We see states engaged in furious competition for each other's industry, furiously cutting taxes whose revenues are needed for social programs. In the midst of depression and recession, we have seen corporate profits rising twice as fast as during the booming Kennedy-Johnson years. Consumer prices are up. Inflation is up. The defense budget is up.
Unemployment is up.
And for the eighth year in a row, we hear an American President say that all this is too bad, but we are in tough times that demand fiscal stringency, and for just a while longer we are going to have to sacrifice people to business profits. I say it's time government cared about people. That's why I make the Humphrey-Hawkins full employment act the top priority of all, why I have supported it since the very beginning. Because the gut question on full employment is whether or not a President is prepared to use the full force and credit of the federal government to create jobs. That's why I believe that adequate health care is a right and not a privilege, and why I support the Kennedy health bill that says we are no longer going to pay for the profits of 1800 separate insurance companies but are going to have a single government administered trust fund.