Obama to Address Nation’s School Children on Sept 14; will OC Schools display political backbone this time?

I’m still considerably mad at IUSD for last year’s lack of political courage.  My daughter’s elementary school actually aired the recorded address to schoolchildren by the President three times.  My son’s high school didn’t.  Select teachers did show it but my son didn’t have the good fortune to see the President’s address at all.

On September 14, the President will again address the nation’s schoolchildren.  The message is likely very much like last years.  Go to school. Do your homework.  Participate in Class. Respect others.  Make a contribution to your school (not a financial contrbution, but be a part of the solution and not a part of the probelm).  In Orange County last year, conservatives shuddered at the Obama indonctrination of our school children and many of our school systems caved in.  This was the response I got from Cassie Parham at IUSD to my complaint last year:

“I am responding on behalf of Dr. Gross regarding your concern that your son has not had an opportunity to view, at school, President Obama’s address to the children of the United States.  I have had a conversation with the principal at Northwood High School, Leslie Roach, who confirmed that some staff did elect to show the speech and others did not, largely, because the speech was not aired on a day when NHS was in session.  Had the message been aired during the school day, it is likely that many more teachers would have chosen to show it. 

We have always allowed our teachers to exercise their own discretion regarding the structure of their lessons based on the instructional objectives for each course.  While individual teachers have certainly aired Presidential addresses in the past, we have never mandated, as a school district, that a teacher do so.  In a decentralized district, allowing staff to make decisions about the structure of their lessons is congruent with our philosophy of site based decision making.  I understand that you felt there was a great opportunity for student discussion regarding the President’s speech, and I agree with you.  However, we also feel very strongly about allowing our staff the latitude make these kinds of decisions.”

Translation: “we lack the political backbone to show this message less it upset conservatives in the City.”

I’m not buying this line of bull. Not this year.

Conservatives are already up in arms about it; Neal McClusky wrote this on the Cato Institute’s website which we plucked off the inappropriately named “CapoKidsFirst” Facebook page:

“You might recall last year’s Obama Day, for which the U.S. Department of Education put out teaching guides that gave parents across the country reasonable cause to fear a day of liberal politics and celebrating President Obama. You might also remember the divisive national uproar that precipitated, which ultimately culminated in a relatively staid — but nonetheless campaign-esque — speech, not to mention a fair amount of after-the-fact sneering at people who either didn’t want public-school kids exposed to left-wing politicking or just wanted their kids, you know, left alone by the president.”

Did they even view the speech?

When President Ronald Reagan addressed school children towards the end of his term, the address was far more partisan than Obama’s, and praised the failed notion of supply side economics.  If Ronald Reagan were to address OC’s school children today, those kids would be marched into auditoriums with pens and paper and tested on the material later.  And I’m sure the good folks at CapoKidsFirst would be just fine with that.

Gavin Huntley-Fenner, an IUSD trustee who I really respect, and I got into a shouting match over this last year because I was ready to go ask my PTA to refund my contribution due to the district’s lack of political backbone.  We actually had a laugh over it when I asked, “why are we yelling at each other when we agree on this?”

I will be attending the Irvine Public Schools Foundation Gala this Friday night at Kia Headquarters in Irvine.  And for Dr. Gwen Gross, superintendent of schools, you better have a better answer for me on IUSD’s policy for showing a video address from the president than the lousy answer I got last year.  If a parent doesn’t want their kids to hear the president’s address, they should be allowed to opt out of the address.  Not the other way around. 

And, Dr. Gross, when you look around the room Friday night with people who support IUSD schools with their checkbooks, remember most of them cast a ballot for President Obama.  If the policy is the same as last year’s, my checkbook is staying in my pocket and I’ve already contrbuted to the CanyonView Elementary annual fund and won’t lose a wink of sleep by asking for my money back.

Below, is the text of President Obama’s address to school children last year and below that, portions of Ronald Reagan’s address in the late 1980s.  Read both.  Which speech is more partisan?  Reagan’s, but his address has lots of positive messages for students.  It’s really quite simple: if the president of the United States wants to send a message to school children,he should have the time to do so.  Otherwise, those big screen TVs and elaborate and expensive videosystems parents see in the classroom on Back to School night are a tremendous waste of tax dollars.

President Obama from 2009:

“Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.”

