President Reagan's Question and Answer Session at the Godfrey Sperling Breakfast on March 5, 1986

don't you all sit down yeah is that for me that's great gracious of you mr. president well there's y'all lost for words well that's certainly a great to have you here mr. president and my breakfast I like this idea you be my guest it's your place and whatever we can do that do I take is fine well today to the business of hand I guess I do want to say this I am particularly grateful this morning for the large entourage of monitor editors that are here from Boston we have keep adding our editor and our editor-in-chief Rafael and our manager Jack Hoagland our managing editor David Anibal and out there somewhere a Brad Knickerbocker our national editor can the ground rules today well by the way on the UC macneil-lehrer shooting here and they're just going to be doing the preliminaries the substance will be on yours and the transcript will be yours sometimes this afternoon the show incidentally the needle air show I understand will be tonight unless we get shoved off by some really important news I believe that covers about everything oh yes we're going to be embargo to as usual of this particular breakfast the morning papers tomorrow the first ones that can use it how to be used before that time and the first question if I may mr. president I've been wondering for a while here and I feel as if a chance to ask the question what were the factors that were involved in their moving away from support for Marco's and getting behind mr. Kino particularly after it appeared to some of us that you were hanging you know sticking very close to Marco said that last press conference no oh the thing was we've had an historic relationship with the Philippines with their government and their people put a great many years our whole point and from the very beginning was that this was a decision that would have to be made by the Filipino people and that we are not going to interject ourselves in anything other than any way that we might be helpful in arriving at a severe arriving at a solution without violence and bloodshed and that was our whole purpose all the way and finally it became evident that which way the people were deciding and this we've had this this change without bloodshed and violence simply wasn't that evident to you at that point at the last press conference all right Bob Thompson and what are your chances no although we've had people there meeting with her so javi was going back and so forth meeting with that government we want them to know that we're ready to cooperate in any way that we can be helpful in this establishment of a democratic procedure and know she is have never asked for our counseling like this she has done so in talking to the people that we have there and that if so why that would be forward to me then no I don't think there are any plans for us to do anything except go directly there before we go with any more question could I just say a couple of words here that and you all go ahead and eat I've had my breakfast oh yeah you know I want to thank you My Man Godfrey I've always wanted to say that yes there was I want to congratulate budge 20 years of Sperling breakfast and I understand it's almost 2,000 of those breakfasts and in this town at least you have really helped establish the fact that mom was right the first meal of the day is the most important and but I want to congratulate you also on beginning your fifth decade with monitor they told me that Horace Greeley was your copy boy now I knew him well and I just don't think he would take such a such a [Music] president or my hero well I know we can get back to the questions here dangerously everyone but I have seen Leo here and I've seen that can speak for himself but I am going to say that I I feel that the opposition to what we're trying to do in Nicaragua it fails to recognize that we're faced with a situation something like the one I just answered about in the Philippines there is an effort down there but if this has already had turned to violence but an effort to bring about a democratic solution to the problem to re-establish a government that will be a government chosen by the people those were the goals of the revolution against Somoza and the only ones who violated those goals are those we now call the Sandinistas who have stood there fellow revolutionaries and took over by force the government of that country the Contras our best estimate is about 40 percent of the country's our former Sandinistas alright Leo and a couple more here and then I'm going to go to some other table just be patient there's an awful lot of people here go ahead no I don't think that we ever got into anything of that kind and now with these charges being made as I said the other day now there are three sets of laws that might be involved our own international law and the Filipino law and if allegations of this kind or charges are made then it's up to legal procedures and whichever law body is involved to resolve this all right George then Pam I'm gonna go over Bob I [Music] think to lift this would be another step they have made some steps some more successful than others and I think there's there's definitely a faction in South Africa arisen that wants a solution to this problem I wouldn't think that that would be a very progressive staff no they did that president regarding the Philippines and the communist threat there apparently the hard core of the communist guerrilla movement has determined to fight on despite the change of government are you prepared to offer more military