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1980 Republican Party (34,625 words, 105 pages)return to Menu

A PREAMBLE

The Republican Party convenes, presents this platform, and selects itsnominees at a time of crisis. America is adrift. Our country moves agonizingly,aimlessly, almost helplessly into one of the most dangerous and disorderlyperiods in history .

At home, our economy careens, whiplashed from one extreme to another.Earlier this year, inflation skyrocketed to its highest levels in more thana century; weeks later, the economy plummeted, suffering its steepest slideon record. Prices escalate at more than 10 percent a year. More than eightmillion people seek employment. Manufacturing plants lie idle across thecountry. The hopes and aspirations of our people are being smothered.

Overseas, conditions already perilous, deteriorate. The Soviet Unionfor the first time is acquiring the means to obliterate or cripple our land-basedmissile system and blackmail us into submission. Marxist tyrannies spreadmore rapidly through the Third World and Latin America Our alliances arefrayed in Europe and elsewhere. Our energy supplies become even more dependenton uncertain foreign suppliers. In the ultimate humiliation, militant terroristsin Iran continue to toy with the lives of Americans.

These events are not isolated, or unrelated. They are signposts. Theymark a continuing downward spiral in economic vitality and internationalinfluence. Should the trend continue, the 1980s promise to be our most dangerousyears since World War II. History could record, if we let the drift go on,that the American experiment, so marvelously successful for 200 years, camestrangely, needlessly, tragically to a dismal end early in our third century.

By far the most galling aspect of it all is that the chief architectsof our decline ‹ Democratic politicians ‹ are without programor ideas to reverse it. Divided, leaderless, unseeing, uncomprehending,they plod on with listless offerings of pale imitations of the same policiesthey have pursued so long, knowing full well their futility. The CarterAdministration is the unhappy and inevitable consequence of decades of increasinglyoutmoded Democratic domination of our national life. Over the past fouryears it has repeatedly demonstrated that it has no basic goals other thanthe perpetuation of its own rule and no guiding principle other than theMeeting insights provided by the latest opinion poll. Policies announcedone day are disavowed or ignored the next, sowing confusion among Americansat home and havoc among our friends abroad.

Republicans, Democrats, and Independents have been watching and readingthese signs. They have been watching incredulously as disaster after disasterunfolds. They now have had enough. They are rising up in 1980 to say thatthis confusion must end; this drift must end; we must pull ourselves togetheras a people before we slide irretrievably into the abyss.

It doesn't have to be this way, it doesn't have to stay this way. We,the Republican Party, hold ourselves forth as the Party best able to arrestand reverse the decline. We offer new ideas and candidates, from the topof our ticket to the bottom, who can bring to local and national leadershipfirm, steady hands and confidence and eagerness. We have unparalleled unitywithin our own ranks, especially between our Presidential nominee and ourCongressional membership. Most important, we go forth to the people withideas and programs for the future that are as powerful and compelling asthey are fresh. Together, we offer a new beginning for America.

Our foremost goal here at home is simple: economic growth and full employmentwithout inflation. Sweeping change in economic policy in America is neededso that Mr. Carter's promise of hard times and austerity ‹ his onepromise well kept ‹ can be replaced with Republican policies that promiseeconomic growth and job creation. It is our belief that the stagflationof recent years not only has consigned millions of citizens to hardshipbut also has bottled up the enormous ingenuity and creative powers of ourpeople. Those energies will not be released by the sterile policies of thepast: we specifically reject the Carter doctrine that inflation can be reducedonly by throwing people out of work. Prosperity will not be regained simplyby government fiat. Rather, we must offer broad new incentives to laborand capital to stimulate a great outpouring of private goods and servicesand to create an abundance of jobs. From America's grassroots to the WhiteHouse we will stand united as a party behind a bold program of tax ratereductions, spending restraints, and regulatory reforms that will injectnew life into the economic bloodstream of this country.

Overseas, our goal is equally simple and direct: to preserve a worldat peace by keeping America strong. This philosophy once occupied a hallowedplace in American diplomacy, but it was casually even cavalierly dismissedat the Outset by the Carter Administration ‹ and the results have beenshattering Never before in modern history has the United States enduredas many humiliations, insults, and defeats as it has during the past fouryears: our ambassadors murdered, our embassies burned, our warnings ignored,our diplomacy scorned, our diplomats kidnapped. The Carter Administrationhas shown that it neither understands totalitarianism nor appreciates theway tyrants take advantage of weakness. The brutal invasion of Afghanistanpromises to be only the forerunner of much more serious threats to the West‹ and to world peace ‹ should the Carter Administration somehowcling to power.

Republicans are united in a belief that America's international humiliationand decline can be reversed only by strong Presidential leadership and aconsistent, far-sighted foreign policy, supported by a major upgrading ofour military forces, a strengthening of our commitments to our allies, anda resolve that our national interests be vigorously protected. Ultimately,those who practice strength and firmness truly guard the peace.

This platform addresses many concerns of our Party. We seek to restorethe family, the neighborhood, the community, and the workplace as vitalalternatives in our national life to ever-expanding federal power.

We affirm our deep commitment to the fulfillment of the hopes and aspirationsof all Americans ‹ blacks and whites, women and men, the young andold, rural and urban.

For too many years, the political debate in America has been conductedin terms set by the Democrats. They believe that every time new problemsarise beyond the power of men and women as individuals to solve, it becomesthe duty of government to solve them, as if there were never any alternative.Republicans disagree and have always taken the side of the individuals whosefreedoms are threatened by the big government that Democratic idea has spawned.Our case for the individual is stronger than ever. A defense of the individualagainst government was never more needed. And we will continue to mountit.

But we will redefine and broaden the debate by transcending the narrowterms of government and the individual; those are not the only two realitiesin America. Our society consists of more than that; so should the politicaldebate. We will reemhasize those vital communities like the family, theneighborhood, the workplace, and others which are found at the center ofsociety, between government and the individual. We will restore and strengthentheir ability to solve problems in the places where people spend their dailylives and can turn to each other for support and help.

We seek energy independence through economic policies that free up ourenergy production and encourage conservation. We seek improvements in healthcare, education, housing, and opportunities for youth. We seek new avenuesfor the needy to break out of the tragic cycle of dependency. All of thesegoals ‹ and many others ‹ we confidently expect to achieve througha rebirth of liberty and resurgence of private initiatives, for we believethat at the root of most of our troubles today is the misguided and discreditedphilosophy of an all-powerful government, ceaselessly striving to subsidize,manipulate, and control individuals. But it is the individual, not the government,who reigns at the center of our Republican philosophy.

To those Democrats who say Americans must be content to passively acceptthe gradual but inexorable decline of America, we answer: The American peoplehave hardly begun to marshal their talents and resources or realize theaccomplishments and dreams that only freedom can inspire.

To those Democrats who say we face an "age of limits," we ask:Who knows the limit to what Americans can do when their capacity for work,creativity, optimism, and faith is enhanced and supported by strong andresponsive political leadership and ideals.

To those who, with Mr. Carter, say the American people suffer from anational "malaise," we respond: The only malaise in this countryis found in the leadership of the Democratic Party, in the White House andin Congress. Its symptoms are an incompetence to lead, a refusal to change,and a reluctance to act. This malaise has become epidemic in Washington.Its cure is government led by Republicans who share the values of the majorityof Americans.

Republicans pledge a restoration of balance in American society. Butsociety cannot be balanced by the actions of government or of individualsalone. Balance is found at society's vital center, where we find the familyand the neighborhood and the workplace.

America will not, however, achieve any of these goals on its presentcourse nor under its present leadership. The uncharted course of Mr. Carterwill lead surely to catastrophe. By reversing our economic decline, by reversingour international decline, we can and will resurrect our dreams.

And so, in this 1980 Republican Platform, we call out to the Americanpeople: With God's help, let us now, together, make America great again;let us now, together, make a new beginning.

FREE INDIVIDUALS IN A FREE SOCIETY

It has long been a fundamental conviction of the Republican Party thatgovernment should foster in our society a climate of maximum individualliberty and freedom of choice. Properly informed, our people as individualsor acting through instruments of popular consultation can make the rightdecisions affecting personal or general welfare, free of pervasive and heavy-handedintrusion by the central government into the decisionmaking process Thistenet is the genius of representative democracy.

Republicans also treasure the ethnic, cultural, and regional diversityof our people. This diversity fosters a dynamism in American society thatis the envy of the world .

Taxes

Elsewhere in this platform we discuss the benefits, for society as awhole, of reduced taxation, particularly in terms of economic growth. Butwe believe it is essential to cut personal tax rates out of fairness tothe individual.

Presently, the aggregate burden of taxation is so great that the averageAmerican spends a substantial part of every year, in effect, working forgovernment.

Substantial tax rate reductions are needed to offset the massive taxincreases facing the working men and women of this country. Over the nextfour years, federal taxes are projected to increase by over $500 billiondue to the Carter Administration's policies. American families are alreadypaying taxes at higher rates than ever in our history; as a result of theseCarter policies, the rates will go even higher. The direct and indirectburden of federal taxes alone, imposed on the average family earning $20,000,has risen to $5,451 ‹ over 27 percent of the family's gross income.During the Carter term, the federal tax alone on this family will have risen$2,000.

The Republican Party believes balancing the budget is essential but opposesthe Democrats' attempt to do so through higher taxes. We believe that anessential aspect of balancing the budget is spending restraint by the federalgovernment and higher economic growth, not higher tax burdens on workingmen and women.

Policies of the Democratic Party are taxing work, savings, investment,productivity, and the rewards for human ingenuity. These same tax policiessubsidize debt, unemployment, and consumption. The present structure ofthe personal income tax system is designed to broaden the gap between effortand reward.

Therefore, the Republican Party supports across-the-board reductionsin personal income tax rates, phased in over three years, which will reducetax rates from the range of 14 to 70 percent to a range of from 10 to 50percent.

For most Americans, these reduced tax rates will slow the rate at whichtaxes rise. This will assure workers and savers greater rewards for greatereffort by lowering the rate at which added earnings would be taxed.

These reductions have been before the Congress for three years in theRoth-Kemp legislation. The proposal will not only provide relief for allAmerican taxpayers, but also promote non-inflationary economic growth byrestoring the incentive to save, invest, and produce. These restored incentiveswill in turn increase investment and help reinvigorate American businessand industry, leading to the creation of more jobs. In fact, Governor Reaganand Congressional Republicans have already taken the first step. Workingtogether, they have boldly offered the American people a 10 percent taxrate cut for 1981, which will stimulate growth in our economy, and a simplificationand liberalization of depreciation schedules to create more jobs.

Once tax rates are reduced, Republicans will move to end tax bracketcreep caused by inflation. We support tax indexing to protect taxpayersfrom the automatic tax increases caused when cost-of-living wage increasesmove them into higher tax brackets.

Tax rate reductions will generate increases in economic growth, output,and income which will ultimately generate increased revenues. The greaterjustification for these cuts, however, lies in the right of the individualto keep and use the money they earn.

Improving the Welfare System

The measure of a country's compassion is how it treats the least fortunate.In every society there will be some who cannot work, often through no faultof their own.

Yet current federal government efforts to help them have become counterproductive,perpetuating and aggravating the very conditions of dependence they seekto relieve. The Democratic Congress has produced a jumble of degrading,dehumanizing, wasteful, overlapping, and inefficient programs that invitewaste and fraud but inadequately assist the needy poor.

Poverty is defined not by income statistics alone, but by an individual'strue situation and prospects. For two generations, especially since themid-1960s, the Democrats have deliberately perpetuated a status of federallysubsidized poverty and manipulated dependency for millions of Americans.This is especially so for blacks and Hispanics, many of whom remain pawnsof the bureaucracy, trapped outside the social and economic mainstream ofAmerican life.

For those on welfare, our nation's tax policies provide a penalty forgetting a job. This is especially so for those whose new income from a jobis either equal to, or marginally greater than, the amount received on welfare.In these cases, due to taxes, the individual's earned income is actuallyless than welfare benefits. This is the "poverty trap" which willcontinue to hold millions of Americans as long as they continue to be punishedfor working.

The Carter Administration and the Democratic Party continue to fosterthat dependency. Our nation's welfare problems will not be solved merelyby providing increased benefits. Public service jobs are not a substitutefor employable skills, nor can increases in the food stamp program by themselvesprovide for individual dignity. By fostering dependency and discouragingself-reliance, the Democratic Party has created a welfare constituency dependenton its continual subsidies.

The Carter Administration has proposed, and its allies in the House ofRepresentatives actually voted for, legislation to nationalize welfare,which would have cost additional billions and made billions more dependentupon public assistance. The Democrats have presided over ‹ and musttake the blame for ‹ the most monstrous expansion and abuse of thefood stamp program to date. They have been either unable or unwilling toattack the welfare fraud that diverts resources away from the truly poor.They have sacrificed the needy to the greedy, and sent the welfare billsto the taxpayers.

We categorically reject the notion of a guaranteed annual income, nomatter how it may be disguised, which would destroy the fiber of our economyand doom the poor to perpetual dependence.

As a party we commit ourselves to a welfare policy that is truly reflectiveof our people's true sense of compassion and charity as well as an appreciationof every individual's need for dignity and self-respect. We pledge a systemthat will:

• provide adequate living standards for the truly needy;
• end welfare fraud by removing ineligibles from the welfare rolls, tightening food stamp eligibility requirements, and ending aid to illegal aliens and the voluntarily unemployed:
• strengthen work incentives, particularly directed at the productive involvement of able-bodied persons in useful community work projects;
• provide educational and vocational incentives to allow recipients to become self-supporting; and
• better coordinate federal efforts with local and state social welfare agencies and strengthen local and state administrative functions.

We oppose federalizing the welfare system, local levels of governmentare most aware of the needs in their communities. We support a block grantprogram that will help return control of welfare programs to the states.Decisions about who gets welfare, and how much, can be better made on thelocal level.

Those features of the present law, particularly the food stamp program,that draw into assistance programs people who are capable of paying fortheir own needs should be corrected. The humanitarian purpose of such programsmust not be corrupted by eligibility loopholes. Food stamp program reformsproposed by Republicans in Congress would accomplish the twin goals of directingresources to those most in need and streamlining administration.

Through long association with government programs, the word "welfare"has come to be perceived almost exclusively as tax-supported aid to theneedy. But in its most inclusive sense ‹ and as Americans understoodit from the beginning of the Republic ‹ such aid also encompasses thosecharitable works performed by private citizens, families, and social, ethnicand religious organizations. Policies of the federal government leadingto high taxes, rising inflation, and bureaucratic empire-building have madeit difficult and often impossible for such individuals and groups to exercisetheir charitable instincts. We believe that government policies that fightinflation, reduce tax rates, and end bureaucratic excesses can help makeprivate effort by the American people once again a major force in thoseworks of charity which are the true signs of a progressive and humane society.

Veterans

Republicans recognize the very special sacrifice of those who have servedin our nation's armed forces. Individual rights and societal values areonly as strong as a nation's commitment to defend them. Because of thisour country must never forget its appreciation of and obligation to ourveterans.

Today the veteran population numbers 30 million. This is the largestveteran population in our nation's history. We recognize the major sacrificesthey have made for their fellow Americans.

We will maintain the integrity of the Veterans Administration. We willseek to keep it separate and distinct from other federal agencies as thesingle agency for the administration of all veterans' programs. In particularwe feel it is of vital importance to continue and expand the health programsprovided to veterans through the Veterans Administration hospitals. Herewe see the need for increased access to care, especially for older veterans.

We further advocate continued and expanded health care for our Vietnamveterans and consider it vital for the Veterans Administration to continueits programs for the rehabilitation of the disabled as well as its job trainingefforts.

We are committed to providing timely and adequate adjustments in compensationfor service-disabled veterans and the survivors of those who died as a resultof their service. We are also committed to maintaining the pension programfor those who have served during a period of war, for those who were disabledand impoverished, and for their widows and orphans.

We will support measures to provide for every veteran at death a finalresting place for his remains in a national cemetery, and for costs of transportationthereto.

Veterans preference in federal employment in all departments and agencieswill be continued and strictly enforced.

Retired military benefits deserve more than the cursory attention giventhem by a Department of Defense otherwise interested in on-going programsWe believe that such benefits should be administered by the Veterans Administration.

Private Property

The widespread distribution of private property ownership is the cornerstoneof American liberty. Without it neither our free enterprise system nor ourrepublican form of government could long endure.

Under Democratic rule, the federal government has become an aggressiveenemy of the human right to private property ownership. It has dissipatedsavings through depreciation of the dollar, enforced price controls on privateexchange of goods attempted to enforce severe land use controls, and mistreatedhundreds of thousands of national park and forest inholders.

The next Republican Administration will reverse this baneful trend. Itwill not only protect the cherished human right of property ownership, butwill also work to help millions of Americans ‹ particularly those fromdisadvantaged groups ‹ to share in the ownership of the wealth of theirnation.

Transportation ‹ Personal Mobility

Americans enjoy greater personal mobility than any other people on earthlargely as a result of the availability of automobiles and our modern highwaysystem. Republicans reject the elitist notion that Americans must be forcedout of their cars. Instead, we vigorously support the right of personalmobility and freedom as exemplified by the automobile and our modern highwaysystem. While recognizing the importance of fuel efficiency and alternatemodes of transportation, we quickly acknowledge that for millions of Americansthere is no substitute on the horizon for the automobile. We reaffirm oursupport for a healthy domestic automobile industry, complete with continuedsupport for the highway trust fund, which is the fairest method yet devisedfor financing America's highway system.

Republicans recognize the need for further improvement in highway safety.Projections indicate that highway fatalities may exceed 60,000 per yearin the coming decades. Republicans support accelerated cost-effective effortsto improve highway, automobile, and individual driver safety.

Privacy

The essence of freedom is the right of law abiding individuals to life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without undue governmental intervention.Yet government in recent years, particularly at the federal level, has overwhelmedcitizens with demands for personal information and has accumulated vastamounts of such data through the IRS, Social Security Administration, theBureau of the Census, and other agencies. Under certain limited circumstances,such information can serve legitimate societal interests, but there mustbe protection against abuse.

Republicans share the concerns of our citizens as to the nature, use,and final disposition of the volume of personal information being collected.We are alarmed by Washington's growing collection and dissemination of suchdata. There must be protection against its misuse or disclosure.

The Republican Party commits itself to guaranteeing an individual's rightof privacy. We support efforts of state governments to ensure individualprivacy.

Black Americans

For millions of black Americans, the past four years have been a longtrail of broken promises and broken dreams. The Carter Administration enteredoffice with a pledge to all minorities of a brighter economic future. Todaythere are more black Americans unemployed than on the day Mr. Carter becamePresident. The unemployment rate of black teenagers is once again risingsharply And the median income of black families has declined to less than60 percent of white family income.

Republicans will not make idle promises to blacks and other minorities;we are beyond the day when any American can live off rhetoric or politicalplatitudes.

Our Party specifically rejects the philosophy of the Carter Administrationthat unemployment is the answer to inflation. We abhor the notion that ourcities should become battlegrounds in the fight against inflation and thatthe jobs of black Americans should be sacrificed in an attempt to counterbalancethe inflationary excesses of government. Nor are we prepared to accept thepractice of turning the poor into permanent wards of the state, tradingtheir political support for continued financial assistance.

