These first years of the 1970s have been good years for America.
Our job--all of us together--is to make 1973 and the years to come even
better ones. I believe that we can. I believe that we can make the years
leading to our Bicentennial the best four years in American history.
But we must never forget that nothing worthwhile can be achieved without
the will to succeed and the strength to sacrifice.
Hard decisions must be made, and we must stick by them.
In the field of foreign policy, we must remember that a strong America--an
America whose word is believed and whose strength is respected--is
essential to continued peace and understanding in the world. The peace with
honor we have achieved in Vietnam has strengthened this basic American
credibility. We must act in such a way in coming years that this
credibility will remain intact, and with it, the world stability of which
it is so indispensable a part.
At home, we must reject the mistaken notion--a notion that has dominated
too much of the public dialogue for too long--that ever bigger Government
is the answer to every problem.
We have learned only too well that heavy taxation and excessive Government
spending are not a cure-all. In too many cases, instead of solving the
problems they were aimed at, they have merely placed an ever heavier burden
on the shoulders of the American taxpayer, in the form of higher taxes and
a higher cost of living. At the same time they have deceived our people
because many of the intended beneficiaries received far less than was
promised, thus undermining public faith in the effectiveness of Government
as a whole.
The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the
responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against
overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer. We are not spending the
Federal Government's money, we are spending the taxpayer's money, and it
must be spent in a way which guarantees his money's worth and yields the
fullest possible benefit to the people being helped.
The answer to many of the domestic problems we face is not higher taxes and
more spending. It is less waste, more results and greater freedom for the
individual American to earn a rightful place in his own community--and for
States and localities to address their own needs in their own ways, in the
light of their own priorities.
By giving the people and their locally elected leaders a greater voice
through changes such as revenue sharing, and by saying "no" to excessive
Federal spending and higher taxes, we can help achieve this goal.