aid to the Philippine new Philippine government if it's asked despite the budget pressures here and would you relate the communist threat they are to the one in Nicaragua and differentiate between them if you see a difference well there is this difference the there was a democratic solution reached without violence reflecting what seemed to be the will of the of the of the Filipino people of the Filipino people but in Nicaragua the communist takeover has already happened and we have a totalitarian communist government in power in the Philippines we've just had an evidence the other day with that terrorist attack on the bus and the killing of one was of 19 people that the last time I heard I think that the Communists in the Philippines have had a setback they profit when you can have a breakdown of law and order and a conflict between say two other factions neither one of which is communist and they can step in and in the middle and keep it going it reminds me back in those days when I was a governor and the campuses were rioting so and we definitely had an intelligence report that established that there in the student riots our own domestic communists were not on one side of the other they were on both sides and their goal was to simply keep stirring the pot and keep the violence going because that's where they then can find a fertile field I'm sorry I did overlook that party your question I think with the relationship that we've always had and this would have to be as a request from them but we would help within the budget constraints that we have in any way that we could to maintain democracy in the Philippines or to help them maintain the president while you are placing a high priority on an increased military aid to the Contras indications so far are that the American public isn't very much concerned about the issue and it seems to be little support for it among our and even apparently among the contador nations that would have presumably the most to lose from a Marxist threat in Latin America my question is why do you think this is so we do think we have the support of neighboring countries there in Latin America as a matter of fact my trip to Grenada nine heads of state of the nine Caribbean island nations they brought up the subject and all of them in total agreement leaned on me and said please don't stop what you're doing down there because Nicaragua under the Sandinistas government represents the greatest threat to our democracies that we have ever experienced so I know where they stand with regard to the American people that's one of the reasons why I think we need to do a little a little talking there first of all you have to start with the fact that most Americans with our own problems and during recessions over the past years and so forth it's very easy to say and there is some merit and saying well what are we doing helping others far away when we have our problems at home that's part of it second part of it is just a lack of lack of general knowledge about here is a country called Nicaragua most of us have to look at the map even now to establish where it is and they need to hear the facts of this situation and so I'm going by what Jefferson said he said if the people know all the facts the people will never make a mistake well they just don't know all the facts and I'm going to try to see that they do the federal government to test federal employees for drug use and how do you expect that to affect employee morale in Washington well no decision has been made with regard to this suggestion for everybody but I would like to point out that the military is now doing this it's also being done among our people to work in the towers at the airports and where there is a safety factor involved and where you've certainly got some justification to make sure that everyone there is able and capable at any time of doing doing the job for the safety of others no decision has been made generally although we do feel that any place where there is a safety element involved we not only are entitled to ask for such a thing I think of a responsibility to do that I I have the same feelings that many people do about how far do you go in invading the privacy of individuals on the other hand I can't help but think that if all of our people in government would take the lead in volunteering such a thing it might have a salute on be an inspiration to the rest of society Elizabeth drew back there I think this that if there's an undue harassment of any individual in this situation yes that can have an effect on what you might be able to do in the in the future with others on the other hand if there has been absolute wrong doing then there must be restitution but and information that I have always had was that while his salary was extremely modest as a president of his country and obviously could not have ever made him wealthy the information I've always had was that he was a millionaire before he took office and so that there there probably is some wealth that is his legitimately by way of investments over all these twenty years and that again then I'll leave to the courts that's up that's up for the courts to determine whether the allegations are sound or not do you equate opposition to the request for military aid for the Contras with support for the Sandinista regime do I equate my my request for aid to the Contras with regard to our support for the El Salvador regime did you say no no do you equate opposition to your request with support for the Sandinistas oh well it's hard not to that government is there it's established in power and