And President Reagan’s (from 1986):

Thank you all, and welcome to the White House, and thank you for coming. I want to congratulate all of you from John A. Holmes High School in Edenton, North Carolina, on your great achievements this year and on your upcoming graduation. And a special greeting to Rob Boyce, the principal of this fine school.

As you know, my remarks are being broadcast live over radio and television to high school students throughout the country. While I was in Tokyo at the economic summit, I found myself thinking about all of you, and I decided that when I got back it’d be good to report to you — share some thoughts that I’ve been having about the future.

In general, conditions in our country are about as bright as this very bright afternoon. I was worrying when I put that line in there that it might start to rain, and I’d have to say something else. [Laughter] We’ve been working to take an economy that was in bad shape and get it moving and growing again; take our national defense and make it first-rate again after a long period of decline; and to restore reason, respect, and reality to our foreign policy. And I think it’s fair to say that we’ve made a good deal of progress.

Only 5 years ago our economy suffered from high inflation, high interest rates, mushrooming government spending, and steadily increasing unemployment. A lot of people couldn’t find jobs, and people on fixed incomes were finding it harder to buy the basics, such as food and shelter. Well, we got inflation down, interest rates down, and our economy created over 1\1/2\ million new jobs just last year alone. The poor are now increasingly able to dig themselves out of poverty, and that’s been good economic news.

The good news in defense is that our Armed Forces, which were suffering from neglect and low funding, have now made a comeback. Morale is up in the services, and the quality of our men and women in uniform has never been better — and I mean never. As a matter of fact, we have the highest percentage of high school graduates in uniform today than we’ve ever had in the history of our nation, even back when we had the compulsory draft. In addition, our nation has encouraged a more realistic sense of defense needs.

In foreign affairs we’ve kept our friends close and the lines of communication with our adversaries open. We’ve tried to give the world the sense that the United States has a coherent and logical foreign policy that reflects our respect for freedom and our opposition to tyranny.

The point is that all we’ve done has had, and will continue to have, a direct impact on your lives. And the fact is, it’s your future, not ours. And all that we’ve done, we’ve done with an eye toward how it would impact you. We want to make your future better, because tomorrow belongs to you. And since you’re the leaders of tomorrow, I wanted to talk to all of you as a friend about the things you’ll have to do to ensure a prosperous nation and a peaceful world. And I’m sure that peace and prosperity must be at the top of your agenda for the future.

You have some special responsibilities ahead of you — very important responsibilities. America is back, yes, but we still face major challenges in the world. And it’s your generation that will have to accept the primary responsibility for tackling these challenges. It’s important that you’re fit for the future and that you be all that you can be. So, go for it! In the area of education you have a responsibility to try to learn and care about scientific and intellectual inquiry. The world is an increasingly competitive place. And if we’re to compete, we’ll have to do it with brainpower — your brainpower. So, keep learning and hit those books.

We have to remain economically competitive, and that means being aware of two things: first, what makes economies tick, and second, what works in other societies. We’ve been trying very hard in Washington to make America even more economically fit by really overhauling our entire tax structure. When we came into office, the top personal tax rate that the Federal Government could put on your income was 70 percent. Now, you can understand, I think, that if you were getting up in those brackets — there were 14 different tax brackets, depending on the amount of money in each bracket you earned. And when you could look and say, “If I earn another dollar, I only get to keep 30 cents out of it,” you can imagine the lack of incentive there. Well, we lowered it to 50 percent, and the economy really took off. Now we’re trying to lower it yet again so that families can keep more of their money and so the national economy will be lean and trim and fit for the future.

And it’s your generation that will defend freedom from its adversaries. The biggest contribution you can make to that quest is to become a good citizen. Good citizenship is vitally important if democracies are to continue. Good citizenship means trying to understand the issues and great questions of your day. It also means voting. To vote is to take part in this grand experiment called democracy in America. It’s your right and your responsibility to take part. Good citizenship also might mean considering going into teaching as a profession. There’s a teacher shortage, as you may know. You could help ease the situation and give to others the advantages you’ve been given if you become a teacher yourself. And it’s also important that you stay in school. That diploma counts. And I just want to personally congratulate those who have overcome some disadvantage and who stuck it out and will graduate this year.

