I would like to come down there as soon as I can. An important goal of my administration is to build up a renewed understanding and trust and communi… - Jimmy Carter

Democracy’s great recent successes — in India, Portugal, Spain, Greece — show that our confidence in this system is not misplaced. Being confident of our own future, we are now free of that inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that fear. I’m glad that that’s being changed. For too many years, we’ve been willing to adopt the flawed and erroneous principles and tactics of our adversaries, sometimes abandoning our own values for theirs. We’ve fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is better quenched with water. This approach failed, with Vietnam the best example of its intellectual and moral poverty. But through failure we have now found our way back to our own principles and values, and we have regained our lost confidence.

Tonight I do want to thank Arthur Krim and Steve Ross and Mary Lasker for being our hosts and hostess. But I would like to recognize one special person in the audience who hasn't yet been recognized. When I started campaigning for President a long time ago, and I would come to New York for a fundraiser, there would be four or five people present in this early friend's apartment-and she worked awfully hard to get five people to come. And I want to ask Alice Mason if she would stand. Arthur Krim wins both ways. He is recognized throughout the Nation as a man who has given his heart to sacrificial public service. And when I knew that he and Steve and Mary would be in. charge of this banquet, I had no doubt about the outcome. But he also benefits from the Democrats as well. Late this past year there was a movie that was going to be made about the former Republican Governor of New York. And he found that he couldn't have this biographical film made, so Arthur went down to Philadelphia and got a Democrat ethnic with the same first name as Rocky and made a film, and he made a lot of money on it. [Laughter] So, the Democrats help Arthur Krim as well as helps us.

We have established the following goals: I've been over these with the congressional leaders, with representatives of the Department of HEW, with Labor, my own economic advisers, OMB, Treasury, to make sure that they are feasible and also advisable. And they will be guidelines for us in the next 3 months as we put together the final legislative proposals. First of all, the new system will be at no higher initial cost than the present systems combined. Second, under this system every family with children and a member of the family able to work will have access to a job. Third, incentives will always encourage full-time and part-time private sector employment. Fourth, public training and employment programs should be provided when private employment is unavailable. Fifth, a family should have more income if it works than if it does not work. Sixth, incentives should be designed to keep families together. Now many of the incentives, deliberately or not, encourage families to be separated. Seventh, earned income tax credits should be continued to help the working poor. Eighth, a decent income should be provided also for those who cannot work or earn adequate incomes, with Federal benefits consolidated into a simple cash payment, varying in amount only to accommodate differences in the cost of living from one community to another. Ninth, the program should be simpler and easier to administer. Tenth, there should be incentives encouraging honesty and designed to eliminate fraud. What this means is that the accurate reporting of income and financial status will be naturally encouraged among those who receive benefits. Eleventh, the unpredictable and growing financial burden on local and State governments should be reduced as rapidly as Federal services or resources permit. And twelfth, local administration of public jobs programs should be emphasized. Now, we have varying estimates on the number of jobs required to carry out all these programs depending upon the analyses and the basic premises. For instance, to provide this kind of service, we estimate that about 2 million total training and public jobs would be required. We now have plans for about 925,000 public service jobs.