many of the arguments that are used against us have been what I consider fallacious arguments such as that we're attempting to overthrow a legitimate government what is legitimate about a government that took office at the point of a gun that even eliminated or exiled or drove out of the capital the fellow revolutionaries that wanted other goals in that revolution this has to be whether intended or not support for that particular government and let me just state that with the three leaders who were here the other day they reiterated what has always been said to us by the hackers that they want a political solution that they are not striving to overthrow they're striving to get back to negotiating out the goals of the revolution that they laid down to the Organization of American States when they asked for their help president a lot of states have had success with the idea of tax amnesty letting for giving them fines they'll pay their taxes back interest if they'll pay up what do what do you see do you see this as a possible federal solution one-time solution what kind of philosophy do you think how do you see it all I can tell you is we're looking at this and studying it very closely I had heard from a couple of other governors where they've tried this some time ago and I brought this problem here those who are studying say that there are certain hazards that must be looked at as to regard to whether you suddenly create a kind of a tax free period for individuals who can then count on a future amnesty Canada and in the meantime have had the use of the money but all of those things are being looked at and if it proves out that things of this kind can be guarded against practically why it sounds like a way to maybe end a situation in which we are we are losing billions and billions of dollars a year from people who are not paying they're just one thing the image of the great colossus of the north still lives in latin america none of our friends down there and none of those allies who are heart and soul in favor of us doing what we're doing now and what we're asking to do none of them want us to send troops in there and we don't we don't want to do that we don't think it's necessary I don't go around shouting that because frankly while we have no intention of doing any such thing it doesn't bother me at all if the Sandinistas go to bed every night wondering what if we're going to [Music] the national security no I don't think so I our whole relationship here in this Western Hemisphere with all of our neighbors we have never achieved the relationship the neighborliness that that could exist and should exist we've done better here on the northern continent with the three powers here but we have an obligation to think in terms of the relationship with all of them and uh I don't think there's any any profit in our going back to that big colossus image as a matter of fact when i made my trip early on in my administration down to latin america i went there not with a plan but asking them for their ideas because we've had with the best of intentions presidents in the past who've gone down and said here is a plan a good neighbor plan at this plan of that and always it was the big colossus offering the plan and I said to them I'd rather have a talk with you find out from all of you how we can have this kind of good neighbor relationship initiative that we always had it was us to try and be helpful as we can in establishing a peace process there still stands that the roadblock this time was the one individual who's been a stumbling block all the way and that is Arafat and the PLO and with a murder of that mayor you have to see that now the difficulty first of all the peace process must involve the problems of the Palestinian people but how can now in the face of this total refusal by Arafat how can you involve the Palestinians in negotiations when they understand the threat to themselves of any individual who allows himself to be advanced as a representative of the people they all know both the Israeli side and King Hussein and all of them that we still are desirous of establishing peace and will do everything we can to help but again we can't just walk in and dictate characterize that regime or the potential dangers but what the real purpose of the age of the Contras is that's not the case on the other hand you could say a moment ago that Nicaragua the condoms takeover has already happened and we have a totalitarianism in power is that think of where a totalitarian regime in power has called for elections not honest elections this election that they did hold that one election was completely phony they would not allow the other side to campaign they would allow their goal and this is the thing if you don't have the pressure the threat to the Sandinistas threat against their regime there is nothing to make them then enter into negotiations and this has been the goal of the Contras from the beginning if you remember quite some time ago they offered and we carried that offer to all the Contador nations and to the others they offered to lay down their arms that they want to come in meet with their one-time fellow revolutionaries and then try to establish a government that will be based on the principles that they had said we're guiding their their revolution to begin with all of what I denied that they want to overthrow that government what is it in the ghost other than the loss power well yes it except if they would as in our own country and in other democracies they would be just as free to submit themselves to the voters for the approval