I will request that the proposed 6-month freeze in cost-of-living adjustments recommended by the bipartisan Social Security Commission be applied to other government-related retirement programs.  I will, also, propose a 1-year freeze on a broad range of domestic spending programs, and for Federal civilian and military pay and pension programs.  And let me say right here, I’m sorry, with regard to the military, in asking that of them, because for so many years they have been so far behind and so low in reward for what the men and women in uniform are doing.  But I’m sure they will understand that this must be across the board and fair.

Second, I will ask the Congress to adopt specific measures to control the growth of the so-called uncontrollable spending programs.  These are the automatic spending programs, such as food stamps, that cannot be simply frozen and that have grown by over 400 percent since 1970.  They are the largest single cause of the built-in or structural deficit problem.  Our standard here will be fairness, ensuring that the taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars go only to the truly needy; that none of them are turned away, but that fraud and waste are stamped out.  And I’m sorry to say, there’s a lot of it out there.  In the food stamp program alone, last year, we identified almost $1.1 billion in overpayments.  The taxpayers aren’t the only victims of this kind of abuse.  The truly needy suffer as funds intended for them are taken not by the needy, but by the greedy.  For everyone’s sake, we must put an end to such waste and corruption.

Third, I will adjust our program to restore America’s defenses by proposing $55 billion in defense savings over the next 5 years.  These are savings recommended to me by the Secretary of Defense, who has assured me they can be safely achieved and will not diminish our ability to negotiate arms reductions or endanger America’s security.  We will not gamble with our national survival.

And fourth, because we must ensure reduction and eventual elimination of deficits over the next several years, I will propose a standby tax, limited to no more than 1 percent of the gross national product, to start in fiscal 1986.  It would last no more than 3 years, and it would start only if the Congress has first approved our spending freeze and budget control program.  And there are several other conditions also that must be met, all of them in order for this program to be triggered.

Now, you could say that this is an insurance policy for the future, a remedy that will be at hand if needed but only resorted to if absolutely necessary.  In the meantime, we’ll continue to study ways to simplify the tax code and make it more fair for all Americans.  This is a goal that every American who’s ever struggled with a tax form can understand.

At the same time, however, I will oppose any efforts to undo the basic tax reforms that we’ve already enacted, including the 10-percent tax break coming to taxpayers this July and the tax indexing which will protect all Americans from inflationary bracket creep in the years ahead.