We've seen the kind of courage that Sam Ervin speaks about. Here in Washington, there is great sympathy for practically any scheme to spend more money. And working Americans who pay this nation's bills need higher taxes like they need a plague of locusts. But they don't have to. And I promise you, the final 10 percent reduction will go into effect July 1st, and it will be followed by indexing in 1985.
Indexing is an historic reform.
It's our promise to every working man and woman that their future will be better than their past. To pretend that eliminating indexing is somehow fair to wage earners reminds me of Samuel Johnson's comment about the fellow who couldn't see any difference between virtue and vice. If ever there was a litmus test on fairness for the average American taxpayer, indexing is it. And that's why I think it's important for the people of North Carolina to know that Jesse Helms has given a rock-solid pledge to defend indexing. But his likely opponent has already said that it's probably a good idea, this eliminating indexing.