and support of the people and if they could win that support to they'd continue to be the government so how my memory is I'm trying to really call on people the way I've seen hands and I'm sure I'm mixed up by now but I'm glad to also go to the various tables it's a hard problem mr. president I'm glad you're doing Holly yeah you don't know the burden I have anyway bill you're next and then I did see Jack Cole very early and Mort I just know you you're ready mr. president you're quoting Thomas Jefferson reminded me that he also said something to the effect that if error of opinion is to be tolerated reason should be left free to contradict it and this should be a monument of our republic and my question is isn't it beneath our dignity as a government to get worried about a communist drum beater being on the Airways for a few minutes we we've got the most effective infectious system haven't we they should be worried about us and doesn't that make us more likely like the Communists and like the authoritarian governments i speaking of Viktor Posner yes I was sure that's who you had in mind [Laughter] I think the different the difference in the situation was that here and with because of our unique fairness in democracies in which if a president is going to speak the other party is going to be permitted to respond and we have done that I've also sometimes thought that the president ought to maybe have two minutes of rebuttal after the other fellas responded but it was the situation and I must say everyone at ABC has been not only apologetic but have themselves said this was the wrong situation to apparently be giving the Soviet Union equal time or space to to respond here in our own country on a speech on our our affairs this does not mean that they should not have him on the air at anytime they want and if they think he can and and they've done this he's been on the air and I've just seen him as recently as yesterday and another program and that that's fine I think it was the juxtaposition of apparently he was now going to be allowed to have the last word in responding and rebutting a not only my speech but that of the democratic party their response and they as I say talk to ruin our religion he has talked to me about it and he regrets very much the the whole thing and says that all of their people feel that yes this was the wrong way to do it they could have had him on the next day just as well and giving him a half an hour okay jack [Music] we have submitted a budget that meets the gramm-rudman-hollings terms with regard to reducing the deficit I think we've been very modest in our in our projections and the budgeting process all the Congress has to do is take a look at that budget and you know this whole budgeting process is pretty ridiculous and you stop to think about it we don't just come up with a set of numbers of what we'd like to see we sit for days and weeks and hours in those days yeah every day around the the cabinet table the people there are the people who have to administer the programs that have been handed to them by the Congress of the United States there isn't anything the administration does we don't spend a dime and we don't and we can we take the programs that have been passed by legislation that are authorized now the people that are going to run them but the best of their ability come up with a figure that they think they can administer those programs the way they're supposed to be done then they go back up to the hill and they're the people who have nothing to do with the running or management of those programs they just make a decision no sir you've got to take ten billion dollars more in this program or that I remember a few years ago happened earlier than when I was here and I can't remember the exact dates but I was I had taken a two-year period on one go to government program the job training program and in that two-year period that program had spent two hundred and fifty two billion dollars no pardon me two hundred and fifty two million dollars and it prorated out to more than 50 dollars for everyone the people who are now with us who served with other administrations who told me that when they headed up such jobs in the governor came to the end of the year and had not spent all the money they were ordered by the Congress to go out and spend that money we think that we've we boiled that down pretty far and we think that that and when you stalk for enabler to it there's there's the economic situation with other countries that we're trying to help all the world has announced its intention to try to help and there is the Security Assistance Security Assistance in spots of the world that if the our potential adversaries would like to move in and have their way the cost to us then just for deterrent and defense against this occupation of those other of those regions would be far greater than it is now to help them have the security to protect themselves the sequence Morton back to Mary McCrory then to Susan and I'll try to get force of only about 6,000 people they have failed to capture any town there is no evidence of rioting in the streets against the Sandinistas that as bad as however bad the Sandinistas art doesn't this suggests that the that the conference have failed to develop the kind of popular support for their supposes the democratic revolution that the Aquino side did in the Philippine I don't I don't believe that because right now the people under a totalitarian regime have seen what can happen to anyone who disagrees with that regime I met here personally a year or so ago the young minister