I am now more convinced than ever that the United States — better than any other nation — can meet successfully whatever the future might bring. Thes… - Jimmy Carter

The difficulty in addressing this many major proposals from me and my administration is very difficult for them to assimilate. It's almost as bad in the Senate, in the Finance Committee, where they handle most of the same questions. But we're determined to proceed expeditiously, and Joe Califano, Ray Marshall, Mike Blumenthal, Charlie Schultze, Bert Lance, and others are doing an extraordinarily good job so far in putting together an analysis of what we have and recommending what we ought to have in the future. We've also had good response from the Governors and local administrators in trying to give us advice on how administration of the program could be improved. I would like to ask Joe Califano now to describe to you in more detail what we will do specifically between now and the first week in August and to answer your questions about the principles that I have outlined this afternoon. Secretary Califano. I'd like for Joe also to show you what books and all they've presented to me. I can't claim that I've read them all.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

This year we are faced with a deficit that's about $15 or $20 billion higher than it would have been because we're trying to give a tax break, tax reduction, to the American people. In every instance, you have to make a judgment on that. One of the reasons that we are giving the tax reduction is because the taxes are too high; another one is that it would result in a stimulated economy, a million more people at work and paying taxes rather than on the Federal dole. And so you have to make a judgment. We have expectations, with some fairly accurate projections, that the budget deficit next year, fiscal year 1980, will be considerably below 1979. And if the economy continues to progress, then I have good hopes that in 1981 we will reach my goal. Obviously, I don't have complete control over the economy. But I've not given up in trying to carry out the principles that Adam Smith espoused in your quote.