Our fundamental answer to the economic problems of black Americans isthe same answer we make to all Americans ‹ full employment withoutinflation through economic growth. First and foremost, we are committedto a policy of economic expansion through tax-rate reductions, spendingrestraint, regulatory reform and other incentives.

As the Party of Lincoln, we remain equally and steadfastly committedto the equality of rights for all citizens, regardless of race Althoughthis nation has not yet eliminated all vestiges of racism over the years,we are heartened by the progress that has been made, we are proud of therole that our party has played, and we are dedicated to standing shoulderto shoulder with black Americans in that cause.

Elsewhere in this platform, we set forth a number of specific proposalsthat will also serve to improve the quality of life for blacks. During thenext four years we are committed to policies that will:

• encourage local governments to designate specific enterprise zones within depressed areas that will promote new jobs, new and expanded businesses and new economic vitality;
• open new opportunities for black men and women to begin small businesses of their own by, among other steps, removing excessive regulations, disincentives for venture capital and other barriers erected by the government;
• bring strong, effective enforcement of federal civil rights statutes, especially those dealing with threats to physical safety and security which have recently been increasing; and
• ensure that the federal government follows a non-discriminatory system of appointments up and down the line, with a careful eye for qualified minority aspirants.

Hispanic-Americans

Hispanics are rapidly becoming the largest minority in the country andare one of the major pillars in our cultural, social, and economic life.Diverse in character, proud in heritage, they are greatly enriching theAmerican melting pot.

Hispanics seek only the full rights of citizenship ‹ in education,in law enforcement, in housing ‹ and an equal opportunity to achieveeconomic security. Unfortunately, those desires have not always been fulfilled;as in so many other areas, the Carter Administration has been long on rhetoricand short on action in its approach to the Hispanic community.

We pledge to pursue policies that will help to make the opportunitiesof American life a reality for Hispanics. The economic policies enunciatedin this platform will, we believe, create new jobs for Hispanic teenagersand adults and will also open up new business opportunities for them. Wealso believe there should be local educational programs which enable thosewho grew up learning another language such as Spanish to become proficientin English while also maintaining their own language and cultural heritage.Neither Hispanics nor any other American citizen should be barred from educationor employment opportunities because English is not their first language.

The Handicapped

The Republican Party strongly believes that handicapped persons mustbe admitted into the mainstream of American society. It endorses effortsto enable our handicapped population to enjoy a useful and productive life.

Too often in the past, barriers have been raised to their education,employment, transportation, health care, housing, recreation, and insurance.We support a concerted national effort to eliminate discrimination in allthese areas. Specifically we support tax incentives for the removal of architecturaland transportation barriers. We pledge continued efforts to improve communicationsfor the handicapped and to promote a healthy, constructive attitude towardthem in our society.

Women's Rights

We acknowledge the legitimate efforts of those who support or opposeratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

We reaffirm our Party's historic commitment to equal rights and equalityfor women .

We support equal rights and equal opportunities for women, without takingaway traditional rights of women such as exemption from the military draft.We support the enforcement of all equal opportunity laws and urge the eliminationof discrimination against women. We oppose any move which would give thefederal government more power over families.

Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment is now in the hands of statelegislatures, and the issues of the time extension and rescission are inthe courts. The states have a constitutional right to accept or reject aconstitutional amendment without federal interference or pressure. At thedirection of the White House, federal departments launched pressure againststates which refused to ratify ERA. Regardless of one's position on ERA,we demand that this practice cease.

At this time, women of America comprise 53 percent of the populationand over 42 percent of the work force. By 1990, we anticipate that 51 percentof the population will be women, and there will be approximately 57 millionin the work force. Therefore, the following urgent problems must be resolved:

• total integration of the work force (not separate but equal) is necessary to bring women equality in pay;
• girls and young women must be given improved early career counseling and job training to widen the opportunities for them in the world of work;
• women's worth in the society and in the jobs they hold, at home or in the workplace, must be reevaluated to improve the conditions of women workers concentrated in low-status, low-paying jobs;
• equal opportunity for credit and other assistance must be assured to women in small businesses; and
• one of the most critical problems in our nation today is that of inadequate child care for the working mother. As champions of the free enterprise system, of the individual, and of the idea that the best solutions to most problems rest at the community level, Republicans must find ways to meet this, the working woman's need. The scope of this problem is fully realized only when it is understood that many female heads of households are at the poverty level and that they have a very large percentage of the nation's children.

The important secret about old age in America today is that it is primarilya woman's issue, and those over 65 are the fastest growing segment of thepopulation. With current population trends, by the year 2020, 15.5 percentof our population will be over 65; by 2035, women in this age group willoutnumber men by 13 million.

In 1980, 42 percent of women between 55 and 64 are in the work force.Half of the six million elderly women who live alone have incomes of $3,700or less, and black women in that category have a median income of $2,600.How do they survive with the present rate of inflation? The lower salariesthey earned as working women are now reflected in lower retirement benefits,if they have any at all. The Social Security system is still biased againstwomen, and non-existent pension plans combine with that to produce a bereftelderly woman. The Republican Party must not and will not let this continue.

We reaffirm our belief in the traditional role and values of the familyin our society. The damage being done today to the family takes its greatesttoll on the woman. Whether it be through divorce, widowhood, economic problems,or the suffering of children, the impact is greatest on women. The importanceof support for the mother and homemaker in maintaining the values of thiscountry cannot be overemphasized.

In other sections of this platform, we call for greater equity in thetax treatment of working spouses. We deplore this marriage tax which penalizesmarried two-worker families. We call for a reduction in the estate tax burden,which creates hardships for widows and minor children. We also pledge toaddress any remaining inequities in the treatment of women under the SocialSecurity system.

Women know better than anyone the decline in the quality of life thatis occurring in America today. The peril to the United States and especiallyto women must be stressed. Women understand domestic, consumer, economicissues more deeply because they usually manage the households and have theresponsibility for them. With this responsibility must also come greateropportunity for achievement and total equality toward solution of problems.

Equal Rights

The truths we hold and the values we share affirm that no individualshould be victimized by unfair discrimination because of race, sex, advancedage, physical handicap, difference of national origin or religion, or economiccircumstance. However, equal opportunity should not be jeopardized by bureaucraticregulations and decisions which rely on quotas, ratios, and numerical requirementsto exclude some individuals in favor of others, thereby rendering such regulationsand decisions inherently discriminatory.

We pledge vigorous enforcement of laws to assure equal treatment in jobrecruitment, hiring, promotion, pay, credit, mortgage access and housing.

Millions of Americans who trace their heritage to the nations of Eastern,Central, and Southern Europe have for too long seen their values neglected.The time has come to go beyond the ritual election year praise given toEthnic Americans. We must make them an integral part of government. We mustmake recognition of their values an integral part of government policy.The Republican Party will take positive steps to see to it that these Americans,along with others too long neglected, have the opportunity to share thepower, as well as the burdens of our society. The same holds true of ourAsian-American citizens from the cultures of the Orient.

As a party we also recognize our commitment to Native Americans. We pledgeto continue to honor our trusted relationship with them and we reaffirmour federal policy of self-determination. We support the assumption by Indians,Aleuts, and Eskimos themselves of the decisions and planning which willaffect their lives and the end of undue federal influence on those plansand decisions.

Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since 1898. TheRepublican Party vigorously supports the right of the United States citizensof Puerto Rico to be admitted into the Union as a fully sovereign stateafter they freely so determine. We believe that the statehood alternativeis the only logical solution to the problem of inequality of the UnitedStates citizens of Puerto Rico within the framework of the federal constitution,with full recognition within the concept of a multicultural society of thecitizens' right to retain their Spanish language and traditions. Thereforewe pledge to support the enactment of the necessary legislation to allowthe people of Puerto Rico to exercise their right to apply for admissioninto the Union at the earliest possible date after the presidential electionof 1980.

We also pledge that such decision of the people of Puerto Rico will beimplemented through the approval of an admission bill. This bill will providefor the Island's smooth transition from its territorial fiscal system tothat of a member of the Union. This enactment will enable the new stateof Puerto Rico to stand economically on an equal footing with the rest ofthe states and to assume gradually its fiscal responsibilities as a state.

We continue to favor whatever action may be necessary to permit Americancitizens resident in the United States territories of the Virgin Islandsand Guam to vote for President and Vice President in national elections.

Abortion

There can be no doubt that the question of abortion, despite the complexnature of its various issues, is ultimately concerned with equality of rightsunder the law. While we recognize differing views on this question amongAmericans in general ‹ and in our own Party ‹ we affirm our supportof a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the right to lifefor unborn children. We also support the Congressional efforts to restrictthe use of taxpayers' dollars for abortion.

We protest the Supreme Court's intrusion into the family structure throughits denial of the parents' obligation and right to guide their minor children.

STRONG FAMILIES

The family is the foundation of our social order. It is the school ofdemocracy. Its daily lessons ‹ cooperation, tolerance, mutual concern,responsibility, industry ‹ are fundamental to the order and progressof our Republic. But the Democrats have shunted the family aside. They havegiven its power to the bureaucracy, its jurisdiction to the courts, andits resources to government grantors. For the first time in our history,there is real concern that the family may not survive.

Government may be strong enough to destroy families, but it can neverreplace them.

Unlike the Democrats, we do not advocate new federal bureaucracies withominous power to shape a national family order. Rather, we insist that alldomestic policies, from child care and schooling to Social Security andthe tax code, must be formulated with the family in mind.

Education

Next to religious training and the home, education is the most importantmeans by which families hand down to each new generation their ideals andbeliefs. It is a pillar of a free society. But today, parents are losingcontrol of their children's schooling. The Democratic Congress and its counterpartsin many states have launched one fad after another, building huge new bureaucraciesto misspend our taxes. The result has been a shocking drop in student performance,lack of basics in the classroom, forced busing, teacher strikes, manipulativeand sometimes amoral, indoctrination.

The Republican Party is determined to restore common sense and qualityto education for the sake of all students, especially those for whom learningis the highway to equal opportunity. Because federal assistance should helplocal school districts, not tie them up in red tape, we will strive to replacethe crazyquilt of wasteful programs with a system of block grants that willrestore decisionmaking to local officials responsible to voters and parents.We recognize the need to preserve within the structure of block grants,special educational opportunities for the handicapped, the disadvantaged,and other needy students attending public and private non-profit elementaryand secondary schools. :

We hail the teachers of America. Their dedication to our children isoften taken for granted, and they are frequently underpaid for long hoursand selfless service, especially in comparison with other public employees.

We understand and sympathize with the plight of America's public schoolteachers, who so frequently find their time and: attention diverted fromtheir teaching responsibilities to the task of complying with federal reportingrequirements. America has a great stake in maintaining standards of highquality in public education. The Republican Party recognizes that the achievementof those standards is possible only to the extent that teachers are allowedthe time and freedom to teach. To that end, the Republican Party supportsderegulation by the federal government of public education and encouragesthe elimination of the federal Department of Education.

We further sympathize with the right of qualified teachers to be employedby any school district wishing to hire them, without the necessity of theirbecoming enrolled with any bargaining agency or group. We oppose any federalaction, including any action on the part of the Department of Educationto establish "agency shops" in public schools.

We support Republican initiatives in the Congress to restore the rightof individuals to participate in voluntary, nondenominational prayer inschools and other public facilities. We applaud the action of the Senatein passing such legislation.

Our goal is quality education for all of America's children, with a specialcommitment to those who must overcome handicap, deprivation, or discrimination.That is why we condemn the forced busing of school children to achieve arbitraryracial quotas. Busing has been a prescription for disaster, blighting wholecommunities across the land with its divisive impact. It has failed to improvethe quality of education, while diverting funds from programs that couldmake the difference between success and failure for the poor, the disabled,and minority children.

We must halt forced busing and get on with the education of all our children,focusing on the real causes of their problems, especially lack of economicopportunity.

Federal education policy must be based on the primacy of parental rightsand responsibility. Toward that end. we reaffirm our support for a systemof educational assistance based on tax credits that will in part compensateparents for their financial sacrifices in paying tuition at the elementary,secondary, and post-secondary level. This is a matter of fairness, especiallyfor low-income families, most of whom would be free for the first time tochoose for their children those schools which best correspond to their owncultural and moral values. In this way, the schools will be strengthenedby the families' involvement, and the families' strengths will be reinforcedby supportive cultural institutions.

We are dismayed that the Carter Administration cruelly reneged on promisesmade during the 1976 campaign. Wielding the threat of his veto, Mr. Carterled the fight against Republican attempts to make tuition tax credits areality.

Next year, a Republican White House will assist, not sabotage, congressionalefforts to enact tuition tax relief into law.

We will halt the unconstitutional regulatory vendetta launched by Mr.Carter's IRS Commissioner against independent schools.

We will hold the federal bureaucracy accountable for its harassment ofcolleges and universities and will clear away the tangle of regulation thathas unconscionably driven up their expenses and tuitions. We will respectthe rights of state and local authorities in the management of their schoolsystems.

The commitment of the American people to provide educational opportunitiesfor all has resulted in a tremendous expansion of schools at all levels.And the more we reduce the federal proportion of taxation the more resourceswill be left to sustain and develop state and local institutions.

Health

Our country's unequalled system of medical care, bringing greater benefitsto more people than anywhere else on earth, is a splendid example of howAmericans have taken care of their own needs with private institutions.

Significant as these achievements are we must not be complacent. Healthcare costs continue to rise, farther and faster than they should, and threatento spiral beyond the reach of many families. The causes are the DemocraticCongress' inflationary spending and excessive and expensive regulations.

Republicans unequivocally oppose socialized medicine, in whatever guiseit is presented by the Democratic Party. We reject the creation of a nationalhealth service and all proposals for compulsory national health insurance.

Our country has made spectacular gains in health care in recent decades.Most families are now covered by private insurance, Medicare, or in thecase of the poor. the entirely free services under Medicaid.

Republicans recognize that many health care problems can be solved ifgovernment will work closely with the private sector to find remedies thatwill enhance our current system of excellent care. We applaud, as an example,the voluntary effort which has been undertaken by our nation's hospitalsto control costs. The results have been encouraging. More remains to bedone.

What ails American medicine is government meddling and the strait-jacketof federal programs. The prescription for good health care is deregulationand an emphasis upon consumer rights and patient choice .

As consumers of health care, individual Americans and their familiesshould be able to make their own choices about health care protection. Wepropose to assist them in so doing through tax and financial incentives.These could enable them to choose their own health coverage, including protectionfrom the catastrophic costs of major long-term illness, without compulsoryregimentation.

Americans should be protected against financial disaster brought on bymedical expense. We recognize both the need to provide assistance in manycases and the responsibility of citizens to provide for their own needs.By using tax incentives and reforming federal medical assistance programs,government and the private sector can jointly develop compassionate andinnovative means to provide financial relief when it is most needed.

We endorse alternatives to institutional care. Not only is it costlybut it also separates individuals from the supportive environment of familyand friends. This is especially important for the elderly and those requiringlong-term care. We advocate the reform of Medicare to encourage home-basedcare whenever feasible. In addition, we encourage the development of innovativealternate health care delivery systems and other out-patient services atthe local level.

We must maintain our commitment to the aged and to the poor by providingquality care through Medicare and Medicaid. These programs need the careful,detailed reevaluation they have never received from the Democrats, who havecharacteristically neglected their financial stability. We believe thatthe needs of those who depend upon their programs, particularly the elderly,can be better served, especially when a Republican Administration cracksdown on fraud and abuse so that program monies can be directed toward thosetruly in need. In the case of Medicaid, we will aid the states in restoringits financial integrity and its local direction.

We welcome the long-overdue emphasis on preventive health care and physicalfitness that is making Americans more aware than ever of their personalresponsibility for good health. Today's enthusiasm and emphasis on stayingwell holds the promise of dramatically improved health and well-being inthe decades ahead. Additionally, health professionals, as well as individualshave long recognized that preventing illness or injury is much less expensivethan treating it. Therefore, preventive medicine combined with good personalhealth habits and health education, can make a major impact on the costof health care. Employers and employees, unions and business associations,families schools, and neighborhood groups all have important parts in whatis becoming a national crusade for better living.

Youth

The Republican Party recognizes that young people want the opportunityto exercise the rights and responsibilities of adults.

The Republican agenda for making educational and employment opportunitiesavailable to our youth has been addressed in detail in other sections ofthis platform.

Republicans are committed to the enactment of a youth differential inthe minimum wage and other vitally needed incentives for the creation ofjobs for our young.

In addition, we reaffirm our commitment to broaden the involvement ofyoung people in all phases of the political process ‹ as voters, partyworkers and leaders candidates and elected officials, and participants ingovernment at all levels.

We pledge, as we have elsewhere in this platform, efforts to create anenvironment which will enable our nation's youth:

• to live in a society which is safe and free;
• to pursue personal, educational, and vocational goals to the utmost of their abilities;
• to experience the support, encouragement, and strength that comes from maintenance of the family and its values; and
• to know the stimulus of challenge, renewal through encouragement, provision of opportunities, and the growth that comes from responsible participation in numerous aspects of our society.

Older Americans

Inflation is called "the cruelest tax." It strikes most cruellyat the elderly, especially those on fixed incomes. It strikes viciouslyat the sick and the infirm, and those who are alone in the world.

Inflation has robbed our elderly of dignity and security. An entire generationof responsible and productive citizens who toiled and saved a full workinglife to build up a retirement nest egg now finds that it cannot surviveon its savings. Today's inflation rates dwarf yesterday's interest rates,and the pensions and annuities of our elderly citizens cannot keep up withthe rising cost of living. Millions of once-proud and independent elderlyAmericans face a future of welfare dependency and despair.

We propose to assist families, and individuals of all ages, to meet theneeds of the elderly, primarily through vigorous private initiative. Onlya comprehensive reduction in tax rates will enable families to save forretirement income, and to protect that income from ravaging inflation. Onlynew tax exemptions and incentives can make it possible for many familiesto afford to care for their older members at home .

Present laws can create obstacles to older Americans' remaining in thefamily home. Federal programs for the elderly, such as Medicare and SupplementalSecurity Income, must address, humanely and generously, the special circumstancesof those who choose to stay with their families rather than enter a nursinghome or other institution.

Social Security is one of this nation's most vital commitments to oursenior citizens. We commit the Republican Party to first save, and thenstrengthen, this fundamental contract between our government and its productivecitizens.

Republicans consider older Americans a community asset, not a nationalproblem. We are committed to using the sadly wasted talents of the agedthroughout our society, which sorely needs their experience and wisdom.To that end, and as a matter of basic fairness, we proudly reaffirm ouropposition to mandatory retirement and our long-standing Republican commitmentto end the Democrats' earnings limitation upon Social Security benefits.In addition, the Republican Party is strongly opposed to the taxation ofSocial Security benefits and we pledge to oppose any attempts to tax thesebenefits.

Republicans have resisted Democratic electioneering schemes to spendaway the Social Security trust funds for political purposes. Now the billhas come due, and the workers of America are staggering under their newtax burdens. This must stop.

Precisely because Social Security is a precious lifeline for millionsof the elderly, orphaned, and disabled, we insist that its financing besound and stable. We will preserve Social Security for its original purpose.