And part of being a good citizen, part of being fit for the future so that you can meet America’s agenda for the future, is seeing to it that you live your life with a clear mind and a steady intellect. And that means saying no to drugs. Nancy has traveled across the country talking to young people like you. And many of them have talked to her about the allure of drugs, about the drug culture, and the kind of peer pressure that you come under to experiment and try out drugs. But when you come right down to it, drugs are just a dead-end street. They have nothing to offer you. I think you also ought to remember we only get one set of machinery. If you wear this set out, you can’t take it and trade it in someplace for a used one or a new one. So, what you do now and early in your life decides how able you’re going to be to enjoy yourself when you get to be my age.

And I want to tell you, I’m enjoying myself. I’ve talked to young people from China to Europe to the islands in the Caribbean. And let me tell you, they’re incredibly bright and talented, and they’re going to create quite a future for themselves. And you can’t keep up or catch up if you allow your mind to be clouded by drugs.

Well, that’s more or less what I wanted to say to you today. I’ll be talking to many young people over the next few months, and I’ll be expanding on certain points and amplifying certain themes. But for today, before your questions, I just want to let you know that I have been thinking about you very much. You are a special generation, and you’re facing special challenges. And the biggest is to be ready for a future that will prove to be demanding and exciting. Soon, we’ll enter the 21st century, a time that’ll have more than its share of great wonders. The next 10 or 15 years may well be the most exciting and challenging in the history of man. There’s the continuing revolution in technology, the possibility of curing diseases that have stalked us from the caveman era. There’s the marvelous conquest of space, a rich frontier whose riches we’ve barely glimpsed. And there’s the struggle between the democracies and those countries which are not democratic.

All of these possibilities bring with them questions. And it’s your generation that will have to answer them. That makes you all very important, indeed. You have much before you. And all I can say is that you’ve begun brilliantly. Continue to pursue excellence. Be proud of your country and its heritage, and be proud of yourselves, as we are proud of all of you.

Now, that’s all I had to say in terms of prepared remarks. What I really want to do is take your questions. And I understand that Rob Miller will be asking the first question. So, Rob, step up to the microphone, and we’ll begin.

Q. Mr. President, my name is Rob Miller, and I expect to attend East Carolina University next fall. Before I start, I’d like to say that I wish you could run for a third term so I could vote for you next time. [Laughter]

The President. Well, thank you very much. They kind of fixed that with the 22d amendment. [Laughter]

Views on the Presidency

Q. My question is: What do you enjoy most about being President of the United States?

The President. Oh, there are so many things, and many things that you don’t enjoy, also. I think the greatest is that every once in a while something comes to your attention — maybe it’s something you read in the paper about some unfortunate person, or you get a letter that someone managed to get through about some problem that, evidently, there isn’t any regular program to solve, and you find that you can solve it. And I know of one case of a baby that had to have a transplant, and we were able to arrange that. And then, just a short time ago, I had the pleasure of seeing that little girl who had been a baby at the time of the transplant, and she came here with her parents to the White House. But it’s things like that where you find that being in this position enables you to reach out and touch and get something of that kind done. And you go home feeling 10 feet tall and very happy.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you.

Teacher Shortage

Q. Mr. President, my name is Stacie Self, and I will be studying mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University. Many of us are planning to continue our education and go on to be doctors, lawyers, engineers. However, very few, if any of us, are planning to become teachers. Does this concern you? If so, what measures are being taken to encourage more people into entering this profession?

The President. Well, we have been doing some things. As you know, I appointed a commission to come up with a report on excellence in education, and they brought many suggestions. And since the Federal Government does not control education — it’s controlled at the State and local level — we, then, sent our missionaries out to tell the States and to provide this report to them. Some of them had to do with this very problem of teachers. And the result is that many States now are putting in merit pay for teachers — that, in addition to a set of classified salary scales for teachers, that teachers who rise above the norm and do exceptionally well can be rewarded as they would be in any other business or industry with an increase in pay. We also have made quite a considerable sum available to stimulate the teaching of instructors in math and science and so forth. So, we are working toward that end. I can’t recall when we’ve faced a shortage of teachers as is facing us in the near future. And they are all important. So, we’re going to continue doing everything we can to encourage going into that profession.

Q. Thank you, sir.

Social Security

Q. Mr. President, my name is Saundra Roundtree, and I’ll be attending North Carolina Central University this fall to have a major in computer science. Most of us are getting ready to start paying Social Security. Do you think we will be able to receive it when we retire?

