“Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”―Reagan speech (1980/09/01) |
■President Ronald Reagan - Liberty StatePark [Pt. 1]
AmericanRhetoricOrig（上記一節は5分30秒過ぎ）
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbroTjVm8Bw
NBCアーカイブ版
■The Definition of a Recession
http://www.nbcuniversalarchives.com/nbcuni/clip/51A01530_001.do
Ronald Reagan
LaborDay Speech at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey
September 1, 1980
It is fitting that on Labor Day, we meet beside the waters of New York harbor, with the eyes of Miss Liberty on ourg athering and in the words of the poet whose lines are inscribed at her feet, “The air bridged harbor that twin cities frame.”
Through this “Golden Door,” under the gaze of that “Mother of Exiles,” have come millions of men and women, who first stepped foot on American soil right there, on Ellis Island, so close to the Statue of Liberty.
These families came here to work. They came to build. Others came to America in different ways, from other lands, under different, often harrowing conditions,but this place symbolizes what they all managed to build, no matter where theycame from or how they came or how much they suffered.
They helped to build that magnificent cityacross the river. They spread across theland building other cities and towns and incredibly productive farms.
They came to make America work. They didn’t ask what this country could dofor them but what they could do to make this refuge the greatest home offreedom in history.
They brought with them courage, ambitionand the values of family, neighborhood, work, peace and freedom. They came fromdifferent lands but they shared the same values, the same dream.
Today a President of the United Stateswould have us believe that dream is over or at least in need of change.
Jimmy Carter’s Administration tells us thatthe descendants of those who sacrificed to start again in this land of freedommay have to abandon the dream that drew their ancestors to a new life in a newland.
The Carter record is a litany of despair,of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten.
Eight million out of work. Inflation running at 18 percent in the firstquarter of 1980. Black unemployment atabout 14 percent, higher than any single year since the government begankeeping separate statistics. Fourstraight major deficits run up by Carter and his friends in Congress. The highest interest rates since the CivilWar--reaching at times close to 20 percent--lately down to more than 11 percentbut now going up again--productivity falling for six straight quarters amongthe most productive people in history.
Through his inflation he has raised taxeson the American people by 30 percent--while their real income has risen only 20percent. He promised he would notincrease taxes for the low and middle-income people--the workers ofAmerica. Then he imposed on Americanfamilies the largest single tax increase in history.
His answer to all of this misery? He tries to tell us that we are “only” in arecession, not a depression, as if definitions—words--relieve our suffering.
Let it show on the record that when theAmerican people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind adictionary. Well if it’s a definition hewants, I’ll give him one. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
I have talked with unemployed workers allacross this country. I have heard theirviews on what Jimmy Carter has done to them and their families.
They aren’t interested in semantic quibbles. They are out of work and they know who putthem out of work. And they know the difference between a recession and adepression.
Let Mr. Carter go to their homes, looktheir children in the eye and argue with them that in is “only” a recession thatput dad or mom out of work.
Let him go to the unemployment lines andlecture those workers who have been betrayed on what is the proper definitionfor their widespread economic misery.
Human tragedy, human misery, the crushingof the human spirit. They do not needdefining--they need action.
And it is action, in the form of jobs,lower taxes, and an expanded economy that -- as President -- I intend toprovide.
Call this human tragedy whatever youwant. Whatever it is, it is JimmyCarter’s. He caused it. He tolerates it. And he is going to answer to the Americanpeople for it.
Last week, more than three years after bebecame President, he finally came up with what he calls a new economicprogram. It is his 5th new economicprogram in 3 ½ years. He talks as ifsomeone else has been in charge these past few years. With two months to go until the election herides to the rescue now with a crazy-quilt of obvious election-year promiseswhich he’ll ask Congress for--next year. After three years of neglect, the misery of unemployment, inflation,high taxes, dwindling earning power and inability to save--after all this,American workers have now been discovered by this administration.
Well it won’t work. It is cynical. It is political. And it is too late. The damage is done and every American familyknows who did it.
In 1976 he said he would never useunemployment as an economic tool to fight inflation. In 1980 he called for an increase inunemployment--to fight inflation.
In 1976 he said he would bring unemploymentand inflation down to 3 percent.
Who can believe him? Unemployment is now around 8 percent,inflation is 12 ½.
