US Presidency
1978

The tax bill just passed by the Congress includes many of the investment incentives that I recommended last January. Federal support for research and development will continue to increase, especially for basic research. We will coordinate and strengthen Federal programs that support productivity improvements throughout our economy. Our Government efforts will attack the inflation that hurts most, inflation in the essentials, food, housing, and medical care. We will continue to use our agricultural policies to sustain farm production, to maintain stable prices, and to keep inflation down. Rising interest rates have always accompanied inflation. They add further to the costs of business expansion and to what consumers must pay when they buy houses and other consumer items. The burden of controlling inflation can not be left to monetary policy alone, which must deal with the problem through tight restrictions on money and credit that push interest rates up. I will work for a balanced, concerted, and sustained program under which tight budget restraint, private wage and price moderation, and responsible monetary policy support each other.