The President. Social Security? Yes. When we came here I was very disturbed, and I got myself in a lot of trouble, because in an election year some people sort of distorted what I was trying to say. But Social Security was in trouble. As a matter of fact, we knew when we came here that, as far as we could see, Social Security by July of 1983 was going to be bankrupt in the way it was going. And when the election year of ’82 was over and it was no longer a political issue, then we put together a bipartisan commission made up of representatives of the Congress, the Government, and the private sector. They did a study and came back with a recommendation for a complete reform. And as far as we can see now, Social Security is on a sound financial basis as far as we can see into the next century. So, yes, it will be there.

Q. Thank you, sir.

Farm Industry

Q. Mr. President, my name is Martha Felton, and in the spring I plan to attend Johann College to study journalism. My question is: First of all, we’ve seen, all of us, the specials and news reports concerning the financial status of the American farmer. And I was wondering, could you explain to us what you think the future holds for the family farmer?

The President. Yes, for one thing, we have to get farming back into the marketplace, instead of under the Government regulations and subsidies and programs that we’ve had for the last 50-odd years. This isn’t a purely American problem. At the Tokyo summit, the representatives of the seven countries around the table — all of us recognized that governments were, in a sense, subsidizing the overproduction of food in the world. We’ve been so used, over the centuries, to calling it a hungry world; but today virtually every country that once was an importer of foodstuffs is now an exporter.

So, one of the things we decided, after lengthy discussion, was to put together an international team of experts and see how we could meet this particular problem. But I can’t help but call attention to the fact that in our country a large part of farming was never in the government farm programs. And that part of farming has not had the troubles that we see now among our farmers. And so, we have to recognize that government has to bear a responsibility for part of what has happened. And we’re trying to find a way out, but with compassion for those people who must not just be allowed to wither on the vine. But our main problem is that we have induced overproduction; we’re producing more than there’s a market for. And we’ve got to find an answer to that, and yet an answer that does not suddenly hurt some individuals.

Q. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

The President. All right. Incidentally, for those that wonder whether we’re doing anything, in the last few years we’ve been spending more on the farm program than has ever been spent in our history.

Tax Reform

Q. Mr. President, my name is Robert Keeter, and I’ll be attending East Carolina University next year. I would like to know what do you feel has been your greatest achievement as President?

The President. I’m delighted to answer that one. There are a number of things that I’ve thought we did rather well and was proud of. But right now, the fact that both the Senate and the House have passed tax reform legislation for the income tax — meaning that when we can get those two together — one of their programs they passed, I don’t like at all. The other one’s pretty good. But both of them can be improved. This, I think, would be the greatest achievement. We have had an income tax system that was passed in 1913 and has grown to be such a monster that virtually — well, the main part of the people in our country have to hire professional help to find out how much they owe the Government. And the tax is such that if you make a mistake, the Government then comes back and penalizes you and charges you a fine for having made a mistake. At the same time, the Government has warned you not to seek advice from their own employees, because their own employees don’t understand the law. And, therefore, you’d be penalized for their mistake.

Now, as I told you, 14 brackets in the income tax and — all the way up to 50 percent. When I was in motion pictures — and as you know, motion pictures do pay a little above the average scale if you make a go of it — you’d come to a time the top bracket was 90 percent. Well, you’d come to a point in which you were in the 90-percent bracket. And somebody would offer you a fine picture, and you’d just love to do it. But you said, “I’m not going to do that picture for 10 cents on the dollar.”

Well, today this tax that the Senate — or bill that the Senate has passed has only two brackets: 15 percent and then 27 percent. Meaning that there would always be an incentive, even if you’re in the 27-percent bracket, because you’re going to get to keep 73 cents out of every dollar you earn no matter how many dollars those are. And it’s been simplified to the place that you won’t need a public accountant to tell you how much you owe. You can figure out your tax yourself. It’s fair. There will be about 6 million people at the bottom of the scale who’ll be dropped from having to pay any income tax at all. And about 80 percent of the people will be in that 15-percent bracket.

So, I think the fact that we have finally gotten the Congress of the United States to deal with this problem of tax reform is the greatest achievement. And I’m going to be riding herd all the way to see that we finally get it through.

Q. Thank you, sir.

The President. All right.