who was ordered not to preach just to do a sermon in his church but he did it and he will bear the scars for the rest of his life of what happened because that night they simply burst into his house dragged him out and treated him so badly but the Contras are not just four thousand there are upwards of twenty to twenty five thousand and the only thing this is why we're asking for what we're asking for they are unarmed Contras at the moment but the fact that a great many of the people now with the Contras our deserters from the sandanista military the very fact that there has been an underground movement of family smuggling their sons out of the country to keep them from being drafted into that military indicates that there is not public support and s for the church they banned the publishing of the Catholic newspaper down there they have now stopped the broadcasting of religious services by the church we saw their treatment of the of the Pope and there the treatment of Bishop Brando Bravo is is is something that indicates which side the church is on and it was the church that offered when the Contras said they would they'd want to lay down there are and come in and negotiate out a way to establish a government the church offered to be the mediator and to make sure that everybody played fair this sequence now Susan Mary McCrory David Broder the aides to it oh yes I think we know that they have launched a disinformation campaign we know that they have a lobbying force right here in our own country that is working the same way any other lobbyists work to try and keep this going now this is not this is not accusing the opponents of being knowing aids to the Sandinistas at all it's the same problem we've had with down over the years with communist fronts and and unwitting people that know i can speak from experience on that because at one time in my life i was on the board of directors of two outfits that turned out to be communist france in hollywood I have to say that they are misguided and this won't be the first time it's matter of fact the other day the great many of those people that were around the cabinet table when the three you know leaders were here and I want to enjoin them were leaders of various religious groups and the very next day comes out the statement that there is another combination of religious groups that are opposed to our aid these people around the cabinet table have been raising funds privately to help the contras so there is a great division there there is even a division within the churches they eat the denominations I do know that a few years ago there was a widespread story in this country that a an American Bishop had been leading some refugees toward the Honduran border and they were attacked by the Contras and by this time he was back in this country and I phoned him and he said no I was leading this group of refugees to escape Nicaragua and get into Honduras and he said we were attacked by the sandanista army and he said the Contras came to our rescue and secondly would you assess for us your own personal opinion of how your friend Paul Laxalt would do in Republican presidential primaries Oh Mary huge you you thrown up a nasty curve there with regard to Governor Cuomo I've often thought that remembering my own days at governor's conferences when I was a governor that if he had been a governor then or I was a governor now we'd be on opposite sides and regard to Paul Laxalt I met everything I said I meant everything I said about him the other night at that dinner in his honor he is he is a gentleman he was a fine governor he is the has the utmost of integrity and I am very proud and pleased to call him friend all right David 50 senators have sent you a letter including I believe to about two-thirds of the Republican senators saying that they think that action on your tax bill in the Senate should be held up until you enter into negotiations with the members of Congress and reach a definitive agreement on a budget for next year what is your reaction well I'm already agreed on the budget it's just up to Congress now to join me in that we've we submitted a budget but I know about that letter and I understand their right to do it but I happen to believe that every cookstove has two front burners and there's no reason why the United States Senate or the United States Congress can't be cooking on both burners the tax reform program has nothing to do what it has things to do with but is there's no way interferes with continuing to make progress on the on the budget and the fight against the deficit and so forth and I just don't see why we should leave one burner cold while we just cook on the on the one burner these are two tracks and they should go forward together okay you declined to comment on treatment of dr. Sakharov since then two things have happened that the letter has been smuggled out by dr. soccer off detailing this treatment and at the party congress in moscow mr. gorbachev attack you and foreign policy are you ready now to say anything about what you how you feel the Soviets are tweeting dr. soccer office I think and this is kind of difficult because of policy that I've been following and that has had some measure of success with them in politics if you back somebody publicly into a corner and you make it impossible for them to give in in the eyes of their supporters their constituency their people they look like they're taking orders from a foreign government and therefore I can assure you that the general secretary of the Soviet Union knows exactly what I think of the way they're treating