Radio Address to the
Nation on the Management of the Federal Government
My
fellow Americans:
Not
long ago a certain candidate for President said that this election is not about
ideology; it's about competence. I'd like to take a few moments to talk about
competence: competence in the Government and what we've done to improve it over
the last 8 years.
When
George Bush and I arrived in
Now,
with the cost of the Government growing that fast, you'd think those in charge
would have been keeping track of exactly how much each dollar was spent. But in
fact, at that time, the Government did not know until long after the fact how
much was spent. And even when it knew how much it had spent, it couldn't say
for certain exactly what it had spent your money on. This, together with
excessive regulations; deteriorating services; evidence of rampant waste,
fraud, and abuse in a number of agencies, pointed to a government that was too
big and out of control.
Look
at how we changed things -- start with excessive regulations. We set up a task
force headed by Vice President Bush. Its job? Identify
and eliminate unnecessary Federal regulations. The results?
We've cut by over 600 million man-hours a year the time that businesses, State
and local governments, and you and I as ordinary citizens have to spend filling
out Federal forms and doing other Federal paperwork. This achievement has been
even more important than many of us realize. A leading historian has written
that ``government intervention and regulation was among the principal reasons
for
We
also set up the Private Sector Survey on Cost Control led by Peter Grace --
almost 200 top business executives. This Commission spent months looking at
every part of the Government, finding out where modern business practices could
eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the Government. When they were through,
they'd come up with 2,478 suggestions. And almost every recommendation we could
put into effect without congressional action has been implemented. And we've
saved close to $80 billion. We're hoping that the next Congress will pitch in
and do its part.
Within
the administration, we set up the Council on Integrity and Efficiency. Thanks
to the Council, the Government has saved, or put to better use, over $100
billion in the past 6 years. For example, it's put in computers so that we can
now identify bid-rigging contractors or catch con artists who take out loans
from many Federal agencies and default on all of them.
And
we've initiated the largest management-improvement program ever: Reform '88. By
installing governmentwide cash, credit, financial,
personnel, payroll, and productivity systems, we've brought common sense to the
way we handle over $2 trillion that pass through the Government annually. Most
of these improvements are now up and running right on schedule,
and the result is that we're now doing a much better job than has ever been
done of managing every single dollar the Government spends to make sure it's
spent in the very best way it can be.
As
a result of our many reforms, the Government does all of its many jobs better
and faster. For example, in 1980 it took 7 weeks to get a Social Security card;
now it takes 10 days. It took 43 days to get a passport; now it takes 10 days.
It took 75 days for an export license; now it's 5 days to some countries and no
more than 17 days for any. And processing a claim for a title I Department of
Housing and Urban Development loan has dropped from 100 days to 22.
Yes,
the results speak for themselves. But there are other results, too, results
that show competence. These results include the longest peacetime economic
expansion on record, more new jobs created than Europe and Japan combined,
while cutting inflation to a third of what it was and interest rates in half. Come
to think of it, I'll stack our record of competence against any, any day of the
week, because you see, our ideas work, and they work for you. Yes, the leader
of the other ticket says ideology doesn't matter, but of course it does. He
says he's on your side, but he's wearing the liberal team's tax-and-spend
jersey. Maybe it's just that, fourth quarter with the 2-minute warning sounding, he wants you to think he switched sides. But he
hasn't changed; he hasn't changed his ideas. Look at the record, and you can
see who's on whose side.
Until
next week, thanks for listening, and God bless you.
Note: The President
spoke at