US Presidency
1964

While maintaining the full strength of our combat defenses, it will call for the lowest number of civilian personnel in the Department of Defense since 1950. It will call for total expenditures of $ 97,900 million, compared to $ 98,400 million for the current year, a reduction of more than $ 500 million. It will call for new obligational authority of $ 103,800 million, a reduction of more than $ 4 billion below last year's request of $ 107,900 million. But it is not a standstill budget, for America can not afford to stand still. Our population is growing. Our economy is more complex. Our people's needs are expanding. But by closing down obsolete installations, by curtailing less urgent programs, by cutting back where cutting back seems to be wise, by insisting on a dollar's worth for a dollar spent, I am able to recommend in this reduced budget the most federal support in history for education, for health, for retraining the unemployed, and for helping the economically and the physically handicapped.