not only to soccer off but all the others that they have there in captivity and I think it if we're gonna have success and we have had some little measure of success now since the at least a sizeable gesture since the Geneva summit I think I would rather leave it that I'm gonna deal directly with them on how I feel and the less that I say about it publicly the better chance we have of helping those people and you're next but let me just I've been looking for questioning so hard I may have missed an answer along the way but have you really even asked about the summit the prospect of a summit in June and we're gonna get one at all we've we've heard no word the there was only a kind of an informal suggestion that maybe September would be better in that game from one individual in their governmental structure it was never made as a formal proposal we're still sticking to the early summer because of our own election we've explained this to them that this would be kind of complicated and heavy-duty for us to try and combine the two things we have not had a formal answer one way or the other it is tough to I think if it does slip through our fingers I Got News for them there won't be an 87 summit in Moscow yes sir all right Andy sorry but since you asked my question I don't know perhaps might be an opportunity to move away from the daily headlines and ask you this you have 35 months to go in your term quite aside from our agenda what would you like to accomplish in that time what are your main goals beyond the track that will lead I know that we cannot balance the budget prior to my getting out but beyond that track the one that is adopted in gramm-rudman-hollings to come to a balanced budget to have the balanced budget amendment so that from there on this government will begin to act sensibly with regard to its spending policies to have underway actually being implemented the reductions in nuclear weapons that we have been proposing trying to get for so long all of those things I think and finally kind of tie up the loose ends of federalism to where we have done what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said he was going to do clear back in 1932 and that was restored to states and local communities the autonomy and authority that had been unjustly seized by the federal government Mary Leonard has been waiting a long while so is Finley and Fred Barnes lose and then mark shields and who knows what do you say nice man secretary Rogers and his assessment that the NASA decision-making process was flawed what do you think the future is of the NASA program now what what revisions do you think may have to be made and in light of what's coming out from the revelations of last week well apparently and I'm going to wait until I do get the final report from him but apparently there were ways whether it was intentional or not there were ways in which counsel and advice on regard to the safety factor could be ignored and the launch took place with the tragic follow-up and therefore there must be we first established what actually caused the crash although that is becoming seeming to become more evident every day but then we make sure that there can be no such follow-up in the future now I don't know whether there was any intent or whether anyone knowingly just gambled and took a chance or whether it was just error in judgment but that's what we're going to find out with this report and as I say I am determined to keep the pledge I made to the families of those who died every one of them said to me went out of their way to say to me this program must continue and I believe it is it's proven itself so many times in the spin-offs that have come from those things that knowledge that we have gained but I want to see it go forward but I want to see it go forward in which this sort of thing can never happen again Finley's Fred knew in Denmark a letter sent to you the answer seemed to rule out pretty definitively any participation by the white house in any kind of conference aimed at working out problems that are otherwise unsolvable through the political process is that in fact your position are there are no conditions under which you would agree to put on the table those items that seem to stand in the way of a of an agreement of a grand compromise so-called oh no will no we're going to I'm going to meet with everybody at anybody and consult with them not only the people that they're supportive of our positions but those opposed and try to work these things out but some of the things that have been suggested as a compromise are things that I think would be a total repudiation of of what our position should be such as with regard to tax increases there's just no way because the the greatest means of bringing about a sensible financial policy is going to come through growth in the economy and I cannot be convinced that that a tax increase does not run the risk of putting us back into that cycle we've been on ever since World War two nine recessions one right after the other and suddenly we've had 39 months the longest period of recovery in all this time and what seems to be a solid recovery but the most significant thing is the government is getting more revenues at the lower tax rates than it was getting at the higher tax rates you're not listed non-negotiable there there are other things they what needs to be worked out Canada negotiated are the various programs and where there is opposition to what they call or some of our cuts and let them find out how we see the program running at the lower figure and that the cuts would not necessarily