Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy
Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy
Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy, October 13, 1982. Senator Donald Riegle (D - Michigan) represents the Democrat's response.
Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy
Senator Donald Riegle (D - Michigan) I've been asked by the Democratic leadership to respons to the President's speech. Unfortunately the President has only left me 5 minutes before the World Series. Like you, I listened to the President and I wish I could accept on faith what he is saying - that he s on the right course, that things are getting better. But when you look at your ouwn situation today and you ask are things better - what s the honest answer? If you live from paycheck to paycheck, do you feel more secure about your job? Are you satisfied with what you earn? Does your paycheck go further in buying a house, a car or sending the kids to school? Or are you working at all? One in ten Americans isn t working. More people are out of work today than at any time since the Great Depression and it s getting worse. If you own a small business, are you feeling more secure? Or do you see businesses dropping out of sight all around you? Businesses are going bankrupt at the rate of 1 every 36 minutes. More business failures than at any time since the Great Depression. And what if you farm? Are you more secure? The answer is no. Prodcution costs are higher. Prices are lower. Farmers are handing their keys over to their creditors. What kind of course is this? Senior citizens are worring about what plans the administraion has to cut Social Security right after the election. Are they more secure?
Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy
Senator Donald Riegle (D - Michigan) Now the Republicans say we should stay the course. In my home state of Michigan, nearly one in every 5 people is out of work. Plants are closing. Whole communities are struggling to survive financially. More and more good people, hard-working people, people who want a job, are being thrown onto the welfare rolls. Here is the current issue of Newsweek. Most of it deals with unemployment. Here is a picture of the Wilk family from Hamtramck, Michigan. (He holds up the magazine.) If every unemployed family had one page in this magazine, it would take 11 million pages. It would be a stack as high as 7 football fields. And yet, we re told to stay on this course. Out in the real world, where you and I live, where people work for a living, the economy is on a downhill slide.
Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy
Senator Donald Riegle (D - Michigan) Now are we to believe that because the Federal Reserve Board dropped interst rates a few weeks before the election that we re on the road to recovery? The Federal Reserve dropped interest rates because they re scared to death that their long and dangerous experiment with tight money and high interest rates is choking the economy to death. Even the bankers are frightened. Are we to believe that a stock market boom means that we are on the road to recovery? The market boomed the very day that the government announced that unemployment had passed 10% for the first time since the Depression. The stock market also boomed in 1929, just before the Depression. We re all glad to see the Wall Street rally. The problem though is on Main Street. And on Main street the numbers are still heading down.
Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy
Senator Donald Riegle (D - Michigan) The President says Stay the Course , but Democrats feel it is time to change the course and here s how we do it. There s an international trade war going on and we re losing it. That s one of the main reasons why my home state of Michigan is so devastated. Democrats want fair trade and the sooner we get it, the sooner we can put millions of people back to work. Democrats know we must change the course on credit. Democrats want interst rates that people can afford. What kind of course is it that says that the sky is the limit when it comes to the Pentagon budget. Democrats want a sounds national defense, but the defense increases are too big. We need to trim them back. Every month since the President and the Republicans got they program adopted a year and a half ago, unemployment has sky-rocketed. Why would the administration want to stay this course? Maybe because so many of the top officials in the administration are millionaires who have no understanding of what life is like for most Americans. Maybe it is because they have their eyes so fixed on the tickertape on Wall Street that they don t see the growing pile of pink slips and forclosure notices shutting down Main Street. The truth is that this administration has created two courses, one of them a very fast economic track for a few, the other filled with potholes and roadblocks for the rest of us. That s why staying the course makes sense for them because they re not paying the price, you are.
Democratic Response to Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on the Economy
Senator Donald Riegle (D - Michigan) In this country we have a way to change the course of our economy. We don t have to sit by in dispair as our hopes for the future vanish before our eyes. Each one of us can vote to change the course of our country. And it s my hope that you will do so on November 2nd. Thank you.