Democratic National Committee Remarks at a White House Briefing for the Organization's Executive Committee and State Chairpersons.

Well, it's good to come over here and meet with my partners. I think we have had a good first 2 years, a very successful campaign and election earlier this month. And I think we face the future with a realization of difficulties, no greater than the ones we inherited 2 years ago, but with the same degree of common purpose, confidence, and natural strength.

After I finish my very brief remarks, Stu Eizenstat and Alfred Kahn will go into some depth with you and answer questions about what we have in mind concerning the control of inflation, which is our number one economic problem in our country.

I think it's obvious that we are determined to control inflation. It will be a subject of the greatest and most intense analysis, of common concert and effort on the part of all my administrative officials. I think the last results of the November elections showed that the Nation is deeply concerned about it. And we as Democrats know that those who suffer most from uncontrolled inflation are the very ones about whom we care most deeply. Those who are secure, who are influential, who are wealthy, who are highly educated, who are mobile, can accommodate the constant pressures of reduced monetary values much easier than those who are poor, elderly, inarticulate, who have one narrowly defined capability to earn one's living, or who live on a fixed income and can't escape the increasing pressures that grow on them month by month. I don't see any incompatibility between meeting the basic needs of those constituencies and an effort to control inflation.

I think it's obvious to us all that we, in the last 2 years, working with the Democratic Congress, have been surprisingly successful. We have had unprecedented progress made in education, in transportation, sustained construction of housing.

We've reestablished our Nation as a focal point for world peace, for the enhancement of human rights in the most generic sense of the word, both domestically and in foreign affairs. We've tried to bring some order out of chaos in the Government bureaucracy. We've attempted to inspire the Federal workers to more dedicated service even than they had been exemplifying before. We've reduced the Federal deficit. We've strengthened ourselves militarily. And I think we've repaired some of the damage that had been done among the American people in their attitude of distrust and doubt about the veracity or competence of the Federal Government.

We put Americans back to work in an unprecedented way. Never before in the history of our country, even during wartime, have we added so many net new jobs, when 2 years ago Americans were discouraged about an inability to be gainfully employed, to use what talent they had, and to support themselves. And the benefits derived therefrom in reduced unemployment payments, reduced welfare payments, have made available funds to repair our cities and to carry out other programs that I've just described.

This is a much more insidious problem than some of those that I've described already. We've not caused inflation. It's been a chronic problem now for more than 10 years, an average inflation rate of about 6 1/2 percent for the last 10 years. And I said in my speech to the public the other night on television, the 3 years before I became President the average was 8 percent inflation. This is a problem that's endemic to all the democratic nations, at least, in the world. Some countries face a much higher inflation rate than do we. But I think our ability to deal with it successfully will be one of the most difficult challenges that I have faced.

There's a lot of practical action that can be taken, and we are pursuing those in depth. I won't go into that—because Fred Kahn and Stu Eizenstat can do it best—but there's a symbolic attitude, symbolic acts that can create an attitude in our country that will make it possible for us to be successful. We've got to engender among the American people a realization that it's a common, joint partnership effort, that it's not just something centered in the Federal Government, that it's not something for which we can blame business or industry or labor, but that it's a kind of pressure on our own economy that hurts us all, that's also caused by all of us, and which must be corrected by all of us.

I have a great additional responsibility when I come forward with the 1980 fiscal year budget to make sure that in its most carefully examined way that the analysis shows that it is equitable and fair. And if we err in giving one segment of our economy a special privilege, I want to be (sure) ¹ that that segment is the one who needs the special privilege and the services of government most.

¹ Printed in the transcript.

I think what we do in our own country will help greatly in other nations as well. The recent effort to strengthen the dollar, for instance, I think will be a major factor when a decision is made by the OPEC nations concerning the price of oil in the future. And the trade relationships that we have with Germany, with Japan, with Great Britain and other nations will be heavily affected in our favor if we show a determination, a resolve, an ability to correct economic problems that we ourselves have now identified so clearly.

The last thing I want to say to you is that I need your help. There's no way that a President or a Congress or a joint President and Congress or just labor unions or the National Association of Manufacturers or the National Chamber of Commerce can solve the inflation problem alone. A lot of people look to you for leadership in every one of the States represented here. And your clear voice speaking out in consonance with our own, to the extent that my own beliefs and commitments are compatible with yours, can be very, very helpful. I think that public officials, (governors, other elected officials at the State level, mayors, county officials can be very, very effective in dealing with the consequences of inflation.

The more we see each other moving against this threat, the more it strengthens each person's resolve. Politically it's a crucial question. If we fail to deal with our well-recognized economic problems, there will be an inevitable and justifiable adverse reaction among the American people, who look to us for leadership and for proper service. We can't continue to inflict the American people with rapidly increasing inflation and expect them to have confidence in us in the future.

So, it has the advantage, a successful campaign against inflation, of not only benefiting our Nation, not only being a responsibility that is on us individually and collectively, but also a great test of our worth as public servants who have been chosen by our fellow Americans to serve.

I don't intend to fail. It's a challenge that I accept without hesitation. It's part of my responsibility. And with your help I know I'll be successful. As I said to begin with, we're all in it together, and I'm proud to acknowledge that fact.

Thank you very much.