come from taking the food out of the mouths of anyone in a program they might come from just straightening up some of the administrative overhead we have been conducting and it's been very quiet and not many of you paid much attention to it we've been conducting a program of management reform in government and the the results are astounding we've simply been trying to put the federal government of the same basis that a business would be on with regard to just management and doing away with the the carelessness and the and the spending that is needless such things as having the administrative functions of a program or a department or agency instead of every one of them having its own administrative section you find out that no you can have an administrative section that services a dozen such program this is the Seaquest al Fred Lou mark George and Mars that's cess I'm doing the best I can hear while mopping up most of them are right in the center go ahead some of the wise statements that have been made by many people in the past about what luck really is if I were really lucky I wouldn't have this job you really mean it I'm safe to play cards with sometimes throwing your support along the way or will you wait right down to the kind of the ballot thing at the convention before you make known your feeling about the various candidates well this is the second time I've had this problem because I had it once before as a governor you're the titular head of the party and I don't see how without being coming divisive and hurting the very thing you want to help that as the titular head you can involve yourself in a primary so I I feel that I'm gonna have to bide my time but then whoever is our party's nominee I'm gonna do everything I can to get him elected mark you got a one-liner mr. president after the death of the president but when you four times will a group of petty vindictive men but they're not defeat Franklin Roosevelt life so I took it even with him in depth by passing the 22nd minute to the Constitution limiting presidents to two terms thus you it's known by everybody's pockets can never running in the race has already started it started last September in Michigan this past weekend in Tennessee full fledged campaigns marduk how do you feel right now about the 22nd amendment and do you see any circumstances under which you would advocate its repeal yes but let's make one thing plain I would not be talking about myself no one could ever take on that problem while in office and without ruling it out a ruling that any change would have to be implemented then for the next person that holds the office so that is my feeling but since I've been here and I must say it has been a change I accepted that you know I grew up so much of this country with that tradition that Washington said now if you look back he set the tradition about two terms because at that time everyone had was very conscious that we must not become like a kingdom we must not begin to have inherited positions and so forth then Franklin Delano Roosevelt proved that the people could vote for someone they wanted and you're right I think that this is what prompted the 22nd amendment but since I've been here I've come to feel and not for myself but this is an infringement on the people's democratic rights we have congressmen and Senators who serve up to 40 years or elect a time after time why do we say to the people of this country that they cannot choose who they want for as long as they want him in this particular office there are plenty of safeguards against the power of the presidency that he could not become a lifetime monarch or anything but I think that that the people if we're really a truly a democracy should have the right to vote for whoever they want to do for as long as they wanted George I'm sorry to hold you so long the process that could lead to the foreclosure of many thousands of farms do you feel comfortable presiding over a government that could take over maybe tens of thousands of family farms and and what would you do with that land this terrible problem with the farmers let communicate with to see if we can find any answer they haven't thought of that will enable them to clear the decks but they are as I say they're people who have apparently exhausted all that is there it yes it's tragic got it I think they know this whole matter is but in the other hand is this any different than any other business the tries comes to the end of the road and finds that it can't make it and goes out of business if there we are going to do everything we can if there is some Avenue still open that can help these individuals but they are only a small percentage each one a tragic case in it and you have to bleed for them but there are only a tiny percentage of the 20 million farms that we have in the country near the end Lawrence and then ordered an Union to be ahead of us in planes and tanks and boats and and after five years of a bill done who hold up the same chart and the Russians are still ahead of us and planes and tanks and boats we've spent a trillion dollars they're supposed to be a bureaucratic lee stifled stagnating society that can't grow how do you explain the fact that they can keep up with us and maintain that gap despite all of our efforts well militarily not just numbers of weapons we have closed the gap considerably in these five years and that we've been doing something that the previous president in his last year in office when he had to make his five-year projection he recognized this and projected spending that is even greater than we have ended