And most of us have begun to realize thatso long as Carter policies are in effect, the next four years will be as darkas the last four.
But here, beside the torch that many timesbefore in our nation’s history has cast a golden light in times of gloom, Ipledge to you I’ll bring a new message of hope to all America.
I look forward to meeting Mr. Carter indebate, confronting him with the whole sorry record of his Administration--therecord he prefers not to mention. If heever finally agrees to the kind of first debate the American people want--whichI’m beginning to doubt--he’ll answer to them and to me.
This country needs a new administration,with a renewed dedication to the dream of America--an administration that willgive that dream new life and make America great again!
Restoring and revitalizing that dream willtake bold action.
On this day, dedicated to American workingmen and women, may I tell you the vision I have of a new administration and ofa new Congress, filled with new members dedicated to the values we honor today?
Beginning in January of 1981, Americanworkers will once again be heeded. Theirneeds and values will be acted upon in Washington. I will consult with representatives oforganized labor on those matters concerning the welfare of the working peopleof this nation.
I happen to be the only president of aunion ever to be a candidate for President of the United States.
As president of my union -- the ScreenActors Guild -- I spent many hours with the late George Meany, whose love ofthis country and whose belief in a strong defense against all totalitarians isone of labor’s greatest legacies. Oneyear ago today on Labor Day George Meany told the American people:
“As American workers and their familiesreturn from their summer vacations they face growing unemployment andinflation, a climate of economic anxiety and uncertainty.”
Well I pledge to you in his memory that thevoice of the American worker will once again be heeded in Washington and thatthe climate of fear that he spoke of will no longer threaten workers and theirfamilies.
When we talk about tax reduction, when wetalk about ending inflation by stopping it where it starts -- in Washington --we are talking about a way to bring labor and management together forAmerica. We are talking about jobs, and productivity and wages. We are talkingabout doing away with Jimmy Carter’s view of a no-growth policy, and ever-shrinking economic pie with smaller pieces for each of us.
That’s no answer. We can have a bigger pie with bigger slicesfor everyone. I believe that together youand I can bake that bigger pie. We canmake that dream that brought so many of us or our parents and grandparents tothis land live once more.
Let us work to protect the human right toacquire and own a home, and make sure that that right is extended to as manyAmericans as possible. A home is part ofthat dream.
I want to work in Washington to roll backthe crushing burden of taxation that limits investment, production, and thegeneration of real wealth for our people. A job, and savings, and hope for our children is part of that dream.
I want to help Americans of every race,creed and heritage keep and build that sense of community which is at the heartof America, for a decent neighborhood is part of that dream.
We will work to strengthen the smallbusiness sector which creates most of the new jobs we need for our people. Small business needs relief from governmentpaperwork, relief from over-regulation, relief from a host ofgovernmentally-created problems that defeat the effort of creative men andwomen. A chance to invest, build andproduce new wealth is part of the dream.
But restoring the American dream requiresmore than restoring a sound, productive economy, vitally important as thatis. It requires a return to spiritualand moral values, values so deeply held by those who came here to build a newlife. We need to restore those values inour daily life, in our neighborhoods and in our government’s dealings with theother nations of the world.
These are the values inspiring those braveworkers in Poland. The values that have inspired other dissidents underCommunist domination. They remind usthat where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom islost. They remind us that freedom isnever more than one generation away from extinction. You and I must protect and preserve freedomhere or it will not be passed on to our children. Today the workers in Poland are showing a new generation not how high is the price of freedom but how much it is worth thatprice.
I want more than anything I’ve ever wanted,to have an administration that will, through its actions, at home and in theinternational arena, let millions of people know that Miss Liberty still “Liftsher lamp beside the golden door.” Through our international broadcasting stations -- the Voice of America,Radio Free Europe, and the others -- let us send, loud and clear, the messagethat this generation of Americans intends to keep that lamp shining; that thisdream, this last best hope of man on earth, this nation under God, shall notperish from the earth. We will insteadcarry on the building of an American economy that once again holds forth realopportunity for all, we shall continue to be a symbol of freedom and guardianof the eternal values that so inspired those who came to this port of entry.
Let us pledge to each other, with thisGreat Lady looking on, that we can, and so help us God, we will make America great again.