The problems of Social Security financing are only an aspect of the overridingproblems of the economy which Democratic mismanagement has produced. Thereis but one answer, the comprehensive tax rate reduction to which Republicansare committed. To save Social Security, we have no choice but to redirectour economy toward growth. To meet this country's commitments to SocialSecurity recipients, present and future, we need more people at work, earningmore money, thereby paying more into the trust funds. That same growth canbalance the federal budget with lower taxes, over time reducing inflation,which falls so cruelly on senior citizens whose income is fixed by the sizeof their public or private pension.

We pledge to clean up the much-abused disability system. We will alsoexpand eligibility for Individual Retirement Accounts to enable more personsto plan for their retirement years.

The Welfare System

The Republican agenda for welfare reform has been discussed in a previoussection, but we think it important to stress that central to it is the preservationof the families the system is designed to serve. The current system doesnot do this. Neither would guaranteed annual income schemes. By supplantingparental responsibility and by denying children parental guidance and economicsupport, they encourage and reward the fragmentation of families. This isunconscionable. The values and strengths of the family provide a vital elementin breaking the bonds of poverty.

Ultimately, the Republican Party supports the orderly, wholesale transferof all welfare functions to the states along with the tax sources to financethem.

The Family Economy

It is increasingly common for both husbands and wives to work outsidethe home. Often, it occurs out of economic necessity, and it creates majordifficulties for families with children, especially those of pre-schoolage. On one hand, they are striving to improve the economic well-being oftheir family; on the other, they are concerned about the physical and emotionalwell-being of their children. This dilemma is further aggravated in instancesof single parenthood due to death or divorce.

Recognizing these problems, we pledge to increase the availability ofnon-institutional child care. We see a special role for local, private organizationsin meeting this need.

We disapprove of the bias in the federal tax system against working spouseswhose combined incomes are taxed at a proportionately higher rate than ifthey were single. We deplore this "marriage tax" and call forequity in the tax treatment of families.

We applaud our society's increasing awareness of the role of homemakersin the economy, not apart from the work force but as a very special partof it: the part that combines the labor of a full-time job the skills ofa profession, and the commitment of the most dedicated volunteer Recognizingthat homemaking is as important as any other profession, we endorse expandedeligibility for Individual Retirement Accounts for homemakers and will exploreother ways to advance their standing and security.

Family Protection

In view of the continuing efforts of the present Administration to defineand influence the family through such federally funded conferences as theWhite House Conference on Families, we express our support for legislationprotecting and defending the traditional American family against the ongoingerosion of its base in our society.

Handicapped People

Republicans will seek every effective means to enable families more easilyto assist their handicapped members and to provide for their education andspecial medical and therapeutic needs. In the case of handicapped childrenparticularly, flexibility must be maintained in programs of public assistanceso that, whenever possible, these youngsters may remain at home rather thanin institutions.

Targeted tax relief can make it possible for parents to keep such a childat home without foregoing essential professional assistance. Similarly,tax incentives can assist those outside the home, in the neighborhood andthe workplace, who undertake to train, hire, or house the handicapped.

SECURE AND PROSPEROUS NEIGHBORHOODS

The quality of American neighborhoods is the ultimate test of the successor failure of government policies for the cities, for housing, and for lawenforcement.

Obsessed with the demands of special interest groups and preoccupiedwith the design of expensive "comprehensive" programs, the Democratsin Congress and the Administration have lost sight of that simple but importantcriterion. They have proposed more social and fiscal tinkering with ourcities and towns.

Republicans will address the real problems that face Americans in theirneighborhoods day by day ‹ deterioration and urban blight, dangerousstreets and violent crime that makes millions of Americans, especially seniorcitizens, fearful in their own neighborhoods and prisoners in their ownhomes.

In the summer of 1980, Americans suffer a rising national unemploymentrate, now at nearly eight percent, and double-digit inflation and interestrates. As Republicans meet in Detroit, the policies of the Carter Administrationand the Democratic Congress have pushed the economy into recession and haveresulted in unemployment approaching 20 percent in our host city.

The people of Detroit have worked long and hard to revitalize their cityand the evidence of its rebirth is impressive. Their efforts have been severelyset back by Carter Administration policies outside of this or any city'scontrol. The grim evidence is manifested in jobs lost as a direct consequenceof bankrupt economic policies which have fostered this recession. Republicanswill address and resolve the real problems of today's economy, problemsthat destroy jobs and deny even the hope of homeownership to millions ofAmerican families. We are, moreover, committed to nurturing the spirit ofself-help and cooperation through which so many neighborhoods have revitalizedthemselves and served their residents.

Neighborhood Self-help

The American ethic of neighbor helping neighbor has been an essentialfactor in the building of our nation. Republicans are committed to the preservationof this great tradition.

To help non-governmental community programs aid in serving the needsof poor, disabled, or other disadvantaged, we support permitting taxpayersto deduct charitable contributions from their federal income tax whetherthey itemize or not.

In contrast, the Democrats' assault against Meals-on-Wheels highlightstheir insensitivity to the neighborly spirit that motivates so many Americans.For over 25 years, voluntary Meals-on-Wheels organizations have been feedingneedy homebound citizens ‹ usually the elderly ‹ with fundingfrom local private charitable sources. Promising for the first time to "help"these neighborhood volunteer efforts in 1978, the Democratic Congress andadministration instead used the carrot of federal funding and the stickof federal regulation to crowd out private ventures.

Government must never elbow aside private institutions ‹ schools,churches, volunteer groups, labor and professional associations ‹ inmeeting the social needs m our neighborhoods and communities.

Neighborhood Revitalization

The city is the focus for the lives of millions of Americans. Its neighborhoodsare places of familiarity, of belonging, of tradition and continuity. Theyare arenas for civic action and creative self-help. The human scale of theneighborhood encourages citizens to exercise leadership, to invest theirtalents, energies, and resources, to work together to create a better lifefor their families.

Republican economic programs will create conditions for rebirth of citizenactivity in neighborhoods and cities across the land. In a Republican economicclimate, America's cities can once again produce, build, and grow.

A Republican Administration will focus its efforts to revitalize neighborhoodsin five areas. We will:

• cut taxes, increase incentives to save, restore sound money, and stimulate capital investment to create jobs;
• create and apply new tax incentives for employees and employers alike to stimulate economic growth and reduce red-tape for business ventures. Local government will be invited to designate specific depressed areas as jobs and enterprise zones;
• encourage our cities to undertake neighborhood revitalization and preservation programs in cooperation with the three essential local interests: local government, neighborhood property owners and residents, and local financial institutions
• replace the categorical aid programs with block grant or revenue sharing programs and, where appropriate, transfer the programs, along with the tax sources to pay for them, back to the state and local governments; and
• remain fully committed to the fair enforcement of all federal civil rights statutes and continue minority business enterprise and similar programs begun by Republican Administrations but bungled by over-regulation and duplication during the Carter Administration.

Republican programs will revitalize the inner cities. New jobs will becreated. The federal government's role will be substantially reduced. Theindividual citizen will reclaim his or her independence.

The revitalization of American cities will proceed from the revitalizationof the neighborhoods. Cities and neighborhoods are no more nor less thanthe people who inhabit them. Their strengths and weaknesses provide theircharacter. If they are to grow, it is the people who must seize the initiativeand lead.

Housing and Homeownership

Our citizens must have a real opportunity to live in decent, affordablehousing. Due to the disastrous policies of the Carter Administration andthe Democratic Congress, however, the goal of homeownership and all thataspiration entails is now in jeopardy. These irrational policies have beencatastrophic to the housing industry. The highest home mortgage interestrates in the history of the United States have depressed housing startsto the lowest level since World War II. Democratic policies guarantee shortagesin owner-occupied and rental housing.

As many as 1.4 million people who depend upon homebuilding for work maylose their jobs in this recession. Many already have. In addition to thetoll taken on millions of American families, intolerable pressures willbuild on state, local, and federal budgets as tax revenues decline and expendituresincrease to aid the unemployed .

We support financing and tax incentives to encourage the constructionof rental housing as an essential addition to our housing inventory.

Prospective first-time home buyers simply cannot afford to buy. The affordabilityof housing has become a crisis. The high rates of inflation have drivenmortgage payments, house prices, and down-payment requirements beyond themeans of close to 80 percent of young American families. In order to assistthe record number of young families who wish to become home buyers, we proposeto implement a young family housing initiative, which would include severalelements such as: urban homesteading, savings and tax reforms, and innovativealternate mortgage instruments to help meet monthly payment requirementswithout federal subsidies. To assist older homeowners, again without federalsubsidy, we urge more extensive availability of the reverse annuity mortgagewhich allows older homeowners to withdraw the substantial equity they havebuilt up in their homes and thus supplement their retirement income. Inorder to slow increases in housing costs, regulations which artificiallylimit housing production and raise housing costs must be eliminated.

We favor expansion of the Republican-sponsored urban homesteading programas a means of restoring abandoned housing. This innovative program is locallyadministered, returns property to the tax rolls, and develops new ownershipand stability within our neighborhoods.

The collapse of new home production and the distress of the housing financesystem are closely related. The stop and go economic policies of the pastyear have created extreme volatility in financial markets which have madeit impossible for thrift institutions to supply housing credit at a reasonablecost.

A set of policies aimed at higher and more stable levels of housing productionwill simultaneously reduce housing costs and unemployment in the economy.To assure a stable and continuous flow of funds for home mortgage financing,we pledge to allow responsible use of mortgage revenue bonds. We will workto change the tax laws to encourage savings so that young families willbe able to afford their dreams.

Specifically, we will support legislation to lower tax rates on savingsin order to increase funds available for housing. This will help particularlyto make homeownership an accessible dream for younger families, encouragingthem not to despair of ever having a home of their own, but to begin workingand saving for it now. We oppose any attempt to end the income tax deductabilityof mortgage interest and property taxes.

Republicans will also end the mismanagement and waste that has characterizedthe Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Carter Administration.As presently structured, HUD programs present local governments and developerswith a maze of bureaucracy, complicated applications, and inflexible requirements,often unsuited to local needs. Such programs often infringe upon the rightof local government to retain jurisdiction over their own zoning laws andbuilding codes. As a result, their cost is so high that relatively few ofthe needy are ultimately housed or helped. Republicans will replace manyof HUD's categorical programs with decentralized block grants to providemore efficient and responsive housing assistance to the elderly the handicapped,and the poor. In remaining programs, particular emphasis should be givento rehabilitation and preservation of existing housing stock as a priorityin federal housing policy.

Crime

Safety and security are vital to the health and well-being of peoplein their neighborhoods and communities. Republicans are committed to ensuringthat neighborhoods will be safe places in which families and individualscan live, and we support and encourage community crime fighting effortssuch as neighborhood crime watch and court monitoring programs.

First, we believe that Republican economic proposals, more particularlythose proposals which strengthen society and smaller communities discussedelsewhere in this document, will go a long way toward stabilizing Americansociety.

Second, we support a vigorous and effective effort on the part of lawenforcement agencies. Although we recognize the vital role of federal lawenforcement agencies, we realize that the most effective weapons againstcrime are state and local agencies.

Just as vital to efforts to stem crime is the fair but firm and speedyapplication of criminal penalties. The existence and application of strongpenalties are effective disincentive to criminal actions. Yet these disincentiveswill only be as strong as our court system's willingness to use them.

We believe that the death penalty serves as an effective deterrent tocapital crime and should be applied by the federal government and by stateswhich approve it as an appropriate penalty for certain major crimes.

We believe the right of citizens to keep and bear arms must be preserved.Accordingly, we oppose federal registration of firearms. Mandatory sentencesfor commission of armed felonies are the most effective means to deter abuseof this right. We therefore support Congressional initiatives to removethose provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968 that do not significantlyimpact on crime but serve rather to restrain the law-abiding citizen inhis legitimate use of firearms.

In recent years, a murderous epidemic of drug abuse has swept our country.Mr. Carter, through his policies and his personnel, has demonstrated littleinterest in stopping its ravages. Republicans consider drug abuse an intolerablethreat to our society, especially to the young. We pledge a government thatwill take seriously its responsibility to curb illegal drug traffic. Wewill first and most urgently restore the ability of the FBI to act effectivelyin this area. Republican government will work with local law enforcementagencies to apprehend and firmly punish drug pushers and drug smugglers,with mandatory sentences where appropriate. We support efforts to crackdown on the sale and advertising of drug paraphernalia. Private, nonprofitdrug abuse rehabilitation agencies have taken the lead in fighting drugabuse, and they deserve greater cooperation and flexibility from federal,state, and local agencies and grant programs. We pledge the enactment oflegislation to ban the utilization of federal funds by grantees of the LegalServices Corporation to render their services in cases involving the pushingor smuggling of drugs as well as in cases of repeat offenders. We commendthe religious leaders, community activists, parents, and local officialswho are working with fervor and dedication to protect young Americans fromthe drug plague.

Urban Transportation

The complex problems of mobility, congestion, and energy resources demandcreative solutions if we are to improve the living conditions of our urbanareas. Many urban centers of our nation need dependable and affordable masstransit systems. The first line of responsibility must lie with the localgovernments. They must be given the latitude to design and implement thetransportation system best suited to their singular circumstances. Republicansbelieve we should encourage effective competition among diverse modes oftransportation. The role of the federal government should be one of givingfinancial and technical support to local authorities, through surface transportationblock grants. Because of the long planning and construction times inherentin bus, rail, and other mass transit systems, a consistent and dependablesource of revenue should be established.

Mass transportation offers the prospect for significant energy conservation.In addition, both management and labor agree that ease of access to theworkplace is an important factor in employment decisions and industrialplant locations. Lack of adequate access is a major reason why businesseshave moved out of crowded urban areas, resulting in lower tax bases forcities. To encourage existing businesses to remain in urban centers andto attract new businesses to urban areas, it is vital that adequate publicand private transportation facilities be provided.

Rural Transportation

Republicans recognize the importance of transportation in the rural areasof America.

Public transit is becoming more significant to rural areas as the costsof energy rise. While public transit will not replace the importance ofprivate vehicles in rural America, it can serve as a vital adjunct to transportationin the neighborhoods throughout rural America.

JOBS AND THE WORKPLACE

We propose to put Americans back to work again by restoring real growthwithout inflation to the United States economy, Republican programs andinitiatives detailed in this platform will create millions of additionalnew jobs in the American workplace. As a result of Mr. Carter's recession,more than eight million Americans are now out of work.

Sweeping change in America's economic policy is needed. We must replacethe Carter Administration's promise of hard times and austerity ‹ onepromise which has been kept ‹ with Republican policies that restoreeconomic growth and create more jobs.

The Democratic Congress and the Carter Administration are espousing programsthat candidate Carter in 1976 said were inhumane: using recession, unemploymenthigh interest rates, and high taxes to fight inflation. The Democrats arenow trying to stop inflation with a recession, a bankrupt policy which isthrowing millions of Americans out of work. They say Americans must tightentheir belts, abandon their dreams, and accept higher taxes, less take-homepay, fewer jobs, and no growth in the national economy.

We categorically reject this approach. Inflation is too much money chasingtoo few goods. Shutting down our nation's factories and throwing millionsof people out of work leads only to shortages and higher prices.

We believe inflation can only be controlled by monetary and spendingrestraint, combined with sharp reductions in the tax and regulatory barriersto savings, investments, production, and jobs.

The Need for Growth and Its Impact on Workers

The Republican Party believes nothing is more important to our nation'sdefense and social well-being than economic growth.

Since 1973, the U.S. economy has grown in real terms at a rate of only1.9 percent a year. This is barely half of the 3.7 percent annual growthrate we experienced between 1950 and 1973 and well below the 4.6 percentgrowth rate we enjoyed between 1961 and 1969. If our economy continues togrow at our current rate of less than two percent a year, our Gross NationalProduct (GNP) will barely reach $3 trillion by 1990.

But if we can regain the growth we experienced during the economic boomof the 1960s, our GNP will reach nearly $4 trillion by the end of the decade,nearly one-third higher.

With this kind of economic growth, incomes would be substantially higherand jobs would be plentiful. Federal revenues would be high enough to providefor a balanced budget, adequate funding of health, education and socialspending, and unquestioned military preeminence, with enough left over toreduce payroll and income taxes on American workers and retirees. Economicgrowth would generate price stability as the expanding economy eliminatedbudget deficits and avoided pressure on the Federal Reserve to create moremoney. And the social gains from economic growth would be enormous. Fastergrowth, higher incomes and plentiful jobs are exactly what the unemployed,the underprivileged, and minorities have been seeking for many years.

All working men and women of America have much to gain from economicgrowth and a healthy business environment. It enhances their bargainingposition by fostering competition among potential employers to provide moreattractive working conditions, better retirement and health benefits, higherwages and salaries, and generally improving job security. A stagnant economy,which Democratic policies have brought about, decreases competition amongbusiness for workers, discourages improved employee benefits, reduces incomelevels, and dramatically increases unemployment.

Savings, Productivity, and Jobs

Savings and investment are the keys to economic growth. Only that partof national income which goes into savings and which is not consumed bygovernment deficits is available to finance real economic growth.

Americans now save less than any other people in the Western world becauseinflation and the high rates of taxation imposed by the Carter Administrationand the Democratic Congress have destroyed their ability and incentive tosave and invest This has strangled economic growth, choked off private initiative,pushed up prices, and retarded productivity and job creation .

The sharp drop in the growth of American productivity is the main reasonwhy Americans' average real weekly earnings are no more than they were 19years ago. This problem has worsened to the point that workers earn eightpercent less in real purchasing power as the Carter term comes to a closethan they did when it began.

The 25 years of Democratic domination of the Congress have cost us ageneration of lost opportunities. The Carter Administration in particularhas opposed every Republican effort to restore the health of the economythrough lower taxes and work efforts, savings, and the modernization ofAmerica's productive machinery .

Republicans are committed to an economic policy based on lower tax ratesand d reduced rate of government spending.

Therefore, the Republican Party pledges to:

• reduce tax rates on individuals and businesses to increase incentives for all Americans and to encourage more savings, investment, output and productivity, and more jobs for Americans;
• provide special incentives for savings by lowering the tax rates on savings and investment income;
• revitalize our productive capacities by simplifying and accelerating tax depreciation schedules for facilities, structures equipment, and vehicles;
• limit government spending to a fixed and smaller percentage of the Gross National Product; and
• balance the budget without tax increases at these lower levels of taxation and spending.

We also oppose Carter proposals to impose withholding on dividend andinterest income. They would serve as a disincentive to save and invest andcreate needless paperwork burdens for government, business, industry, andthe private citizen. They would literally rob the saver of the benefitsof interest compounding and automatic dividend reinvestment programs.

Unless taxes are reduced and federal spending is restrained, our nation'seconomy faces continued inflation, recession and economic stagnation. Taxrate reductions and spending restraint will restore the savings and investmentneeded to create new jobs, increase living standards, and restore our competitiveposition in the world.

Employment Safety-net

To those individuals who have lost their jobs because of the Carter recessionwe pledge to insure that they receive their rightfully earned unemploymentcompensation benefits.

The Republican Party recognizes the need to provide workers who havelost their jobs because of technological obsolescence or imports the opportunityto adjust to changing economic conditions. In particular, we will seek waysto assist workers threatened by foreign competition.