up spending the the Soviet Union has been on this military buildup for years and years before we started this trying to catch up and a matter of fact that many of those weapons they're they're superior to not only us but to us plus our NATO allies it is necessary for us to actually have the same number of weapons they do we think of our military as a deterrent and as a deterrent force this means that you're capable of making it so difficult even with the enemy's superior numbers that they're going to think several times before they launch an attack and we're we're closer to that deterrent thing that we have been before some of this however it comes in not matching them in the number of tanks but I'm having superior I said before anti-tank weapons and we we have a global plan military program it is going forward and we're not we're not gonna try to match them tank for tank or artillery gun for artillery gun they're not going to match them that way why should we hold up these charts that show the gaps with the minister said if they're one of us and members of Tanks because a poll revealed that an overwhelming majority of people having listened to the drumbeat of propaganda against the defense build-up actually now believes that we are superior in numbers to the Soviet Union and if the American people believe that once again mr. Jefferson was right it's up to us to give him the facts we're so close to the end damn I want to get to Charlotte can we do this right there quick quickly mr. president does your objection to a tax increase Here I am he bounced a budget extend oil import levy and would you veto that it should it be passed for the Congress let me say that this was one of the things that was talked not as a tax increase for balancing the budget this was talked at one time as a part of the tax reform in order to keep it revenue neutral and bringing in the same revenue without an increase and but it would be simply turning to something like that in lieu of of some income tax and it was considered we I have to say that having looked at it and studied it from all this time in case it shouldn't become one of the factors I have to say that I'm opposed I I think it would have have a bad effect on our own economy and finally showing us you me mr. president the Geneva arms talks ended without any apparent progress towards an agreement why is that and what is mr. Gorbachev now criticizing the United States for a lack of progress when are we going to get down to negotiating seriously behind closed doors we did get down to it and we were the only ones playing my 25 years experience as a negotiator somebody comes forth with an offer and you come forth with a counter proposal and sometimes it meets part of the there's are all of a Terp whatever we came back as early as last November with a proposal on what we call start and these these are the strategic weapons and all and we made a proposal that that actually accepted much of what Gorbachev had said but then got down to the details it's it's a very complicated you've got a a whole mix of those nuclear weapons on each side and each side places different reliance on some of the others so when you just talk warheads you say well now how we go to work this out which weapons are we talking about and we came up with a proposal that recognized his 50% reduction and the ultimate elimination and there was never a response they just sit there with the first proposal and never open their mouths again the same thing is true we made every effort for what's in stay it had encouraged us by suggesting that maybe where we could start and really get a quick solution would be on the medium range weapons in Europe where we have the Pershing's and the cruise missiles against their SS 20s and we think that there was a flaw in their proposal and was that yes they would move along for Europe but then they would leave them massed on the Asian front where we also have allies and friends and we proposed let's get rid of all of them because those missiles 30s s 20s are mobile this means that in less than 12 hours they could have them back aimed at Europe but also some of them based on that Asian front there are European targets that are within range of them without them even moving so we would be withdrawing all of our medium-range weapons and they would still be left with this over here and we've got some friends and allies South Korean Japan and so forth over on that front and again they would be left with an advantage and so we have made a counter proposal that let's at least get rid of the medium range weapons all of them and since it's an offensive weapon on their side we thought that they ought to be willing to to agree with us but they haven't we've already tried to negotiate or he's cutting me off I'm gonna have to cut you Charlotte but past the hour a little bit mr. president you know reporters you know us we don't always say the thing you would expect but it's a moment I think I'm speaking I think for the whole group certainly for myself it is so gracious of you to have us over here you've had us over here several times thank you so very much thank you and I'm glad that you now understand how I feel after the press conference with all those hands still waving an idea come on okay thanks Mike

Channel: Reagan Library

Views: 34,826

Rating: 4.7668161 out of 5

Keywords: U.S. National Archives, Ronald Reagan, Reagan Presidential Library, Don Regan, Admiral Poindexter, Godfrey Sperling, State Dining Room

Id: f05SCvQ5wr4

Length: 62min 21sec (3741 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 19 2017