is, "A Time For Truth". Secretary Bill Simon has written a fascinating insight to government as he saw it from a cabinet level viewpoint. He has also diagnosed the sickness of soul of America-- but he's also prescribed a cure. He appeared before Congressional committees more than 400 times and as he puts it, developed an "allergy" to them. In one of Bill Simon's last such appearances, the committee chairman read off figures on the national debt and, the upcoming deficits and told the Treasury secretary he was there because the committee was studying the relationship between deficits and inflation, deficits and jobs, housing, and so forth. Simon had a prepared statement touching as usual on the technical questions the chairman had raised but this time he put his statement aside and spoke from the heart. Let me read you some lines from his book telling of what he said to the committee that day. --QUOTE-- "Unfortunately all the rhetoric about deficits and balanced budgets obscures the real danger that confronts us--the gradual disintegration of our free society." You know, the years that I've been in Washington are like a bad dream. The kind of dream where they are catching up to you and they overpower you and people just walk past and don't pay any attention. But it's not a dream. It's reality. This country is in desperate danger. The real issue is the governments share of the earnings of every productive citizen of this land. William Simon goes on to say, "You asked me Mr. Chairman about the consequences of deficits. We all know that neither man nor business nor government can spend more than is taken in for very long. If it continues, the result must be bankruptcy. In the case of the federal government we can print money to pay for our folly for a time. But we will just continue to debase our currency and then we'll have financial collapse. That is the direction in which Humanitarians are leading us. But there is nothing humanitarian about collapse of a great industrial civilization. The issue is not bookkeeping. It is not accounting. The issue is the liberty of the American people. I hear no one discussing this danger. Congress does not discuss it. The press does not discuss it. Look around you the press isn't even here... The battle is being lost and not a shot is being fired."--UNQUOTE-- These are only a few lines from William Simon's book~ Time For Truth. I hope, for our country's sake, you'll read it. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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