The Democratic Administration's inability to ensure fairness and equitybetween our nation and some of our trading partners has resulted in massiveunemployment in many core industries. As we meet in Detroit, this Partytakes special notice that among the hardest hit have been the automotiveworkers whose jobs are now targeted by aggressive foreign competition. Muchof this problem is a result of the present Administration's inability tonegotiate foreign trade agreements which do not jeopardize American jobs.We will take steps to ensure competitiveness of our domestic industriesto protect American jobs. But for workers who have already lost their jobs,we will provide assistance, incentives for job retraining and placement,and job search and relocation allowances. Toward this end, we will pursuespecific tax and regulatory changes to revitalize America's troubled basicindustries. We will also seek the aid of private individuals, businessesand non-profit organizations to formulate creative new self-supporting answersto training and placement problems as well as non-governmental sources oftemporary financial support.

The Republican Party believes that protectionist tariffs and quotas aredetrimental to our economic well-being. Nevertheless, we insist that ourtrading partners offer our nation the same level of equity, access, andfairness that we have shown them. The mutual benefits of trade require thatit be conducted in the spirit of reciprocity. The Republican Party willconsider appropriate measures necessary to restore equal and fair competitionbetween ourselves and our trading partners.

The international exchange of goods and services must take place underfree and unfettered conditions of market entry.

Training and Skills

Unemployment is a growing problem for millions of Americans, but it isan unparalleled disaster for minority Americans. As this country's economicgrowth has slowed over the past decade, unemployment has become more intractable.The gravity of the crisis is so severe that as we entered the present recession,unemployment was over six percent for the entire labor force but it was33 percent for minority youth. In addition, the black unemployment ratewas 10.8 percent and youth between the ages of 16 and 24 continued to accountfor about one-half of the total unemployed.

Despite the almost $100 billion spent on well-intended public sectoremployment and training programs, the structural unemployment problem continuesto fester among minorities and young people. In addition to providing agrowth climate for job creation, specific and targeted programs must bedeveloped to alleviate these problems.

Since four out of every five jobs are in the private sector, the successof federal employment efforts is dependent on private sector participation.It must be recognized as the ultimate location for unsubsidized jobs, asthe provider of means to attain this end, and as an active participant inthe formulation of employment and training policies on the local and nationallevel. Throughout America, the private and independent sectors have repeatedlyhelped in the creation of minority business through donated counseling andconsulting services. They have encouraged equal opportunity hiring practiceswithin their own industries and have built non-profit, self-supporting trainingcenters where the products produced during training are sold to supportthe programs.

A coordinated approach needs to be developed which maximizes the useof existing community resources, offers adequate incentives to the privatesector, focuses on both large and small business and minimizes red tape.

In recognizing the seriousness of the youth employment problem, Republicansalso realize that a job alone will do very little to move a disadvantagedyoung person beyond the poverty line. Republicans support the creation ofcomprehensive programs for disadvantaged youth which would offer pre-employmenttraining, educational instruction, job placement, and retention services.Second, Republicans support efforts to establish and maintain programs whichseek to match the needs of the private sector and our young people as efficientlyand effectively as possible. We also support expansion of proven skill trainingpractices, such as apprenticeship, as well as private schools and tradeschools. These methods can provide quality training and point toward theacquisition of specific job skills leading to specific employment goals.

We will encourage and foster the growth of new organizations operatedby public-private partnerships to help forge a closer link between the schoolsand private employers. These institutions can afford in-school and out-of-schooldisadvantaged youth with the opportunity to upgrade basic skills, acquirework habits and orientation to work, and move directly from successful completionof the program to private unsubsidized jobs.

We believe that present laws create additional barriers for unemployedyouth. One of the keys to resolving the youth unemployment problem is toreduce the cost to private employers for hiring young people who lack thenecessary skills and experience to become immediately productive. Unfortunately,current government policy makes it too expensive for employers to hire unskilledyouths. We urge a reduction of payroll tax rates, a youth differential forthe minimum wage, and alleviation of other costs of employment until a youngperson can be a productive employee.

Small Business

Small business is the backbone of the American economy, with unique strengthsand problems which must be recognized and addressed. For more than halfof all American workers, the workplace is a small business. Small businessis family business both in the sense that many of them are owned and operatedby single families, and also because most American families rely not onlyon the goods and services, but on the jobs produced there for their livelihoodand standard of living.

Republicans have demonstrated their sensitivity to the problems of thesmall business community. The Carter Administration held a conference tolearn what Republicans have long known. In the Congress, we have been workingto pass legislation to solve small business problems and achieve the verygoals later identified by that conference. A 1978 initiative by the lateRepresentative Bill Steiger reduced the capital gains tax rates which weredestroying capital formation in America. Under the leadership of Republicansin Congress, efforts to simplify and liberalize the restrictive depreciationschedule are a top priority. Another proposal long advocated by our Partyis the drive to encourage the entrepreneur by reform of the regulatory lawswhich stifle the very life of business through fines, threats, and harassment.Republicans realize the immediate necessity of reducing the regulatory burdento give small business a fighting chance against the federal agencies. Webelieve that wherever feasible, small business should be exempt from regulationsand, where exemption is not feasible, small business should be subject toa less onerous tier of regulation. We have offered legislation to reimbursesmall businessmen who successfully challenge the federal government in court.Republicans believe the number one priority for small business in Americais the achievement of lower business and personal tax rates for small businessmenand women and we intend to work to secure them .

All of these initiatives will receive immediate attention from a RepublicanAdministration and Congress. Without such changes as these, the small entrepreneur,who takes the risks which help make the economy grow and provides over 90percent of all new jobs annually, will be an endangered species.

By fostering small business growth, we are promoting permanent privatesector solutions to the unemployment problem. We will continue to providefor small business needs by enacting a substantial increase in the surtaxexemption. The heavy estate tax burden imposed on the American people isthreatening the life savings of millions of our families, forcing spousesand children to sell their homes, businesses, and family farms to pay the'estate taxes. To encourage continuity of family ownership, we will seekto ease this tax burden on all Americans and abolish excessive inheritancetaxes to allow families to retain and pass on their small businesses andfamily farms.

We will reform the patent laws to facilitate innovation and we will furtherthis goal by encouraging a greater share of federal research and developmentbe done by small business. Finally, we will reform those tax laws whichmake it more profitable to break up a small business or merge it into aconglomerate, than to allow it to grow and develop as an independent business.

Fairness to the Worker

The Republican Party is committed to full employment without inflation.We will seek to provide more jobs, increase the standard of living, andensure equitable treatment on the job for all American workers by stimulatingeconomic growth.

We reaffirm our commitment to the fundamental principle of fairness inlabor relations, including the legal right of unions to organize workersand to represent them through collective bargaining consistent with statelaws and free from unnecessary government involvement. We applaud the mutualefforts of labor and management to improve the quality of work life.

Wage demands today often represent the attempt of working men and womento catch up with government-caused inflation and high tax rates. With theblessing of the Democrats' majority in Congress the Council on Wage andPrice Stability has put a de facto ceiling of seven to eight and one-halfpercent on workers' wages while the Administration devalues their paychecksat a rate of 13 to 15 percent The government not the worker, is the principalcause of inflation.

We recognize the need for governmental oversight of the health and safetyof the workplace, without interfering in the economic well-being of employersor the job security of workers.

The Republican Party reaffirms its long-standing support for the rightof states to enact "Right-to-Work" laws under section 14(b) ofthe Taft-Hartley Act.

The political freedom of every worker must be protected. Therefore theRepublican Party strongly supports protections against the practice of usingcompulsory dues and fees for partisan political purposes.

Fairness to the Consumer

The Republican Party shares the concerns of consumers that there be fulldisclosure and fairness in the marketplace. We recognize that governmentregulation and taxes add significantly to costs of goods and services tothe consumer, reducing the standard of living for all Americans. For example,safety and environmental standards, some of which are counterproductive,increase the average price of a new car by over $700. Compliance with thoseregulations alone costs motorists as much as $12 billion a year.

Fairness to the consumer, like fairness to the employer and the worker,requires that government perform certain limited functions and enforce certainsafeguards to ensure that equity, free competition, and safety exist inthe free market economy. However, government action is not itself the solutionto consumer problems; in fact, it has become in large measure a part ofthe problem. By consistent enforcement of law and enhancement of fair competition,government can and should help the consumer.

An informed consumer making economic choices and decisions in the marketplaceis the best regulator of the free enterprise system. Consumers are alsotaxpayers, workers, investors, shoppers, farmers, and producers. The RepublicanParty recognizes the need for consumer protection but feels that such protectionwill not be enhanced by the creation of a new consumer protection bureaucracy.Just as there can be no single monolithic consumer viewpoint, so the RepublicanParty Opposes the funding of special self-proclaimed advocates to representconsumer interests in federal agency proceedings.

Fairness to the Employer

The Republican Party declares war on government overregulation We pledgeto cut down on federal paperwork, cut out excessive regulation, and cutback the bloated bureaucracy.

In addressing these problems we recognize that overregulation is particularlyharmful to America's small businesses whose survival is often threatenedby the excessive costs of complying with government rules and handling federalpaperwork.

While we recognize the role of the federal government in establishingcertain minimum standards designed to improve the quality of life in America,we reaffirm our conviction that these standards can be attained throughinnovative efforts of American business without the federal government mandatingthe methods of attainment.

The extraordinary growth of government. particularly since the middle1960s, has brought mounting costs to society which, in turn, have addedto inflationary pressures reduced productivity, discouraged new investment,destroyed jobs, and increased bureaucratic intrusion into everyday life.

Regulatory costs are now running in excess of $100 billion each year,or about $1,800 for every American family. Federal paperwork annually costsbusinesses from $25 to $32 billion. According to official figures, it takesindividuals and business firms over 143 million man-hours to complete 4,400different federal forms each year. Government regulation produces many indirect,immeasurable costs as well and has led to increased bureaucratization ofindustry. Regulation also restricts personal choices, tends to undermineAmerica's democratic public institutions, and threatens to destroy the private,competitive free market economy it was originally designed to protect.

Government Reform

In the face of a crisis of overregulation, the Carter Administrationand the Democrats who control Congress have failed to recognize the problemsfacing workers, employers, and consumers and seem unable to come to gripswith the underlying causes While belatedly supporting transportation deregulationprograms initiated by previous Republican Administrations. they have embarkedon ambitious new schemes to tighten Washington's hold on energy and education.They have ignored or sidetracked Republican proposals to eliminate wastefuland outmoded spending Programs and regulations. They have combined to pushthrough more legislation and create additional programs which expand thesize and power of the federal bureaucracy at the expense of ordinary taxpayers,consumers and businesses. In contradiction to 1976 Carter campaign promisesto cut back on regulation, the number of pages in the Federal Register devotedto new rules and regulations has increased from 57,072 in 1976 to 77,497in 1979 and will approach 90,000 by the end of 1980.

The result of Democratic rule in both the White House and the Congressis that government power has grown unchecked. Excessive regulation remainsa major component of our nation's spiraling inflation and continues to stifleprivate initiative, individual freedom, and state and local government autonomy.

The Republican Party pledges itself to a comprehensive program of governmentreform. We propose to enact a temporary moratorium on all new federal regulationsthat diminish the supply of goods and services and add significantly to.inflation. Such a moratorium will be consistent with the goal of achievinga safe and healthy working environment. We shall work to reduce substantiallythe regulatory and paperwork burdens on small businesses.

We encourage management and labor to form joint safety and health committeesto make the workplace a better place to produce goods and services. At thesame time we believe that the arbitrary and high-handed tactics used byOSHA bureaucrats must end. OSHA should concentrate its resources on encouragingvoluntary compliance by employers and monitoring situations where closefederal supervision is needed and serious hazards are most likely to occur.OSHA should be required to consult with, advise, and assist businesses incoping with the regulatory burden before imposing any penalty for non-compliance.Small businesses and employers with good safety records should be exemptfrom safety inspections, and penalties should be increased for those withconsistently poor performance.

Agriculture

In no American workplace is there to be found greater productivity, cooperation,neighborly concern, creative use of applied science, information and relevantresearch, honesty, perseverance, hard work, and independence than on thefarm and ranch.

The Republican Party takes pride in the ability of American farmers toprovide abundant, high quality, and nutritious food and fiber for all ourcitizens including those most in need and to millions throughout the world,and at the same time to supply the largest single component in our exportbalance of trade.

Crisis in Agriculture

Four years of the Carter Administration and 25 consecutive years of aCongress controlled by Democrats have brought farmers and ranchers to thebrink of disaster and the hardest times they have known since the GreatDepression. In the last four years, more than 100,000 family farms havefailed as farm income has plummeted. Even the present Administration's ownfigures show a decrease in real net farm income of some 40 percent in thelast year alone ‹ from $33 billion in 1979 to less than $22 billionprojected for 1980.

The Democratic Party and the Carter Administration have abused theirauthority and failed in their responsibility to provide sound agriculturalpolicies. Republicans pledge to make life in rural America prosperous again.We will:

• increase net farm income by supporting and refining programs to bring profitable farm prices with the goal of surpassing parity levels in a market-oriented agricultural economy;
• control inflation by adopting sound fiscal and monetary policies and by eliminating excessive and unnecessary federal regulations;
• expand markets at home by effectively utilizing the advantages of the energy potential for farm, forestry, and other biomass products. We encourage the continued innovative efforts in developing alcohol and other renewable energy sources and equipment for both on-farm and commercial use;
• aggressively expand markets abroad by effectively using the Eisenhower Food for Peace program and revolving credit incentives, working to remove foreign restraints on American products and encouraging the development of dependable new markets in developing countries
• assure a priority allocation of fuel for U.S. agriculture, including food and fiber production, transportation, and processing; and
• combine efforts to encourage the renewable resource timber production capability of privately-owned forests and woodlands with a federal program committed to multiple-use (timber, recreation, wildlife, watershed and/or range management) where federal land has not been designated as wilderness.

Rural America

Attention to the quality of life in our rural areas is a vital necessitybecause rural Americans impart a special strength to the national character.It is our goal to assure that all rural citizens ‹ whether they arefarmers or not ‹ have the same consideration in matters of economicdevelopment, in energy, credit and transportation availability. and in employmentopportunities which are given to those who live in towns and cities. Theopportunity for non-farm jobs enhances the ability of people to live andwork in rural America in the decade ahead, and our dedication to a prosperousand energetic rural America is part and parcel of our commitment to makeAmerica great again.

Expand Export Markets

Agriculture's contribution to the U.S. trade balance makes it especiallyfitting that an aggressive market development program to establish dependablenew markets for farm exports will be a vital part of the policies to restoreprofitability to American agriculture. Republicans will ensure that:

• international trade is conducted on the basis of fair and effective competition and that all imported agricultural products meet the same standards of quality that are required of American producers;
• the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade becomes a meaningful vehicle for handling agricultural trade problems and grievances;
• an aggressive agricultural market development program and the streamlining of the export marketing system is given top national priority;
• government-to-government sales of agricultural commodities be eliminated, except as specifically provided by law;
• the future of U.S. agricultural commodities is protected from the economic evils of predatory dumping by other producing nations and that the domestic production of these commodities, so important to the survival of individuals and small rural communities is preserved; and
• the important and productive potential of the commercial seafood industry is given encouragement.

Farmer-Held Reserves

We support farmer-owned grain reserves, should they become necessary,and adamantly oppose government-controlled reserves.

Grain Embargo

We believe that agricultural embargoes are only symbolic and are ineffectivetools of foreign policy. We oppose singling out American farmers to bearthe brunt of Carter's ill-conceived, ineffective, and improperly implementedgrain embargo. The Carter grain embargo should be terminated immediately.

Excessive Regulation of Agriculture

The crushing burden of excessive federal regulation such as many of thoseimposed on farmers, ranchers, foresters, and commercial fishermen by OSHA,EPA, the departments of Agriculture, Labor, Justice, Interior, and othergovernment entities are unrealistic and unnecessary.

We pledge a sensible approach to reduce excessive federal regulationthat is draining the profitability from farming, ranching, and commercialfishing. Especially high on the agenda for changes in policy under Republicanleadership are such regulatory issues as the Interior Department's ineffectivepredator control policies, EPA and FDA's excessive adherence to "zerorisk" policies relative to the use of pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics,food additives, preservatives, and the like.

Soil and Water Conservation

We believe the strong soil and water conservation stewardship to whichfarmers, ranchers, watermen, and rural Americans are devoted is exemplary,and encourage appropriate local, state, and federal programs to give conservationpractices vitality. Voluntary participation with adequate incentives isessential to the effective conservation of our soil and water resources.

Water Policy

The conservation and development of the nation's water resources arevital requisites for rebuilding America's national strength. The naturalabundance of water can no longer be taken for granted. The impending crisisin water could be far more serious than our energy problems unless we actnow. A dynamic water policy, which addresses our national diversity in climategeography, and patterns of land ownership, and includes all requirementsacross the spectrum of water use, including Reclamation policy, will bea priority of the Republican Administration working with the advice andcounsel of state and local interests. We must develop a partnership betweenthe federal and state governments which will not destroy traditional statesupremacy in water law. Further, there must be cooperation between the ExecutiveBranch and Congress in developing and implementing that policy. Lack ofsuch partnership has resulted in four years of bitter confrontation betweenthe states and the obstructive policies of the Democratic Administration.The Congress has been frustrated in its efforts to conserve and developour water resources. Working together, the states and the federal governmentcan meet the impending water crisis through innovative and alternative approachesto such problems as cleaning our lakes and rivers, reducing toxic pollution,developing multiple-use projects, and achieving a workable balance betweenthe many competing demands on our water resources.

Agricultural Labor

Comprehensive labor legislation, which will be fair to American workersand encourage better relations with our neighbors in Mexico and Canada withwhom we wish to establish a working North American Accord, is an essentialendeavor. We deplore disruptive work stoppages which interrupt the supplyof food to consumers.

Taxation

Federal estate and gift taxes have a particularly pernicious effect onfamily farms. Young farmers who inherit farm property are often forced tosell off part of the family farm to pay taxes. Once these taxes are paid,young farmers often must begin their careers deeply in debt. Our tax lawsmust be reformed to encourage rather than discourage family farming andranching.

We deplore the imposition of present excessive estate and gift taxeson family farms. We support the use of lower, productivity-based valuationwhen farms are transferred within the family. Further, we believe that nospouse should pay estate taxes on farm property inherited from a husbandor wife. We support the Republican tax cut proposal which provides accelerateddepreciation and expanded investment tax credits to farm vehicles, equipment,and structures Finally, we support legislation which would remove tax advantagesforeign investors realize on the sale of U.S. forests, farmland, and otherreal estate.

Rural Transportation

It is essential to the well-being and security of our nation that anadequate rural transportation system be restored as a vital link betweenrural areas and their marked both domestic and export. Overall, we pledgeto eliminate those rules and regulations which are restrictive to the freeflow of commerce and trade of agricultural products and encourage an environmentthat will enhance the private development and improvement of all modes oftransportation to move agricultural production swiftly, safely, and economically.Recognizing the inherent advantages of each mode of transportation, theRepublican Party will work to encourage and allow those advantages to beutilized on a balanced and equitable basis.

We believe the federal 55 miles per hour speed limit is counterproductiveand contributes to higher costs of goods and services to all communities,particularly in rural America. The most effective, no-cost federal assistanceprogram available would be for each state to set its own speed limit.

