Faith in the Individual

1. We Republicans shall first rely on the individual’s right and capacity to advance his own economic well-being, to control the fruits of his efforts and to plan his own and his family’s future; and, where government is rightly involved, we shall assist the individual in surmounting urgent problems beyond his own power and responsibility to control. For instance, we pledge:

—enlargement of employment opportunities for urban and rural citizens, with emphasis on training programs to equip them with needed skills; improved job information and placement services; and research and extension services channeled toward helping rural people improve their opportunities;

—tax credits and other methods of assistance to help needy senior citizens meet the costs of medical and hospital insurance;

—a strong, sound system of Social Security, with improved benefits to our people;

—continued Federal support for a sound research program aimed at both the prevention and cure of diseases, and intensified efforts to secure prompt and effective application of the results of research. This will include emphasis on mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, cancer, heart disease and other diseases of increasing incidence;

—revision of the Social Security laws to allow higher earnings, without loss of benefits, by our elderly people;

—full coverage of all medical and hospital costs for the needy elderly people, financed by general revenues through broader implementation of Federal-State plans, rather than the compulsory Democratic scheme covering only a small percentage of such costs, for everyone regardless of need;

—adoption and implementation of a fair and adequate program for providing necessary supplemental farm labor for producing and harvesting agricultural commodities;

—tax credits for those burdened by the expenses of college education;

—vocational rehabilitation, through cooperation between government—Federal and State—and industry, for the mentally and physically handicapped, the chronically unemployed and the poverty-stricken;

—incentives for employers to hire teenagers, including broadening of temporary exemptions under the minimum wage law;

—to repeal the Administration’s wheat certificate "bread-tax" on consumers, so burdensome to low-income families and overwhelmingly rejected by farmers;

—revision of present non-service-connected pension programs to provide increased benefits for low income pensioners, with emphasis on rehabilitation, nursing homes and World War I veterans;

—re-evaluation of the armed forces’ manpower procurement programs with the goal of replacing involuntary inductions as soon as possible by an efficient voluntary system, offering real career incentives;

—enactment of legislation, despite Democratic opposition, to curb the flow through the mails of obscene materials which has flourished into a multimillion dollar obscenity racket;

—support of a Constitutional amendment permitting those individuals and groups who choose to do so to exercise their religion freely in public places, provided religious exercises are not prepared or prescribed by the state or political subdivision thereof and no person’s participation therein is coerced, thus preserving the traditional separation of church and state;

—full implementation and faithful execution of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and all other civil rights statutes, to assure equal rights and opportunities guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen;

—improvements of civil rights statutes adequate to changing needs of our times;

—such additional administrative or legislative actions as may be required to end the denial, for whatever unlawful reason, of the right to vote;

—immigration legislation seeking to re-unite families and continuation of the "Fair Share" Refugee Program;

—continued opposition to discrimination based on race, creed, national origin or sex. We recognize that the elimination of any such discrimination is a matter of heart, conscience, and education, as well as of equal rights under law.

In all such programs, where Federal initiative is properly involved to relieve or prevent misfortune or meet overpowering need, it will be the Republican way to move promptly and energetically, and wherever possible to provide assistance of a kind enabling the individual to gain or regain the capability to make his own way and to have a fair chance to achieve his own goals. In all matters relating to human rights it will be the Republican way fully to implement all applicable laws and never to lose sight of the intense need for advancing peaceful progress in human relations in our land. The Party of Abraham Lincoln will proudly and faithfully live up to its heritage of equal rights and equal opportunities for all.

In furtherance of our faith in the individual, we also pledge prudent, responsible management of the government’s fiscal affairs to protect the individual against the evils of spendthrift government—protecting most of all the needy and fixed-income families against the cruelest tax, inflation—and protecting every citizen against the high taxes forced by excessive spending, in order that each individual may keep more of his earnings for his own and his family’s use. For instance, we pledge:

—a reduction of not less than five billion dollars in the present level of Federal spending;

—an end to chronic deficit financing, proudly reaffirming our belief in a balanced budget;

—further reduction in individual and corporate tax rates as fiscal discipline is restored;

—repayments on the public debt;

—maintenance of an administrative, legislative and regulatory climate encouraging job-building enterprise to help assure every individual a real chance for a good job;

—wise, firm and responsible conduct of the nation’s foreign affairs, backed by military forces kept modern, strong and ready, thereby assuring every individual of a future promising peace.

In all such matters it will be the Republican way so to conduct the affairs of government as to give the individual citizen the maximum assurance of a peaceful and prosperous future, freed of the discouragement and hardship produced by wasteful and ineffectual government.

In furtherance of our faith in the individual, we also pledge the maximum restraint of Federal intrusions into matters more productively left to the individual. For instance, we pledge:

—to continue Republican sponsorship of practical Federal-State-local programs which will effectively treat the needs of the poor, while resisting, direct Federal handouts that erode away individual self-reliance and self-respect and perpetuate dependency;

—to continue the advancement of education on all levels, through such programs as selective aid to higher education, strengthened State and local tax resources, including tax credits for college education, while resisting the Democratic efforts which endanger local control of schools;

—to help assure equal opportunity and a good education for all, while opposing Federally-sponsored "inverse discrimination," whether by the shifting of jobs, or the abandonment of neighborhood schools, for reasons of race;

—to provide our farmers, who have contributed so much to the strength of our nation, with the maximum opportunity to exercise their own management decisions on their own farms, while resisting all efforts to impose upon them further Federal controls;

—to establish realistic priorities for the concentration of Federal spending in the most productive and creative areas, such as education, job training, vocational rehabilitation, educational research, oceanography, and the wise development and use of natural resources in the water as well as on land, while resisting Democratic efforts to spend wastefully and indiscriminately;

—to open avenues of peaceful progress in solving racial controversies while discouraging lawlessness and violence.

In all such matters, it will be the Republican way to assure the individual of maximum freedom as government meets its proper responsibilities, while resisting the Democratic obsession to impose from above, uniform and rigid schemes for meeting varied and complex human problems.