US Presidency
1974

And the time has come, therefore, for a major initiative to define the nature and extent of the basic rights of privacy and to erect new safeguards to ensure that those rights are respected. I shall launch such an effort this year at the highest levels of the administration, and I look forward again to working with this Congress in establishing a new set of standards that respect the legitimate needs of society, but that also recognize personal privacy as a cardinal principle of American liberty. Many of those in this chamber tonight will recall that it was three years ago that I termed the nation's welfare system a monstrous, consuming outrage, an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children that it is supposed to help. That system is still an outrage. By improving its administration, we have been able to reduce some of the abuses. As a result, last year, for the first time in 18 years, there has been a halt in the growth of the welfare caseload.