A Strong USDA

We pledge an Administration dedicated to restoring profitability to agriculture.A top priority will be the selection of a qualified and effective Secretaryand policy staff who will speak up for American farmers ‹ and a Presidentwho will listen.

America's preeminence in agriculture is rooted in a system of agriculturalresearch, extension, and teaching ‹ unique and unequalled in the world.Land Grant Universities focus on problems of national, regional, and localconcern. Cooperative extension, operating in every county of the UnitedStates and its territories, brings the results of USDA and Land Grant Universityresearch to farmers and ranchers, rural women, consumers, agribusiness,and to youth through 4-H programs.

Food Safety

The Republican Party favors a legislative effort to revise and modernizeour food safety laws, providing guidelines for risk assessment, benefitassessment, peer review, and regulatory flexibility which are consistentwith other government health and safety policies.

Cooperatives

We believe farmer cooperatives and rural electric and telephone cooperativesprovide essential benefits to farmers and the rural Americans they serve,and we support exclusive jurisdiction of USDA in the effective administrationof the Capper-Volstead Act.

We Republicans pledge ourselves to work with farmers, ranchers, and ourfriends and neighbors to make America great again.

THE NATION

Though a relatively young nation among those of western civilizationwe are possessed of one of the oldest institutions of government extant.Steeped in the Judeo-Christian ethic and in Anglo-Saxon theories of lawand right, our legal and political institutions have evolved over many generationsto form a stable system that serves free men and women well. It governsa people of multifarious heritage dispersed across a great continent ofmarked geographical contrasts. It presides over a diverse economy that inits collective whole is the largest most powerful and most resilient inthe world. In the two centuries of its life, though it has from time totime been sorely tested by constitutional, economic, and social crises,it has stood and not been found wanting. Its timeless strength, coupledwith and reinforced by the faith and good will, the wisdom and confidenceof the people from whom it derives its powers, has preserved us as a nationof enormous vitality.

The intent of the Founders, embraced and reflected by succeeding generationsof Americans, was that the central government should perform only thosefunctions which are necessary concomitants of nationality, preserve order,and do for people only those things which they cannot do for themselves.The durability of our system lies in its flexibility and its accommodationto diversity and changing circumstance. It is notable as much for what itpermits as for what it proscribes. Government must ever be the servant ofthe nation, not its master.

Big Government

Under the guise of providing for the common good, Democratic Party dominationof the body politic over the last 47 years has produced a central governmentof vastly expanded size, scope, and rigidity. Confidence in government,especially big government, has been the chief casualty of too many promisesmade and broken, too many commitments unkept. It is time for change ‹time to de-emphasize big bureaucracies ‹ time to shift the focus ofnational politics from expanding government s power to that of restoringthe strength of smaller communities such as the family, the neighborhood,and the workplace .

Government's power to take and tax, to regulate and require has alreadyreached extravagant proportions. As government's power continues to grow,the "consent of the governed will diminish. Republicans support anend to the growth of the federal government and pledge to return the decisionmakingprocess to the smaller communities of society.

The emergence of policies and programs which will revitalize the freeenterprise system and reverse the trend toward regulation is essential.To sustain the implementation of such policy, it is necessary to raise thepublic awareness and understanding that our free enterprise system is thesource of all income, government and private and raise the individual'sawareness of his or her vested interest in its growth and vitality

The Republican Party believes that it is important to develop a growingconstituency which recognizes its direct relationship to the health andsuccess of free enterprise, and realizes the negative impact of excessiveregulation. Education and involvement in the system are the best means toaccomplish this. To this end, we will actively pursue new and expandingopportunities for all Americans to become more directly involved in ourfree enterprise system .

Government Reorganization

The Republican Party reaffirms its belief in the decentralization ofthe federal government and in the traditional American principle that thebest government is the one closest to the people. There, it is less costly,more accountable, and more responsive to people's needs. Against the prevailingtrend toward increased centralization of government under the Democrats,Republicans succeeded in the 1970s in initiating large scale revenue sharingand block grant programs to disperse the power of the federal governmentand share it with the states and localities.

Our states and localities have the talent, wisdom, and determinationto respond to the variety of demands made upon them. Block grants and revenuesharing provide local government with the means and the flexibility to solvetheir own problems in ways most appropriate for each locale. Unlike categoricalgrants, they do not lock states and localities into priorities and needsperceived by Washington. They are also more efficient because block grantsand revenue sharing relieve both local government and the federal governmentfrom the costly and complicated process of program application, implementation,and review associated with the categorical grant system .

We pledge to continue to redouble our efforts to return power to thestate and local governments. The regionalization of government encouragedby federal policies diminishes the responsiveness of state and local governmentsand impairs the power of the people to control their destiny.

While Republican efforts have been focused on sharing revenues and thepowers that go with it, the Carter Administration has been preoccupied withthe reorganization and consolidation of central authority. As a result,we have the Departments of Energy and Education, for example, but no moreoil and gas, or learning, to show for it.

When we mistakenly rely on government to solve all our problems we ignorethe abilities of people to solve their own problems. We pledge to renewthe dispersion of power from the federal government to the states and localities.But this will not be enough. We pledge to extend the process so that powercan be transferred as well to non-governmental institutions.

Government Reform

We favor the establishment of a commission of distinguished citizensto recommend ways of reorganizing and reducing the size and scope of theExecutive Branch. Federal departments, agencies, and bureaus should be consolidatedwhere possible to end waste and improve the delivery of essential services.Republicans pledge to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and reduce governmentpaperwork. Agencies should be made to justify every official form and filingrequirement. Where possible, we favor deregulation, especially in the energy,transportation, and communications industries. We believe that the marketplace,rather than the bureaucrats, should regulate management decisions.

The unremitting delegation of authority to the rule-makers by successiveDemocratic Congresses and the abuse of that authority has led to our currentcrisis of overregulation. For that reason, we support use of the Congressionalveto, sunset laws, and strict budgetary control of the bureaucracies asa means of eliminating unnecessary spending and regulations. Agencies shouldbe required to review existing regulations and eliminate those that areoutmoded, duplicative, or contradictory. They must conduct cost-benefitanalyses of major proposed regulations to determine their impact on theeconomy, on public health and safety, on state and local government, andon competition. We recommend legislation which would eliminate the presentpresumption of validity in favor of federal regulations. We also supportlegislation to require the federal government to provide restitution tothose who have been wrongfully injured by agency actions. We oppose theuse of tax monies by any federal agency to pay the expenses of intervenersin the rule-making process.

We recognize that there are dangers inherent in the rapid growth of thefederal bureaucracy, especially the arbitrary nature of its discretionarypower and the abuses of procedural safeguards. Accordingly, we pledge towork for fundamental changes in the federal Administrative Procedures Actin order to give citizens the same constitutional protections before a governmentagency that they have in a courtroom. Among these reforms are requirementsthat agencies publish in the Federal Register all rules and statements ofpolicy before they are adopted, that a person be guaranteed written noticeand the opportunity to submit facts and arguments in any adjudicatory proceeding,that an agency decision be consistent with prior decisions unless otherwiseprovided by law, and that a person may seek judicial review without firstexhausting his or her administrative remedies. At the same time we urgethe Congress to strengthen its oversight to ensure that the agencies complywith the deadlines, report filing and other requirements mandated by law.

We propose to repeal federal restrictions and rewrite federal standardswhich hinder minorities from finding employment, starting their own businesses,gaining valuable work experience, or enjoying the fruits of their own labors.

Because there are too many federal employees in comparison to privatesector employees, there should be no further increase in the number of civilianfederal employees if that would increase the ratio of federal employeesto private sector employees over the present ratio.

Election Reform

The Republican Party has consistently encouraged full participation inour electoral process and is disturbed by the steady decline in voter participationin the United States in recent years. We believe that the increased voterturnout during the past year in Republican campaigns is due to dissatisfactionwith Democratic officials and their failure to heed popular demands to cuttaxes, restrain spending, curb inflation, and drastically reduce regulation.

Republicans support public policies that will promote electoral participationwithout compromising ballot-box security. We strongly oppose national postcardvoter registration schemes because they are an open invitation to fraud.

Republicans support public policies that encourage political activityby individual citizens. We support the repeal of those restrictive campaignspending limitations that tend to create obstacles to local grassroots participationin federal elections. We also oppose the proposed financing of congressionalcampaigns with taxpayers' dollars as an effort by the Democratic Party toprotect its incumbent Members of Congress with a tax subsidy. We preferthe present system of having the states and party rules determine the presidentialnominating process to the concept of a uniform national primary which wouldonly add to the already high costs of, and excessive federal intrusion into,presidential campaigns.

We support the critical roles of competitive political parties in therecruitment of candidates, the conduct of campaigns, and the developmentof broad-based public policy responsive to the people. We urge Congressand state legislatures to frame their regulations of campaign finance, theirnominating systems, and other election laws to strengthen rather than weakenparties.

Arts and Humanities

Recent Republican Administrations led the way in bringing together privatesupport and governmental encouragement to effect a tremendous expansionof artistic and scholarly endeavor. The Carter Administration has crudelypoliticized these programs, lowering their standards of excellence and increasingfederal control over them .

The Republican Party will restore the sound economy which is absolutelynecessary for the arts and humanities to flourish. We will restore, as well,the integrity of federal programs in this area. Most important, to ensurethe continued primacy of private funding for the arts, we reiterate oursupport of broader tax incentives for contributions to charitable and culturalorganizations.

Transportation

America's transportation system must be designed to meet the requirementsof the people, not to dictate what those requirements should be. Essentialto any industrialized country is a transportation system which providesefficient and reliable service for both the movement of people and freight,urban and rural, domestic and foreign. Our nation has one of the finesttransportation systems in the world but there is a danger that it will beunable to meet the future needs of a growing America.

Present levels of public and private investment will not preserve theexisting system. For example, highways are deteriorating twice as fast asthey are being rebuilt and inadequate rehabilitation will soon cost usersmore in reduced service levels than the cost of adequate rehabilitation.

The demand for transportation will grow dramatically in the next twodecades with people-miles travelled increasing by over 50 percent and freightton-miles more than doubling.

Government overregulation is inhibiting the return on investment necessaryto attract capital for future growth and jobs creation.

A maze of federal agencies, Congressional committees, and convictingpolicies is driving up costs and retarding innovation.

A lackluster energy policy, impeding production of oil, coal, and otherforms of energy is endangering transportation's ability to keep up withdemand.

Consequently, the role of government in transportation must be redefined.The forces of the free market must be brought to bear to promote competition,reduce costs, and improve the return on investment to stimulate capitalformation in the private sector. The role of government must change fromone of overbearing regulation to one of providing incentives for technologicaland innovative developments, while assuring through anti-trust enforcementthat neither predatory competitive pricing nor price gouging of captivecustomers will occur.

Increased emphasis must be placed on the importance of having a well-balancednational transportation system where highways, passenger vehicles, buses,trucks, rail, water, pipelines, and air transportation each provide thoseservices which they do best, while offering the widest range of reasonablechoices for both passenger and freight movement. A sound transportationsystem is a prerequisite for the vision of America that Republicans embrace‹ a prosperous, growing nation where dreams can still come true.

Energy

Energy is the lifeblood of our economy. Without adequate energy suppliesnow and in the future, the jobs of American men and women, the securityof their lives, and their ability to provide for their families will bethreatened and their standard of living will be lowered. Every Americanis painfully aware that our national energy situation has deteriorated badlyover the past four years of Democratic control. Gasoline prices have morethan doubled. Our oil import bill has risen 96 percent. Our energy supplieshave become increasingly vulnerable because U.S. oil production outsideof Alaska is now 23 percent below 1973 levels. The threat of sudden shortages,curtailments, and gas lines has become a recurring reality.

This steady deterioration has not only compounded our economic problemsof inflation, recession, and dollar weakness, but even more importantly,it has infected our confidence as a nation. Energy shortages spirallingcosts, and increasing insecurity are beginning to darken our basic hopesand expectations for the future.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has veryaccurately focused on the effects that a no-growth energy policy will haveon the opportunities of America's black people and other minorities. TheNAACP said that "a pessimistic attitude toward energy supplies forthe future ... cannot satisfy the fundamental requirement of a society ofexpanding economic opportunity."

In commenting on the Carter energy proposals the Association said, "Wecannot accept the notion that our people are best served by a policy basedupon the inevitability of energy shortage and the need for government toallocate an ever diminishing supply among competing interests.... The planreflects the absence of a black perspective in its development."

Three and one-half year ago, President Carter declared energy the "moralequivalent of war" and sent Congress 109 recommendations for action,including the creation of a new Department of Energy. Since then, the federalbudget for government's energy bureaucracy has grown to about 810 billionper year and more than 20,000 pages of new energy regulations and guidelineshave been issued. But these have not fostered the production of a singleextra unit of energy.

The Democratic Congress has joined in the stampede, taking action on304 energy bills since 1977. As a result, the federal bureaucracy is busyfrom coast to coast allocating gasoline, setting building temperatures,printing rationing coupons, and readying standby plans to ban weekend boating,close factories, and pass out "no drive day" stickers to Americanmotorists ‹ all the time saying, "we must make do with less."Never before in the history of American government has so much been doneat such great expense with such dismal results.

Republicans believe this disappointing cycle of shrinking energy prospectsand expanding government regulation and meddling is wholly unnecessary.We believe that the proven American values of individual enterprise cansolve our energy problems. This optimism stands in stark contrast to thegrim predictions of the Democrats who have controlled Congress for the last25 years.

They seem to believe not only that we are a nation without resources,but also that we have lost our resourcefulness, Republicans believe in thecommon sense of the American people rather than a complex web of governmentcontrols and interventions that threaten America's ability to grow We arecommitted to an alternative strategy of aggressively boosting the nations energy supplies; stimulating new energy technology and more efficientenergy use; restoring maximum feasible choice and freedom in the marketplacefor energy consumers and producers alike; and eliminating energy shortagesand disruptions as a roadblock to renewed national economic growth. risingliving standards, and a reawakening of the hopes and dreams of the Americanpeople for a better and more abundant future.

We believe the United States must proceed on a steady and orderly pathtoward energy self-sufficiency. But in the interim, our pressing need forinsurance against supply disruption should not be made hostage to the whimsof foreign governments, as is presently the case under the Carter Administration.We believe it is necessary to resume rapid filling of strategic oil reservesto planned levels of 500 million barrels in the short-term and ultimatelyto the one-billion barrel level, and to insure that noncontiguous areasof the United States have their fair share of emergency oil reserves storedwithin their respective boundaries, as authorized by the Energy Policy andConservation Act of 1975

In order to increase domestic production of energy, Republicans advocatethe decontrol of the price at the well head of oil and gas. We believe thatthe so-called windfall profits tax (which is unrelated to profit), shouldbe repealed as it applies to small volume royalty owners, new oil, stripperwells, tertiary-recovery, and heavy crude oil. and that the phase-out ofthe tax on old oil should be accelerated. This tax legislation should beamended to include a plowback provision. We will seek decontrol of priceson all oil products and an end to government authority to allocate petroleumsupplies except in national emergency We also believe that market restrictionson the use of natural gas should be eliminated.

Coal, our most abundant energy resource can bridge the gap between ourother present energy sources and the renewable energy sources of the future.The coal industry has been virtually ignored by the Carter Administrationand the Democratic Congress. In 1977, President Carter promised to doublecoal production by 1985 Instead, because of obstructionist actions of theAdministration, coal production has increased by only 11 percent to dateand future prospects are dim. Today, thousands of coal miners are out ofwork and without hope for the future.

Republicans support a comprehensive program of regulatory reform, improvedincentives, and revision of cumbersome and overly stringent Clean Air Actregulations. This program will speed conversion of utility, industrial,and large commercial oil-burning boilers to coal to the greatest extentfeasible, thus substantially cutting our dependence on foreign oil. Thisprogram must begin immediately on a priority basis and be completed at theearliest date possible.

To effectively utilize this vast resource, our coal transportation systemsmust be upgraded and the government controls on them relaxed. Governmentregulation regarding the mining and use of coal must be simplified. We willpropose a policy which will assure that governmental restraints, other thannecessary and reasonable environmental controls, do not prevent the useof coal. We also reaffirm that mined lands must be returned to beneficialuse and that states, in accordance with past Congressional mandate, havethe primary responsibility to implement rules concerning the mining of coalwhich are adapted to the states' unique characteristics.

Coal, gas, and nuclear fission offer the best intermediate solutionsto America's energy needs. We support accelerated use of nuclear energythrough technologies that have been proven efficient and safe. The safeoperation, as well as design, of nuclear generating plants will have ourhighest priority to assure the continued availability of this importantenergy source. The design and operation of these plants can be guaranteedin less than the 10 to 12 year lead time now required to license and buildthem. We believe that the licensing process can and should be streamlinedthrough consolidation of the present process and the use of standardizedreactor designs.

The Three Mile Island incident suggests the need for certain reforms,such as in the area of operator training, but illustrates that properlydesigned and operated nuclear plants do not endanger public health or safety.We further encourage the research, development, and demonstration of thebreeder reactor with its potential for safely contributing to our nation'sfuture energy supplies.

Nuclear power development requires sound plans for nuclear waste disposaland storage and reprocessing of spent fuel. Technical solutions to theseproblems exist, and decisive federal action to choose and implement solutionsis essential. The Democratic-controlled Congress and Administration havefailed to address the spent fuel problem. A Republican Congress and Administrationwill immediately begin to implement plans for regional away-from-reactorstorage of spent fuel with the goal of implementation of a program no laterthan 1984.

Republicans are committed to the rapid development of permanent storagefacilities for nuclear wastes. Since waste disposal is a national responsibility,no state should bear an unacceptable share of this responsibility.

Republicans will also move toward reprocessing of spent fuel.

Republicans will continue to support the development of new technologiesto develop liquid, gaseous, and solid hydrocarbons which can be derivedfrom coal, oil shale, and tar sands. The decontrol of oil and gas priceswill eliminate any necessity for government support for a synthetic fuelindustry except possibly for limited demonstration projects. Clean air,water, waste disposal, mine reclamation, and leasing rules must be maderational and final to accelerate private investment.

Gasohol is an important, immediately available source of energy thatis helping to extend our petroleum reserves. We encourage development ofa domestic gasohol industry.

We also believe the government must continue supporting productive researchto speed the development of renewable energy technology, including solarenergy, geothermal, wind, nuclear fusion, alcohol synthesis, and biomass,to provide the next generation of energy sources.

Conservation clearly plays a vital role in the consideration and formulationof national energy policy. Republicans reject, however, the position ofthe Democrats which is to conserve through government fiat. Republicansunderstand that free markets based on the collective priorities and judgmentsof individual consumers will efficiently allocate the energy supplies totheir most highly valued uses. We also believe that the role of governmentis best performed by structuring creative cost-effective incentives to achieveenergy efficiency and conservation.

We reject unequivocally punitive gasoline and other energy taxes designedto artificially suppress energy consumption.

Much inefficient energy use results from government subsidization ofimported oil and holding the price of natural gas substantially below itsmarket value. When the price of energy is held artificially low, there isno incentive for conservation. This kind of energy consumption stems notfrom the excesses of the public, but the foolish policy distortions of government.Every BTU of genuine energy "waste" in our economy would rapidlydisappear if we immediately and completely dismantle all remaining energyprice controls and subsidies.