Nuclear Disarmament

Q. Mr. President, my name is David Rosenblatt, and I’m currently trying to gain admission into the United States Naval Academy. My hope is to graduate from the Academy and become a career officer, United States Marine Corps. Mr. President, what do you recommend to my generation — what steps do you recommend that we take to avert the possibility of a future nuclear war?

The President. I think the path that we have — trying to be on — and if we can persuade our Soviet counterparts to go with us, is the path. And that is to start a program of mutual reduction of nuclear weapons leading to, as soon as possible, the total elimination of such weapons. As you know, we have the most stupid policy today. We inherited this from years back. It’s called mutual assured destruction. And because the Soviet Union had built up such a massive force, then we built up a deterrent force. What do we mean by deterrent? Well, we know we’re not going to shoot the first one. But if they attack, then we must have enough so that our retaliatory blow will deliver unacceptable damage to them. And that’s supposed to keep them from shooting the first missile at us.

Well, doesn’t it make a lot more sense, instead of living under that threat that some madman might push that button, let’s get rid of those weapons? But then, over and above that — what we’re trying to do — let’s get rid of the mistrust between the East bloc and the West bloc so that there’s no need for any war. Someone has wisely said that nations don’t distrust each other because they’re armed. Nations arm themselves because they distrust each other. So, if we can eliminate that — and that’s what we’re trying with these summit meetings and so forth. But may I wish you well in the career you’ve chosen and tell you that of all the things I’m proud of in this job, I’m more proud of the young men and women in uniform than I can say. I’m bursting with pride. They’re doing such a great job.

Q. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

The President. You bet.

Employment Opportunities

Q. Mr. President, my name is Laura Bond. I will be attending North Carolina A&T State University to major in industrial engineering. As high school seniors, many of us will soon be seeking employment. What do you feel is the employment status for us next year?

The President. Employment in the United States? I have to say the prospects are good, because while we still show, say, a 7-percent unemployment rate, that is based on considering everyone, male and female, in the United States between the ages of 16 and 65 as the potential work force. Today we have the highest percentage of that sum total work force employed ever in our history: 110 million people working. And in the last 40 months we have created 10 million new jobs. And we’re going on still at that same rate, as I said a million and a half just in the last year.

So, yes, the prospect for you is fine. And can I just take a second and tell — when you said “industrial engineering,” that means the people that design the assembly lines and everything. I was once visiting a plant where they made lightbulbs. And I watched these people sitting, as down one line came the glass bulb, and down the other came the brass fixture, and they would take them and put them together. But I noticed one elderly woman working there. And she was crossing arms and doing it. [Laughter] And that looked pretty complicated to me. And later on I was talking to some of the executives of the plant about that and calling attention to her. And one fellow’s face began to get red. And finally, I noticed them all laughing, and I said, “What is it?” He was the one that had decided they should change that line. The glass used to come down this side, and the brass used to come down this side, and for some reason he thought they ought to change the two lines. But she’d been doing that for 35 years, and she wasn’t about to change. She crossed — [laughter]. So, watch out for that.

Political Careers

Q. Excuse me. Mr. President, my name is Geordie Robison, and I will be attending Hollins College to study political science. What advice can you give a young high school student who is hoping to pursue a career in politics and possibly seeking the Presidency? By the way, I’m a Republican. [Laughter]

The President. Well, I want to encourage you. Let me just say that about this. First of all, you want it not just for the job; you want to be sure that there are things that you believe deeply in and that you would like to try and see are done for the betterment of our nation and the people. And then, I would suggest that first of all you get involved in helping in politics — your local or county headquarters. When election year comes along, volunteer to help to go door to door, to do all the things that need to be done in an election. And in that way, you learn where it is that you think would be the best way for you to start.

Now, there are two ways of going into government. There is that, running for office and then seeking the next opportunity to go up. The other is not the elective process, but to look at the career possibilities in government, of becoming a government employee. And many times that also then leads to elective office. But the opportunities are there. But as I say, you must want, inside of you, to do things for the public good, not just say, “Oh, that looks like a nice job. I’ll try that.” So, I think you’ll do it the right way. And, as I say, your postgraduate course can be volunteering and helping. And thus you get acquainted, and you understand how the process works, and you get acquainted with the people that would help you get elected to an office. And it also helps if pretty soon, instead of you having to volunteer, somebody comes to you and says you ought to run for — and then you grudgingly give in.

Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. You bet.