State of the Union AddressesJohnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines)
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State of the Union Addresses
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Now, this is a tight budget. It follows the reduction that I made in
cooperation with the Congress--a reduction made after you had reviewed
every appropriations bill and reduced the appropriations by some $5 or $6
billion and expenditures by $1.5 billion. We conferred together and I
recommended to the Congress and you subsequently approved taking 2 percent
from payrolls and 10 percent from controllable expenditures. We therefore
reduced appropriations almost $10 billion last session and expenditures
over $4 billion. Now, that was in the budget last year.
I ask the Congress to recognize that there are certain selected programs
that meet the Nation's most urgent needs and they have increased. We have
insisted that decreases in very desirable but less urgent programs be made
before we would approve any increases. So I ask the Congress tonight:
--to hold its appropriations to the budget requests, and
--to act responsibly early this year by enacting the tax surcharge which
for the average American individual amounts to about a penny out of each
dollar's income.
This tax increase would yield about half of the $23 billion per year that
we returned to the people in the tax reduction bills of 1964 and 1965.
This must be a temporary measure, which expires in less than 2 years.
Congress can repeal it sooner if the need has passed. But Congress can
never repeal inflation.
The leaders of American business and the leaders of American labor--those
who really have power over wages and prices--must act responsibly, and in
their Nation's interest by keeping increases in line with productivity. If
our recognized leaders do not do this, they and those for whom they speak
and all of us are going to suffer very serious consequences.
On January 1st, I outlined a program to reduce our balance of payments
deficit sharply this year. We will ask the Congress to help carry out those
parts of the program which require legislation. We must restore equilibrium
to our balance of payments.
We must also strengthen the international monetary system. We have assured
the world that America's full gold stock stands behind our commitment to
maintain the price of gold at $35 an ounce. We must back this commitment by
legislating now to free our gold reserves.
Americans, traveling more than any other people in history, took $4 billion
out of their country last year in travel costs. We must try to reduce the
travel deficit that we have of more than $2 billion. We are hoping that we
can reduce it by $500 million--without unduly penalizing the travel of
teachers, students, business people who have essential and necessary
travel, or people who have relatives abroad whom they want to see. Even
with this reduction of $500 million, the American people will still be
traveling more overseas than they did in 1967, 1966, or 1965 or any other
year in their history.
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