A Republican policy of decontrol, development of our domestic energyresources, and incentives for new supply and conservation technologies willsubstantially reduce our dependence on imported oil. We reject the CarterAdministration's incessant excuse that the high price of imported oil andOPEC are the primary cause of inflation and recession at home and a weakdollar and declining balance of payments abroad. The fastest way to bringinternational oil prices under control is to stop printing so recklesslythe dollar in which those prices are denominated. Fully 60 percent of theworld oil price increase since 1973 represents the depreciation of our dollarsrather than an increase in the real price of oil.

Virtually all major environmental legislation in the past decade reflecteda bipartisan concern over the need to maintain a clean and healthful environment.While the new environmental policies have resulted in improving air quality,cleaner waters, and more careful analysis of toxic chemicals, the pricepaid has far exceeded the direct and necessary cost of designing and installingnew control technology. In the energy area, the increased complexity ofregulations, together with continual changes in the standards imposed, havebrought about tremendous delays in the planning and construction of newfacilities ranging Tom electric power plants to oil refineries, pipelines,and synthetic fuel plants.

Republicans believe that an effective balance between energy and environmentalgoals can be achieved. We can ensure that government requirements are firmlygrounded on the best scientific evidence available, that they are embracedevenhandedly and predictably, and that the process of their developmentand enforcement has finality.

Republicans condemn the Democrats' withdrawal of a massive amount ofthe most promising federal lands from prospective energy development, includingthe rich potential of our Outer Continental Shelf. It has been estimatedthat by the end of the 1980s resources from government-controlled acreagecould yield over two million barrels of oil per day and four trillion cubicfeet of gas per year, the equivalent of nearly all of our imports from OPECcountries. It is clear that restrictive leasing policies have driven usfurther to depend on OPEC by severely impairing the exploration for, anddevelopment of, domestic oil, gas, and coal resources, thereby aggravatingour balance of trade deficit and making our country less secure. Republicanswill move toward making available all suitable federal lands for multipleuse purposes including exploration and production of energy resources.

Republicans believe that in order to address our energy problem we mustmaximize our domestic energy production capability. In the short term, therefore,the nation must move forward on all fronts simultaneously, including oiland gas, coal, and nuclear. In the longer term, renewable resources mustbe brought significantly on line to replace conventional sources. Finally,in conjunction with this all-out production initiative, we must strive tomaximize conservation and the efficient use of energy.

The return to the traditions that gave vitality and strength to thisnation is urgent.

The free world ‹ indeed western civilization ‹ needs a strongUnited States. That strength requires a prospering economy. That economywill be secure with a vigorous domestic energy industry. That vigor canonly be achieved in an atmosphere of freedom ‹ one that encouragesindividual initiatives and personal resourcefulness.

Environment

The Republican Party reaffirms its long standing commitment to the conservationand wise management of America's renewable natural resources.

We believe that a healthy environment is essential to the present andfuture wellbeing of our people, and to sustainable national growth.

The nature of environmental pollution is such that a government roleis necessary to insure its control and the proper protection of public health.Much progress has been made in achieving the goals of clean air, clean water,and control of toxic wastes. At the same time, we believe that it is imperativethat environmental laws and regulations be reviewed, and where necessary,reformed to ensure that the benefits achieved justify the costs imposed.Too often, current regulations are so rigid and narrow that even individualinnovations that improve the environment cannot be implemented. We believe,in particular, that regulatory procedures must be reformed to expedite decisionmaking.Endless delay harms both the environment and the economy.

We strongly affirm that environmental protection must not become a coverfor a "no-growth" policy and a shrinking economy. Our economycan continue to grow in an acceptable environment.

We believe that agricultural policy should give emphasis to the stewardshipof the nation's soil and water resources. The permanent loss of productivefarm land is a growing problem and we encourage states and local communitiesto adopt policies that help maintain and protect productive agriculturalland as a national asset.

Immigration and Refugee Policy

Residency in the United States is one of the most precious and valuedof conditions. The traditional hospitality of the American people has beenseverely tested by recent events, but it remains the strongest in the world.Republicans are proud that our people have opened their arms and heartsto strangers from abroad and we favor an immigration and refugee policywhich is consistent with this tradition. We believe that to the fullestextent possible those immigrants should be admitted who will make a positivecontribution to America and who are willing to accept the fundamental Americanvalues and way of life. At the same time, United States immigration andrefugee policy must reflect the interests of the nation's political andeconomic well-being. Immigration into this country must not be determinedsolely by foreign governments or even by the millions of people around theworld who wish to come to America. The federal government has a duty toadopt immigration laws and follow enforcement procedures which will fairlyand effectively implement the immigration policy desired by American people.

The immediate adoption of this policy is essential to an orderly approachto the great problem of oppressed people seeking entry, so that the deservingcan be accepted in America without adding to their hardships.

The refugee problem is an international problem and every effort shouldbe made to coordinate plans for absorbing refugee populations with regionalbodies, such as the Organization of American States and the Associationof South East Asian Nations, on a global basis.

The Judiciary

Under Mr. Carter, many appointments to federal judgeships have been particularlydisappointing. By his partisan nominations, he has violated his explicitcampaign promise of 1976 and has blatantly disregarded the public interest.We pledge to reverse that deplorable trend, through the appointment of womenand men who respect and reflect the values of the American people, and whosejudicial philosophy is characterized by the highest regard for protectingthe rights of law-abiding citizens, and is consistent with the belief inthe decentralization of the federal government and efforts to return decisionmakingpower to state and local elected officials.

We will work for the appointment of judges at all levels of the judiciarywho respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent humanlife.

Taxes and Government Spending

Elsewhere in this platform, we have pledged for the sake of individualfreedom and economic growth to cut personal income tax rates for all. Republicansbelieve that these tax rate reductions should be complemented by firm limitationson the growth of federal spending as provided by the Roth-Kemp Bill. TheRepublican Party therefore, pledges to place limits on federal spendingas a percent of the Gross National Product. It is now over 21 percent. Wepledge to reduce it. If federal spending is reduced as tax cuts are phasedin, there will be sufficient budget surpluses to fund the tax cuts, andallow for reasonable growth in necessary program spending.

By increasing economic growth, tax rate reduction will reduce the needfor government spending on unemployment, welfare, and public jobs programs.However, the Republican Party will also halt excessive government spendingby eliminating waste, fraud, and duplication.

We believe that the Congressional budget process has failed to controlfederal spending. Indeed, because of its big spending bias, the budget processhas actually contributed to higher levels of social spending, has preventednecessary growth in defense spending, and has been used to frustrate everyRepublican attempt to lower tax rates to promote economic growth.

The immediate burden of reducing federal spending rests on the shouldersof the President and the Congress. We believe a Republican President anda Republican Congress can balance the budget and reduce spending throughlegislative actions, eliminating the necessity for a Constitutional amendmentto compel it. However, if necessary the Republican Party will seek to adopta Constitutional amendment to limit federal spending and balance the budget.except in time of national emergency as determined by a two-thirds voteof Congress.

Government Lending

Not only has the Democratic Congress failed to control spending, butin the last 10 years federal credit assistance programs have soared outof control,

Many federal loan guarantees and related credit programs are off-budget.As a result. no one knows the nature and extent of our obligations or theeffect such practices have on our economy. The best estimate is that outstandingfederal credit is now close to $600 billion.

Runaway government lending can be just as dangerous as runaway federalspending.

The Republican Party will establish a workable federal credit policythat will bring order to the reckless lending practices of the past.

Inflation

We consider inflation and its impact on jobs to he the greatest domesticthreat facing our nation today. Mr. Carter must go! For what he has doneto the dollar; for what he has done to the life savings of millions of Americans;for what he has done to retirees seeking a secure old age; for what he hasdone to young families aspiring to a home, an education for their children,and a rising living standard, Mr. Carter must not have another four yearsin office.

In his three and one-half years in office, Mr. Carter has presented andsupported policies which carried inflation from 4.8 percent in 1976 to apeak of 18 percent during 1980.

He has fostered a 50 percent increase in federal spending, an increaseof more than $200 billion, boosting spending in an era of scarce resources,and driving up prices.

He has through both inaction and deliberate policy permitted or forcedtax increases of more than 70 percent, more than $250 billion, directlyincreasing the cost of living and the costs of hiring and producing. Thishas crippled living standards productivity, and our ability to compete inthe world. It has led to reduced output, scarcity and higher prices.

He has imposed burdensome regulations and controls on production whichhave reduced the availability of domestic goods and energy resources, increasedour dependence on imports, particularly in the energy area, driven downthe value of the dollar, and driven up prices.

He has permitted continuing federal budget deficits and increased federalborrowing, forcing higher interest rates and inflationary money creation,increasing prices.

The inflation policies of the Carter Administration have been inconsistent,counterproductive, and tragically inept. Mr. Carter has blamed everyonefrom OPEC to the American people themselves for his crisis of inflation‹ everyone, that is, but his own Administration and its policies whichhave been the true cause of inflation.

Inflation is too much money chasing too few goods. Much can be done toincrease the growth of real output. But ultimately price stability requiresa non-inflationary rate of growth of the money supply in line with the realgrowth of the economy. If the supply of dollars rapidly outstrips the quantityof goods, year in, year out, inflation is inevitable.

Ultimately, inflation is a decline in the value of the dollar, the monetarystandard, in terms of the goods it can buy. Until the decade of the 1970s,monetary policy was automatically linked to the overriding objective ofmaintaining a stable dollar value The severing of the dollar's link withreal commodities in the 1960s and 1970s, in order to pursue economic goalsother than dollar stability, has unleashed hyperinflationary forces at homeand monetary disorder abroad, without bringing any of the desired economicbenefits. One of the most urgent tasks in the period ahead will be the restorationof a dependable monetary standard ‹ that is, an end to inflation .

Lower tax rates, less spending, and a balanced budget are the keys tomaintaining real growth and full employment as we end inflation by puttingour monetary policy back on track. Monetary and fiscal policy must eachplay its part if we are to achieve our joint goals of full employment andprice stability.

Unfortunately, Mr. Carter and the Democratic Congress seek to derailour nation's money creation policies by taking away the independence ofthe Federal Reserve Board. the same people who have so massively expandedgovernment spending should not be allowed politically to dominate our monetarypolicy. The independence of the Federal Reserve System must be preserved.

The Republican Party believes inflation can be controlled only by fiscaland monetary restraint, combined with sharp reductions in the tax and regulatorydisincentives for savings, investments, and productivity. Therefore, theRepublican Party opposes the imposition of wage and price controls and creditcontrols.

Controls will not stop inflation, as past experience has shown. Wageand price controls will only result in shortages, inequities, black markets,and ultimately higher prices. We reject this short-sighted and misguidedapproach.

PEACE AND FREEDOM

At the start of the 1980s, the United States faces the most serious challengeto its survival in the two centuries of its existence. Our ability to meetthis challenge demands a foreign policy firmly rooted in principle. Oureconomic and social welfare in the 1980s may depend as much on our foreignand defense policy as it does on domestic policy. The Republican Party reassertsthat it is the solemn purpose of our foreign policy to secure the peopleand free institutions of our nation against every peril; to hearten andfortify the love of freedom everywhere in the world; and to achieve a secureenvironment in the world in which freedom, democracy, and justice may flourish.

For three and one-half years, the Carter Administration has been withouta coherent strategic concept to guide foreign policy, oblivious to the scopeand magnitude of the threat posed to our security and devoid of competenceto provide leadership and direction to the free world. The Administration'sconduct of foreign policy has undermined our friends abroad, and led ourmost dangerous adversaries to miscalculate the willingness of the Americanpeople to resist aggression. Republicans support a policy of peace throughstrength; weakness provokes aggression.

For three and one-half years the Carter Administration has given us aforeign policy not of constancy and credibility, but of chaos, confusion,and failure. It has produced an image of our country as a vacillating andreactive nation, unable to define its place in the world, the goals it seeks,or the means to pursue them. Despite the Administration's rhetoric, themost flagrant offenders of human rights including the Soviet Union, Vietnam,and Cuba have been the beneficiaries of Administration good will, whilenations friendly to the United States have suffered the loss of U.S. commercialaccess and economic and military assistance.

The threat to the United States and its allies is not only a militaryone. We face a threat from international terrorism. Our access to energyand raw material resources is challenged by civil unrest, Soviet-sponsoredsubversion, and economic combinations in restraint of free trade. Our firstline of defense, our network of friendly nations and alliances, has beenundermined by the inept conduct of foreign affairs.

American policy since World War II has rested upon the pillars of collectivesecurity, military and technological superiority, and economic strength,and upon the perception by our adversaries that the United States possessesthe will to use its power where necessary to protect its freedom. Thesetenets have enabled a commonwealth of free and independent nations to enjoythe benefits and confidence that come from expanding economic interchangein peace and bilateral and multilateral support in time of war. The entirestructure of peace was guaranteed by American and allied military powersufficient to deter conflict, or to prevail in conflict if deterrence shouldfail.

The Administration's neglect of America's defense posture in the faceof overwhelming evidence of a threatening military buildup is without parallelsince the 1930s. The scope and magnitude of the growth of Soviet militarypower threatens American interest at every level, from the nuclear threatto our survival, to our ability to protect the lives and property of Americancitizens abroad.

Despite clear danger signals indicating that Soviet nuclear power wouldovertake that of the United States by the early 1980s, threatening the survivalof the United States and making possible, for the first time in post-warhistory, political coercion and defeat, the Administration reduced the sizeand capability of our nuclear forces.

Despite clear danger signals indicating that the Soviet Union was usingCuban, East German, and now Nicaraguan, as well as its own, military forcesto extend its power to Africa, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere, the Administrationoften undermined the very governments under attack. As a result, a clearand present danger threatens the energy and raw material lifelines of theWestern world.

Despite clear danger signals indicating that the Soviet Union was augmentingits military threat to the nations of Western Europe, American defense programssuch as the enhanced radiation warhead and cruise missiles, which couldhave offset that buildup, were cancelled or delayed‹ to the dismayof allies who depend upon American military power for their security.

The evidence of the Soviet threat to American security has never beenmore stark and unambiguous, nor has any President ever been more obliviousto this threat and its potential consequences.

The entire Western world faces complex and multi-dimensional threatsto its access to energy and raw material resources. The growth of Sovietmilitary power poses a direct threat to the petroleum resources of the PersianGulf now that its military forces deployed in Afghanistan are less than300 miles from the Straits of Hormuz, through which half the free world'senergy supplies Sow.

Soviet efforts to gain bases in areas astride the major sea lanes ofthe world have been successful due to their use of military power, eitherdirectly or indirectly through Cuban and other Soviet bloc forces. Sincethe Carter Administration took office in 1977, the Soviets or their clientshave taken over Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and South Yemen, and havesolidified their grasp on a host of other nations in the developing world.The Soviet noose is now being drawn around southern Africa, the West's mostabundant single source of critical raw materials.

The failure of the United States to respond to direct threats to itssecurity has left American citizens vulnerable to terrorist assaults aswell. American diplomatic personnel have been subject to seizure and assaultby terrorists throughout the world without drawing a meaningful Administrationresponse.

No failure of the Administration has been so catastrophic as its failureof leadership. Mired in incompetence, bereft of strategic vision and purpose,the President's failure to shoulder the burden of leadership in the Westernalliance has placed America in danger without parallel since December 7,1941. The United States cannot abdicate that role without inducing a diplomaticand eventually a military catastrophy.

Republicans realize that if the challenges of the 1980s are not met,we will continue to lose the respect of the world our honor, and in theend, our freedom. Republicans pledge to meet these challenges with confidenceand strength. We pledge to restore to the United States and its people agovernment with conviction in our cause, a government that will restoreto our great nation its self-respect, its self-confidence, and its nationalpride.

National Security

Defense Budget Trends

In the late 1960s, the Republicans returned to the White House, inheritinga war in Southeast Asia. Because of this war they also inherited a FiscalYear (FY) 1968 defense budget which, if calculated in constant 1981 dollarsto account for inflation, had risen to over $194 billion from $148 billionin FY 1961, the last Eisenhower year. By the beginning of the second NixonAdministration, U.S. forces were totally disengaged from Southeast Asia.The FY 1974 defense budget had dropped back to $139 billion, and the countryhad reaped its desired "peace dividend" of an over $50 billionreduction in annual defense spending. During this period, between 1969 and1973, the Democrats who controlled Congress, led by Senators Mondale andMuskie, cut almost $45 billion from Nixon defense requests. Until 1975,Congress continued to ignore long-range defense needs, and made severe cutsin Republican defense proposals. The Ford Administration, however, succeededin reversing this trend. From a low point of $134 billion in FY 75, theFY 76 defense budget rose in response to President Ford's request, to $139billion; and in FY 77 it rose again to $147 billion.

Despite the growing sentiment for a stronger defense, candidate Carterran on a promise of massive cuts in U.S. defense spending, one promise hehas kept. In his first three years in the White House, Mr. Carter reduceddefense spending by over $38 billion from President Ford's last Five YearDefense Plan. Now, in his last year in office, faced with the total collapseof his foreign policy, and with his policy advisers and their assumptionsdisgraced, he has finally proposed an increase beyond the rate of inflationin defense spending. But this growth for 1981 will be less than one percent.

We deplore Mr. Carter's personal attempts to rewrite history on defensebudgets. His tough speeches before military audiences cannot hide his continuingop position to Congressional defense increases The four chiefs of the armedservices have each characterized the Carter defense program as "inadequate"to meet the military threat posed to the United States. We associate ourselveswith the characterization by Democratic Congressional leaders of the President'sbehavior on defense as "hypocritical." We would go further; itis disgraceful.

Mr. Carter cut back, cancelled, or delayed every strategic initiativeproposed by President Ford. He cancelled production of the Minuteman missileand the B-1 bomber. He delayed all cruise missiles, the MX missile, theTrident submarine and the Trident II missile. He did this while the SovietUnion deployed the Backfire bomber and designed two additional bombers equalin capability to the B-1, and while it deployed four new large ICBMs anddeveloped four others.

Mr. Carter postponed production and deployment of enhanced radiation(neutron) warheads while the Soviet Union deployed the SS-20 mobile missileand the Backfire bomber against Western Europe. He cut President Ford'sproposed shipbuilding plan in half. He vetoed a nuclear aircraft carrier.He did this while the Soviet Union pursued an aggressive shipbuilding programcapable of giving them worldwide naval supremacy in the 1980s unless currenttrends are reversed immediately. Mr. Carter opposed efforts to correct theterribly inadequate pay rates for our military personnel and stood by asthe alarming exodus of trained and skilled personnel from the services quickened.At the same time, the Soviet Union increased its military manpower to alevel of 4.8 million, more than double that of the U.S.

Recovery from the Carter Administration's neglect will require effort,but Americans know that effort is the unavoidable precondition to peaceand economic prosperity. The Soviet Union is now devoting over $50 billionmore to defense annually than the United States, achieving military superiorityas a result. We have depleted our capital and must now devote the resourcesessential to catching up. The Secretary of Defense has stated that evenif we were to maintain a constant increase in our spending of five percentin real terms, it would require forty years for us to catch up.

Republicans commit themselves to an immediate increase in defense spendingto be applied judiciously to critically needed programs We will build towarda sustained defense expenditure sufficient to close the gap with the Soviets,and ultimately reach the position of military superiority that the Americanpeople demand.

Defense Strategy

More is required than reversing our military decline alone. We have seenin recent years how an Administration, possessed of dwindling but stillsubstantial strength, has stood paralyzed in the face of an inexorable marchof Soviet or Soviet-sponsored aggression. To be effective in preservingour interests, we must pursue a comprehensive military strategy which guidesboth the design and employment of our forces. Such a strategy must proceedfrom a sober analysis of the diverse threats before us.

Republicans approve and endorse a national strategy of peace throughstrength as set forth in House Concurrent Resolution 306 We urge speedyapproval of this legislation by both the U.S. House of Representatives andthe U.S. Senate as a means of making clear to the world that the UnitedStates has not forgotten that the price of peace is eternal vigilance againsttyranny. Therefore we commend to all Americans the text of House ConcurrentResolution 306, which reads as follows: The foreign policy of the UnitedStates should reflect a national strategy of peace through strength. Thegeneral principles and goals of this strategy would be:

• to inspire, focus, and unite the national will and determination to achieve peace and freedom;
• to achieve overall military and technological superiority over the Soviet Union;
• to create a strategic and civil defense which would protect the American people against nuclear war at least as well as the Soviet population is protected;
• to accept no arms control agreement which in any way jeopardizes the security of the United States or its allies, or which locks the United States into a position of military inferiority;
• to reestablish effective security and intelligence capabilities;
• to pursue positive nonmilitary means to roll back the growth of communism;
• to help our allies and other non-Communist countries defend themselves against Communist aggression; and
• to maintain a strong economy and protect our overseas sources of energy and other vital raw materials.

Our strategy must encompass the levels of force required to deter eachlevel of foreseeable attack and to prevail in conflict in the event deterrencefails. The detailed analysis that must form the intellectual basis for theelaboration of such a strategy will be the first priority of a RepublicanAdministration. It must be based upon the following principles.

Nuclear Forces

Nuclear weapons are the ultimate military guarantor of American securityand that of our allies. Yet since 1977, the United States has moved fromessential equivalence to inferiority in strategic nuclear forces with theSoviet Union. This decline has resulted from Mr. Carter's cancellation ordelay of strategic initiatives like the B-1 bomber, the MX missile, andthe Trident II submarine missile programs and from his decisions to closethe Minuteman production line and forego production of enhanced radiationweapons.

As the disparity between American and Soviet strategic nuclear forcesgrows over the next three years, most U.S. land-based missiles, heavy bombers,and submarines in port will become vulnerable to a Soviet first-strike.Such a situation invites diplomatic blackmail and coercion of the UnitedStates by the Soviet Union during the coming decade.

An administration that can defend its interest only by threatening themass extermination of civilians, as Mr. Carter implied in 1979, dooms itselfto strategic, and eventually geopolitical, paralysis. Such a strategy issimply not credible and, therefore is ineffectual. Yet the declining survivabilityof the U.S. ICBM force in the early 1980s will make this condition unavoidableunless prompt measures are taken. Our objective must be to assure the survivabilityof U.S. forces possessing an unquestioned, prompt, hard-target counterforcecapability sufficient to disarm Soviet military targets in a second-strike.We reject the mutual-assured-destruction (MAD) strategy of the Carter Administrationwhich limits the President during crises to a Hobson's choice between massmutual suicide and surrender. We propose instead, a credible strategy whichwill deter a Soviet attack by the clear capability of our forces to surviveand ultimately to destroy Soviet military targets.

In order to counter the problem of ICBM vulnerability, we will proposea number of initiatives to provide the necessary survivability of the ICBMforce in as timely and effective a manner as possible. In addition, we willproceed with:

• the earliest possible deployment of the MX missile in a prudent survival configuration;
• accelerated development and deployment of a new manned strategic penetrating bomber that will exploit the $5.5 billion already invested in the B-1, while employing the most advanced technology available;
• deployment of an air defense system comprised of dedicated modern interceptor aircraft and early warning support systems;
• acceleration of development and deployment of strategic cruise missiles deployed on aircraft, on land, and on ships and submarines;
• modernization of the military command and control system to assure the responsiveness of U.S. strategic nuclear forces to Presidential command in peace or war; and
• vigorous research and development of an effective anti-ballistic missile system such as is already at hand in the Soviet Union, as well as more modern ABM technologies .

For more than 20 years, commencing in the mid-1950s, the United Stateshas maintained tactical nuclear weapons in Europe for the purpose of assuringagainst deep penetrations into the West by the Soviet forces. Since 1977,however, the Administration has allowed our former superiority to erodeto the point where we now face a more than three-to-one disadvantage.

A Republican Administration will strive for early modernization of ourtheater nuclear forces so that a seamless web of deterrence can be maintainedagainst all levels of attack, and our credibility with our European alliesis restored. In consultation with them we will proceed with deploymentsin Europe of medium-range cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, enhancedradiation warheads, and the modernization of nuclear artillery.

Conventional Forces

The greatest single result of our loss of nuclear parity has been themanifest increase in the willingness of the Soviet Union to take risks atthe conventional level. Emboldened by the Carter Administration's failureto challenge their use of surrogate Cuban forces in Africa and the laterSoviet presence in Angola, Ethiopia, and South Yemen, the Soviets, for thefirst time in post-war history, employed their own army units outside ofthe Soviet bloc in a brutal invasion on Afghanistan. The invasion presentschilling evidence of the mounting threat and raises fundamental questionswith respect to United States strategy.

We believe it is not feasible at this time, and in the long term wouldbe unworkable, to deploy massive U.S. ground forces to such areas as thePersian Gulf on a permanent basis as we do in Europe and elsewhere. A moreeffective strategy must be built on the dual pillars of maintaining a limitedfull-time presence in the area as a credible interdiction force, combinedwith the clear capability to reinforce this presence rapidly with the forcesnecessary to prevail in battle. In additions the strategy must envisionmilitary action elsewhere at points of Soviet vulnerability ‹ an expressionof the classic doctrine of global maneuver.

The forces essential to the support of such a strategy must include amuch-improved Navy, the force most suitable for maintaining U.S. presencein threatened areas and protecting sea lines of communication. In addition,we will require a substantial improvement in the air and sea mobility forcesand improved access to regional installations. A Republican Administrationwill propose their substantial improvement, to include the establishmentof a permanent fleet in the Indian Ocean. We will also improve contingencyplanning for the use and expansion of our commercial maritime fleet, anda new rational approach to emergency use of our civil aircraft fleet.

The budget cuts imposed by Mr. Carter on the Army and his restorationof the supremacy of systems analysis in the Pentagon have resulted in slowdowns,deferrals and cost increases in nine vitally needed Army procurement programsin armor, firepower, air defense, and helicopters. These critical and long-delayedmodernization programs must be restored to economical production rates andmust be speeded into the field. Of equal importance is the need to bringour stocks of ammunition, spare parts and supplies ‹ now at woefullyinadequate levels ‹ to a standard that will enable us to sustain ourforces in conflict.

In addition to the strategic programs needed for our Air Force, we pledgeto restore tactical aircraft development and procurement to economical levelsand to speed the achievement of 26 modernized wings of aircraft able toconduct missions at night, in all weather conditions, and against the mostsophisticated adversary.

We pledge to increase substantially our intra- and inter-theater airliftcapability and to increase our aerial tanker Feet through procurement andspeedy modernization.

Of all of the services, the Navy and Marines have suffered most fromMr. Carter's cuts. Their share of the defense budget has shrunk from 40to 33 percent during the Carter Administration. Mr. Carter slashed PresidentFord's 157 ship, five-year construction program to 83. He has slowed theTrident submarine and requested only one attack submarine each year in spiteof a Soviet three-to-one advantage. He vetoed the Fiscal Year 79 DefenseAuthorization Bill because it included an aircraft carrier which a yearlater Congress forced him to accept. For the fourth straight year he hasrequested fewer than half the number of 325 aircraft needed annually tostay even with peacetime attrition and modernization requirements. He hasrequested fewer than one-third of the amphibious ships needed just to keepthe current level of capability for the Marines, and he has opposed Marinetactical aircraft and helicopter modernization.

The current Chief of Naval Operations has testified that, "We aretrying to meet a three ocean requirement with a one-and-a-half ocean Navy."Republicans pledge to reverse Mr. Carter's dismantling of U.S. Naval andMarine forces. We will restore our fleet to 600 ships at a rate equal toor exceeding that planned by President Ford. We will build more aircraftcarriers, submarines and amphibious ships. We will restore Naval and Marineaircraft procurement to economical rates enabling rapid modernization ofthe current forces, and expansion to meet the requirements of additionalaircraft carriers.

Defense Manpower and the Draft

The Republican Party is not prepared to accept a peacetime draft at thistime. Under Mr. Carter, the all-volunteer force has not been given a fairchance to succeed. The unconscionable mismanagement and neglect of personnelpolicy by the Carter Administration has made a shambles of the all-volunteerforce concept.

Perhaps the most compelling vulnerability of our forces results fromthe dramatic exodus of the core of highly skilled men and women who formthe backbone of our military strength. This loss is the direct result ofneglect by the Commander-in-Chief.

The sustained malign neglect of our military manpower is nothing shortof a national scandal. This Administration's active assault on militarybenefits and military retirement has been accompanied by an enforced pay-capset at half the inflation rate. The average military family has lost between14 percent and 25 percent in purchasing power over the past seven years.Officers and skilled enlisted personnel are leaving in droves, and 250,000of our servicemen qualify for public assistance. Many of our career peopleearn less than the minimum wage. The services are currently short 70,000senior enlisted personnel. This scandal is the direct result of Mr. Carter'swillful downgrading of the military and inept mismanagement of personnelpolicy. As a top priority, the Republican Party pledges to end this nationaldisgrace.

We pledge to restore a national attitude of pride and gratitude for theservice of our men and women in the armed forces. We will act immediatelyto correct the great inequities in pay and benefits of career military personnel.Specifically, we support immediate action to:

• provide for an increase in military pay targeted in particular toward the career grades now experiencing the greatest attrition;
• increase enlistment and reenlistment bonuses;
• improve continuation bonuses for aviators;
• increase per diem travel allowances;
• increase the allowance for moving mobile homes;
• provide family separation allowances for junior personnel; and
• expand benefit entitlement under the CHAMPUS program.

A Republican Administration will index military pay and allowances toprotect military personnel from absorbing the burden of inflation. We pledgethat the profession of arms will be restored to its rightful place as apreeminent expression of patriotism in America.

In order to attract recruits of high ability, a Republican Administrationwill act to reintroduce G.I. Bill benefits for those completing two yearsactive service. We will press for enactment of legislation denying federalfunds to any educational institution that impedes access of military recruitersto their students. We regard as a serious loss the decision of many of ourfinest institutions of higher learning to discontinue their military officertraining programs. The leadership of our armed forces must include the besttrained minds in our nation. Republicans call upon our colleges and universitiesto shoulder their responsibilities in the defense of freedom. We will investigatelegislative inducements toward this end. We will not consider a peacetimedraft unless a well-managed, Congressionally-funded, full-scale effort toimprove the all-volunteer force does not meet expectations.

Reserve Forces

The armed forces of the U.S. are today critically dependent upon ournation's Reserve components for both combat arms and combat support. TheArmy Reserve and National Guard provide one-third of the Army's combat divisions,80 percent of its independent combat brigades, one-half of its artillerybattalions, and one-third of its special forces groups. The Navy Reserveprovides 90 percent of the Navy's ocean mine sweeping and two-thirds ofits mobile construction battalions. The Air Force Reserve and Air NationalGuard provide all of our strategic interceptors, 60 percent of our tacticalairlift, and one-third of our tactical fighters. Reserve and National Guardunits may be mobilized for even the smallest of conflicts and many suchunits today are expected to deploy immediately with the active duty unitsthey support.

Today, however, the reserves are ill-equipped, underpaid, and undermannedby several hundred thousand personnel. Proper equipment, realistic, challengingtraining, and greater full-time support must be made available. We mustensure that all Americans take note of the proud and vital role played bythe Reserve and National Guard components of the armed forces of the UnitedStates.

Readiness and Industrial Preparedness

History records that readiness for war is the surest means of preventingit. Lack of preparedness is the most dangerously provocative course we cantake. Yet funding requests for sufficient fuel, spare parts, ammunition,and supplies for U.S. war reserves have been cut each year for the pastfour years from the minimum quantities the armed services have stated theyneed. This has left the U.S. Armed Forces at their lowest state of preparednesssince 1950, seriously compromising their ability to sustain a military conflict.

Crippling shortages of spare parts, fuel, and ammunition compromise theability of the armed forces to sustain a major military conflict. Some criticaltypes of ammunition could not support combat operations for more than aweek although we are committed to holding a 90-day inventory of major ammunitiontypes. In addition, critical facilities such as airfields, ammunition depots,maintenance installations, and living quarters for our troops are in seriousdisrepair. The backlog of deferred maintenance and the underfunded purchaseof vital combat consumables is so vast that years of effort will be requiredto rebuild U.S. forces to the required level of readiness.

The problem of maintaining the day-to-day combat readiness of U.S. armedforces is compounded by the reduced ability of American industry to respondto wartime contingencies. Reduced acquisition of equipment for the modernizationof the armed forces and the Carter Administration's failure to maintaincombat readiness have eroded the incentive of American industry to maintaincapacity adequate to potential defense requirements.

Republicans pledge to make the combat readiness of U.S. Armed Forcesand the preparedness of the industrial base a top priority.

Research and Development

Research and Development (R&D);provides a critical means by whichour nation can cope with threats to our security. In the past, the UnitedStates' qualitative and technological superiority provided a foundationfor our military superiority. Yet we are now on the verge of losing thisadvantage to the Soviet Union because of Mr. Carter's opposition to realincreases in the R&D;effort. Delays imposed on the R&D;process now allowseven to 10 years or more to elapse between the time when a new weapon systemis proposed and when it becomes available

The Soviet Union now invests nearly n ice as much in military researchand development as does the United States. This disparity in effort threatensAmerican technological superiority in the mid-1980s and could result inSoviet breakthroughs in advanced weapon systems.

Republicans pledge to revitalize America's military research and developmentefforts, from basic research through the deployment of weapons and supportsystems, to assure that our vital security needs Will he met for the balanceof the century. We will seek increased funding to guarantee American superiorityin this critical area and to enable us to deal with possible breakthroughsin anti-missile defense, anti-satellite killers, high-energy directed systems,and the military and civilian exploitation of space.

America s technological advantage has always depended upon its interactionwith our civilian science and technology sector. The economic policy ofthe Carter Administration has severely encumbered private research and developmentefforts, thereby depriving both our civil and military sectors of the fruitsof scientific innovation.

Underfunding of beneficial government-sponsored research efforts in basicand applied scientific research has disrupted the benefits of years of effectiveeffort In particular, America's preeminence in the exploration of spaceis threatened by the failure of the Carter Administration to fund fullythe Space Shuttle program (with its acknowledged benefits for both the civiland military applications) as well as advanced exploration programs. Republicanspledge to support a vigorous space research program.

Management and Organization

The Republican Party pledges to reform the defense programming and budgetingmanagement system established by the Carter Administration. The ill-informed,capricious intrusions of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Departmentof Defense Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation have brought defenseplanning full circle to the worst faults of the McNamara years. Orderlyplanning by the military services has become impossible. Waste, inefficiency,and paralysis have been the hallmarks of Carter Administration defense planningand budgeting. This has resulted in huge cost overruns and in protracteddelays in placing advanced systems in the field.

National Intelligence

At a time of increasing danger, the U.S. intelligence community has lostmuch of its ability to supply the President, senior U.S. officials, andthe Congress with accurate and timely analyses concerning fundamental threatsto our nation's security. Morale and public confidence have been erodedand American citizens and friendly foreign intelligence services have becomeincreasingly reluctant to cooperate with U.S. agencies. As a result of suchproblems, the U.S. intelligence community has incorrectly assessed criticalforeign developments, as in Iran, and has, above all, underestimated thesize and purpose of the Soviet Union's military efforts.

We believe that a strong national consensus has emerged on the need tomake our intelligence community a reliable and productive instrument ofnational policy once again. In pursuing its objectives, the Soviet Unionand its surrogates operate by a far different set of rules than does theUnited States. We do not favor countering their efforts by mirroring theirtactics. However, the United States requires a realistic assessment of thethreats it faces, and it must have the best intelligence capability in theworld. Republicans pledge this for the United States.

A Republican Administration will seek to improve U.S. intelligence capabilitiesfor technical and clandestine collection, cogent analysis, coordinated counterintelligenceand covert action.

We will reestablish the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board,abolished by the Carter Administration, as a permanent non-partisan bodyof distinguished Americans to perform a constant audit of national intelligenceresearch and performance. We will propose methods of providing alternativeintelligence estimates in order to improve the quality of the estimatesby constructive competition.

Republicans will undertake an urgent effort to rebuild the intelligenceagencies, and to give full support to their knowledgeable and dedicatedstaffs. We will propose legislation to enable intelligence officers andtheir agents to operate safely and efficiently abroad.

We will support legislation to invoke criminal sanctions against anyonewho discloses the identities of U.S. intelligence officers abroad or whomakes unauthorized disclosures of U.S. intelligence sources and methods.

We will support amendments to the Freedom of Information Act and thePrivacy Act to permit meaningful background checks on individuals beingconsidered for sensitive positions and to reduce costly and capricious requeststo the intelligence agencies.

We will provide our government with the capability to help influenceinternational events vital to our national security interests, a capabilitywhich only the United States among the major powers has denied itself.

A Republican Administration will seek adequate safeguards to ensure thatpast abuses will not recur, but we will seek the repeal of ill-consideredrestrictions sponsored by Democrats, which have debilitated U.S. intelligencecapabilities while easing the intelligence collection and subversion effortsof our adversaries.

Terrorism

In the decade of the seventies, all civilized nations were shaken bya wave of widespread, international terrorist attacks. Time and again, nationsand individuals have been subjected to extortion and murder at the handsof extremists who reject the rule of law, civil order, and the sanctityof individual human rights. Terrorism has been elevated to the level ofovert national policy as authorities in Iran, encouraged by the Soviet Union,have held 53 Americans captive for more than eight months. Comprehensivesupport of international terrorist organizations has been a central, thoughgenerally covert, element of Soviet foreign policy.

Republicans believe that this tragic history contains lessons that mustserve as the basis for a determined international effort to end this eraof terrorism. We believe that certain principles have emerged from incidentsin which states have defeated terrorist attacks, and we believe the UnitedStates should take the lead in a multilateral drive to eliminate the terroristthreat. A first requirement is the establishment of a military capabilityto deal promptly and effectively with any terrorist acts. We cannot afford,as in the abortive Iranian rescue mission, to allow months to pass whilewe prepare responses.

The United States must provide the leadership to forge an internationalconsensus that firmness and refusal to concede are ultimately the only effectivedeterrents to terrorism. The United States should take the lead in combatinginternational terrorism. We must recognize and be prepared to deal withthe reality of expanded Soviet sponsorship of international terrorist movements.Development of an effective anti-terrorist military capability and establishmentof a Congressional and Executive capability to oversee our internal securityefforts will no longer be neglected.

The Role of Arms Control in Defense Policy

The Republican approach to arms control has been markedly different fromthat of the Democratic Party. It has been based on three fundamental premises:

• first, before arms control negotiations may be undertaken, the security of the United States must be assured by the funding and deployment of strong military forces sufficient to deter conflict at any level or to prevail in battle should aggression occur;
• second, negotiations must be conducted on the basis of strict reciprocity of benefits ‹ unilateral restraint by the U.S. has failed to bring reductions by the Soviet Union; and
• third, arms control negotiations, once entered, represent an important political and military undertaking that cannot be divorced from the broader political and military behavior of the parties.

A Republican Administration will pursue arms control solely on the principlesoutlined above.

During the past three and one-half years, the Carter Administration'spolicy has been diametrically opposed to these principles. First, by itswillful cancellation or delay of essential strategic military programs suchas the B-l, the MX missile, and the Trident submarine, it has seriouslydamaged the credibility and effectiveness of the U.S. deterrent force. Second,by not insisting upon corresponding concessions from the Soviet Union ithas, in effect, practiced unilateral disarmament and removed any incentivesfor the Soviets to negotiate for what they could obviously achieve by waiting.The Republican Party rejects the fundamentally flawed SALT II treaty negotiatedby the Carter Administration.

The Republican Party deplores the attempts of the Carter Administrationto cover up Soviet non-compliance with arms control agreements includingthe now overwhelming evidence of blatant Soviet violation of the BiologicalWarfare Convention by secret production of biological agents at Sverdlovsk.

In our platform four years ago, we stated that, "The growth of civiliannuclear technology and the rising demand for nuclear power as an alternativeto increasingly costly fossil fuel resources, combine to require our recognitionof the potential dangers associated with such development." We calledfor the formation of new multilateral arrangements to control the exportof sensitive nuclear technologies. Unfortunately, the Carter Administrationhas failed to provide the leadership and creative diplomacy essential toforging effective international safeguards and cooperation in this vitalarea. In particular we oppose and deplore the pending delivery to Indiaof nuclear material which can be directed to the manufacture of weapons.

The Republican Party reaffirms its commitment to the early establishmentof effective multilateral arrangements for the safe management and monitoringof all transfers and uses of nuclear materials in the international market.

Foreign Policy

U.S.-Soviet Relations

The premier challenge facing the United States, its allies, and the entireglobe is to check the Soviet Union's global ambitions. This challenge mustbe met, for the present danger is greater than ever before in the 200-yearhistory of the United States. The Soviet Union is still accelerating itsdrive for military superiority and is intensifying its military pressureand its ideological combat against the industrial democracies and the vulnerabledeveloping nations of the world.

Republicans believe that the United States can only negotiate with theSoviet Union from a position of unquestioned principle and unquestionedstrength. Unlike Mr. Carter we see nothing "inordinate" in ournation's historic judgment about the goals, tactics, and dangers of Sovietcommunism. Unlike the Carter Administration, we were not surprised by thebrutal Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or by other Soviet violations of majorinternational agreements regulating international behavior, human rights,and the use of military force. And, unlike the Carter Administration, wewill not base our policies toward the Soviet Union on naive expectations,unilateral concessions, futile rhetoric, and insignificant maneuvers.

As the Soviet Union continues in its expansionist course, the potentialfor dangerous confrontations has increased. Republicans will strive to resolvecritical issues through peaceful negotiations, but we recognize that negotiationsconducted from a position of military weakness can result only in furtherdamage to American interests.

A Republican Administration will continue to seek to negotiate arms reductionsin Soviet strategic weapons, in Soviet bloc force levels in Central Europe,and in other areas that may be amenable to reductions or limitations. Wewill pursue hard bargaining for equitable, verifiable, and enforceable agreements.We will accept no agreement for the sake of having an agreement, and willaccept no agreements that do not fundamentally enhance our national security.

Republicans oppose the transfer of high technology to the Soviet Unionand its Eastern European satellites such as has been done in the past permittingdevelopment of sophisticated military hardware which threatens the UnitedStates and our allies. The Carter Administration has encouraged the mostextensive raid on American technology by the Soviet bloc since World WarII. The Soviet Union has gained invaluable scientific expertise in electronics,computer sciences, manufacturing techniques, mining, transportation, aviation,agriculture, and a host of other disciplines. This has contributed to theability of the Soviet Union to divert investment and manpower from theircivilian economy to their armed forces. The fruits of Soviet access to Americantechnology will improve the performance of the Soviet military establishmentfor years to come. The matter is compounded by the practice of subsidizedfinancing of much of the Soviet bloc's acquisition of American technologythrough U.S. financial institutions.

Republicans pledge to stop the flow of technology to the Soviet Unionthat could contribute, directly or indirectly to the growth of their militarypower. This objective will be pursued by a Republican Administration withour allies and other friendly nations as well. We will ensure that the SovietUnion fully understands that it will be expected to fulfill all of the commercialand diplomatic obligations it has undertaken in its international agreements.

We oppose Mr. Carter s singling out of the American farmer to bear thebrunt of his failed foreign policy by imposition of a partial and incompetentlymanaged grain embargo. Because of his failure to obtain cooperation fromother grain exporting countries, the embargo has been a travesty and a substitutefor policy. We call for the immediate lifting of this embargo.

We reaffirm our commitment to press the Soviet Union to implement theUnited Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the Helsinki Agreements whichguarantee rights such as the free interchange of information and the rightto emigrate. A Republican Administration will press the Soviet Union toend its harassment and imprisonment of those who speak in opposition toofficial policy, who seek to worship according to their religious beliefs,or who represent diverse ethnic minorities and nationalities .

Republicans deplore growing anti-semitism in the Soviet Union and themistreatment of "refuseniks" by Soviet authorities. The declinein exit visas to Soviet Jews and others seeking religious freedom and thepromulgation of ever more rigorous conditions inhibiting their emigrationis a fundamental affront to human rights and the U.N. Charter. Republicanswill make the subject of emigration from the Soviet Union a central issuein Soviet-American relations. Human rights in the Soviet Union will notbe ignored as it has been during the Carter Administration. As a party tothe Helsinki Conference Final Act, a Republican Administration will insiston full Soviet compliance with the humanitarian provisions of the agreement.

Republicans pledge our continued support for the people of Cuba and thecaptive nations of Central and Eastern Europe in their hope to achieve self-determination.We stand firmly for the independence of Yugoslavia. We support self-determinationand genuine independence for new captive nations of Africa and Latin Americathreatened by the growing domination of Soviet power.

A Republican Administration will end the sustained Carter policy of misleadingthe American people about Soviet policies and behavior. We will spare noefforts to publicize to the world the fundamental differences in the twosystems and will strengthen such means as the International CommunicationAgency, the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty activelyto articulate U.S. values and policies, and to highlight the weaknessesof totalitarianism.

We pledge to end the Carter cover-up of Soviet violations of SALT I andII, to end the cover-up of Soviet violation of the Biological Warfare Convention,and to end the cover-up of Soviet use of gas and chemical weapons in Afghanistanand elsewhere.

NATO and Western Europe

Since its inception three decades ago, the North Atlantic Treaty Organizationhas expressed the collective will of free nations to resist totalitarianaggression. As a cornerstone of the Western Alliance, NATO has stood onthe firm foundations of American strategic strength, joint Allied defenseefforts, and cooperative diplomacy based on shared interest and close consultations.The Republican Party recognizes that NATO serves the vital interests ofthe entire Western world and over the years we have continued to give theAlliance our undiminished and bipartisan support.

Republicans deplore the current drifts toward neutralism in Western Europe.We recognize that NATO and our Western Allies today lace the greatest arrayof threats in their history, both from within and from without. Throughits inept policies, the Carter Administration has substantially contributedto the evident erosion of Alliance security and confidence in the U.S. ARepublican Administration, as one of its highest priorities and in closeconcert with our NATO partners, will therefore ensure that the United Statesleads a concerted effort to rebuild a strong, confident Alliance fully preparedto meet the threats and the challenges of the 1980s.

The chief external threat to NATO is that of developing Soviet militarysuperiority. In a period of supposed "detente," the NATO nationshave too often cut back or delayed essential defense programs and too oftenplaced excessive hopes in arms control negotiations, while the Soviet-dominatedWarsaw Pact has been transformed into the world's most powerful offensivemilitary force.

Three-and-a-half years of Carter Administration policies have resultedin an increased threat to vital Alliance security interests. Mr. Carter'sunilateral cancellations, reductions, and long delays in the B-1 Trident,MX, cruise-missile, and shipbuilding programs have increased the vulnerabilityof the U.S. strategic triad and have contributed to a developing strategicimbalance which undermines the foundation of Western deterrent and defensecapabilities. His fundamentally flawed SALT II treaty would have codifiedWestern inferiority His reversals on the development and deployment of the"enhanced radiation" or neutron weapon, his treatment of futuretheater nuclear force modernization negotiations, and his manner of dealingwith terrorist actions directed against Americans abroad, further underminedAlliance solidarity and security.

These Carter Administration inconsistencies have caused disunity in theAlliance. We have seen confusion in the fields of trade, fiscal, and energypolicies. The lack of close coordination regarding Iran the Middle East,Afghanistan, the Olympic boycott, nuclear proliferation, East-West trade,human rights, North-South issues, and a host of other international issuesaffecting Alliance interests, has reinforced Allied concerns. Republicansare concerned that these Carter Administration actions have increased Alliedtemptation to conduct independent diplomacy and to seek accommodation inthe face of pressure from the Soviet Union. In this regard, we categoricallyreject unilateral moratoria on the deployment by the U.S. and NATO of theaternuclear weapons. Further, Republicans will oppose arms control agreementsthat interfere with the transfer of military technology to our allies.

In pledging renewed United States leadership, cooperation, and consultation,Republicans assert their expectation that each of the allies will bear afair share of the common defense effort and that they will work closelytogether in support of common Alliance goals. Defense budgets, weapons acquisition,force readiness, and diplomatic coordination need to be substantially increasedand improved. Within Europe as well as in areas beyond Europe which affectthe shared vital interests of the Alliance, we will seek to increase ourcooperative efforts, including increased planning for joint actions to meetcommon threats.

The Republican Party recognizes the vital importance of countries defendingthe flanks of NATO. We will search for an early resolution of problems thatcurrently inhibit the effective participation of all the nations of NATO'ssouthern flank and we call for the integration of Spain into the North AtlanticAlliance.

Middle East, Persian Gulf

In the past three years, the nations of the Middle East and Persian Gulfhave suffered an unprecedented level of political, economic, and militaryturmoil. The Soviet Union has been prompt in turning these sources of instabilityto its advantage and is now in an excellent position to exploit the chaosin Iran and to foment similar upheavals in other countries in the region.Today, the countries of the Middle East and Persian Gulf are encircled asnever before by Soviet advisers and troops based in the Horn of Africa,South Yemen, and Afghanistan. Moreover, the Soviets have close politicaland military ties with other states in the region.

The Soviet goal is clear ‹ to use subversion and the threat of militaryintervention to establish a controlling influence over the regions' resource-richstates, and thereby to gain decisive political and economic leverage overWestern and Third World nations vulnerable to economic coercion. The firstsigns of Soviet success in this undertaking are already evidenced in therecent proposal by European countries to associate the Palestinian LiberationOrganization in the West Bank autonomy talks.

Republicans believe that the restoration of order and stability to theregion must be premised upon an understanding of the interrelationship betweenSoviet and radical Palestinian goals, the fundamental requirements of stableeconomic development and marketing of the area's resources and the growingferment among Islamic radical groups. Republicans believe that a wise andcredible United States policy must make clear that our foremost concernis for the long-term peaceful development of all states in the region, notpurely a self-serving exploitation of its resources. Our goal is to bringa just and lasting peace to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

With respect to an ultimate peace settlement, Republicans reject anycall for involvement of the PLO as not in keeping with the long-term interestsof either Israel or the Palestinian Arabs. The imputation of legitimacyto organizations not yet willing to acknowledge the fundamental right toexistence of the State of Israel is wrong. Repeated indications, even whensubsequently denied, of the Carter Administration's involvement with thePLO has done serious harm to the credibility of U.S. policy in the MiddleEast and has encouraged the PLO's position of intransigence. We believethe establishment of a Palestinian State on the West Bank would be destabilizingand harmful to the peace process.

Our long and short-term policies for the area must be developed in consultationwith our NATO allies, Israel, Egypt, and other friends in the area, andwe will spare no effort in seeking their consultation throughout the policyprocess, not merely demand their acquiescence to our plans.

The sovereignty, security, and integrity of the State of Israel is amoral imperative and serves the strategic interests of the United States.Republicans reaffirm our fundamental and enduring commitment to this principle.We will continue to honor our nation's commitment through political, economic,diplomatic, and military aid. We fully recognize the strategic importanceof Israel and the deterrent role of its armed forces in the Middle-Eastand East-West military equations.

Republicans recognize that a just and durable peace for all nations ofthe region is the best guarantee of continued stability and is vital todeterring further Soviet inroads. Peace between Israel and its neighborsrequires direct negotiations among the states involved. Accordingly, a RepublicanAdministration will encourage the peace process now in progress betweenEgypt and Israel, will seek to broaden it, and will welcome those Arab nationswilling to live in peace with Israel. We are encouraged by the support givento the Middle East peace process by Sudan and Oman and the progress broughtabout by the strong and effective leadership of their governments.

We applaud the vision and courage of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat andwe pledge to build our relationship with Egypt in cultural affairs, economicdevelopment, and military cooperation.

Republicans recognize that the Carter Administration's vacillations haveleft friend and foe alike unsure as to United States' policies. While reemphasizingour commitment to Israel, a Republican Administration will pursue closeties and friendship with moderate Arab states. We will initiate the economicand military framework for assuring long-term stability both in the internaldevelopment of regional states and an orderly marketplace for the area'sresources. We will make clear that any reimposition of an oil embargo wouldbe viewed as a hostile act. We will oppose discriminatory practices, includingboycotts, and we will discourage arms sales which contribute to regionalinstability.

Republicans believe that Jerusalem should remain an undivided city withcontinued free and unimpeded access to all holy places by people of allfaiths.

The Americas

Latin America is an area of primary interest for the United States. Yet,the Carter Administration's policies have encouraged a precipitous declinein United States relations with virtually every country in the region. Thenations of South and Central America have been battered by the Carter Administration'seconomic and diplomatic sanctions linked to its undifferentiated chargesof human rights violations.

In the Caribbean and Central America, the Carter Administration standsby while Castro's totalitarian Cuba, financed, directed, and supplied bythe Soviet Union, aggressively trains, arms, and supports forces of warfareand revolution throughout the Western hemisphere. Yet the Carter Administrationhas steadily denied these threats and in many cases has actively workedto undermine governments and parties opposed to the expansion of Sovietpower. This must end.

We deplore the Marxist Sandinista takeover of Nicaragua and the Marxistattempts to destabilize El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. We do notsupport United States assistance to any Marxist government in this hemisphereand we oppose the Carter Administration aid program for the government ofNicaragua. However, we will support the efforts of the Nicaraguan peopleto establish a free and independent government.

Republicans deplore the dangerous and incomprehensible Carter Administrationpolicies toward Cuba. The Administration has done nothing about the Sovietcombat brigade stationed there, or about the transfer of new Soviet offensiveweapons to Cuba in the form of modern MIG aircraft and submarines. It hasdone nothing about the Soviet pilots flying air defense missions in Cubaor about the extensive improvements to Soviet military bases, particularlythe submarine facilities in Cienfuegos, and the expanded Soviet intelligencefacilities near Havana.

Republicans recognize the importance of our relations within this hemisphereand pledge a strong new United States policy in the Americas. We will standfirm with countries seeking to develop their societies while combating thesubversion and violence exported by Cuba and Moscow. We will return to thefundamental principle of treating a friend as a friend and self-proclaimedenemies as enemies, without apology. We will make it clear to the SovietUnion and Cuba that their subversion and their build-up of offensive militaryforces is unacceptable.

Republicans recognize the special importance of Puerto Rico and the UnitedStates Virgin Islands in the defense of freedom in the Caribbean. We believethat Puerto Rico's admission to the Union would demonstrate our common purposein the face of growing Soviet and Cuban pressure in that area.

Republicans recognize the fundamental importance of Mexico and restorationof good working relations with that country will be of highest priority.A new Republican Administration will immediately begin high-level, comprehensivenegotiations, seeking solutions to common problems on the basis of mutualinterest and recognizing that each country has unique contributions to makein resolving practical problems.

Republicans pledge to reestablish close and cooperative relations withthe nations of Central and South America and repair the diplomatic damagedone by the Carter Administration. We pledge understanding and assistancein the efforts of these nations, and their neighbors, to deal seriouslywith serious domestic problems.

We pledge to ensure that the Panama Canal remains open, secure, and freeof hostile control.

The reservations and understandings to the Panama Canal treaties, includingthose assuring the United States of primary responsibility of protectingand defending the Canal, are an integral part of those treaties and we willhold Panama to strict interpretation of the language of the treaties, clearlyestablished by the legislative history of Senate adoption of amendments,reservations, and understandings at the time of Senate approval of the treaties.

We would remind the American taxpayers that President Carter gave repeatedassurances that the Panama Canal treaties would not cost the American taxpayers"one thin dime," and we emphasize the fact that implementing thePanama Canal treaties will cost them $4.2 billion.

We will work closely with Canada as our most important trading partnerin the hemisphere. We will foster the deep affinity that exists betweenour two nations and our policies will be based on mutual understanding andcomplete equality.

We will seek a North American Accord designed to foster close cooperationand mutual benefit between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

A new Republican Administration will, in close cooperation with its neighbors,seek to work together to build prosperity and to strengthen common effortsto combat externally produced revolution and violence.

Asia and the Pacific

The United States is and must remain a Pacific power. It is in our vitalinterest to maintain U.S. guaranteed stability in the area. Republicansrecognize the dangerous shifts in power that have accelerated under thecurrent Democratic Administration. The balance on the Korean peninsula hasshifted dangerously toward the North Soviet naval forces in Asia and thePacific have steadily increased and are now at least equal to U.S. Navalforces there. Unilateral cancellation by the United States of the mutualdefense pact with Taiwan and the abrupt announcement of withdrawal of U.S.ground forces from Korea have led countries throughout the region to questionthe value of alliance with the United States.

A new Republican Administration will restore a strong American role inAsia and the Pacific. We will make it clear that any military action whichthreatens the independence of America's allies and friends will bring aresponse sufficient to make its cost prohibitive to potential adversaries.

Japan will continue to be a pillar of American policy in Asia. Republicansrecognize the mutual interests and special relationships that exist betweenthe two countries in their commitment to democracy and in trade, defense,and cultural matters. A new Republican Administration will work closelywith the Japanese government to resolve outstanding trade and energy problemson an equitable basis. We strongly support a substantially increased Japanesenational defense effort and reaffirm that our long-range objectives of militarysecurity and a balancing of the expanded Soviet military presence in theregion are of mutual interest.

Republicans recognize the unique danger presented to our ally, SouthKorea. We will encourage continued efforts to expand political participationand individual liberties within the country, but will recognize the specialproblems brought on by subversion and potential aggression from the North.We will maintain American ground and air forces in South Korea, and willnot reduce our presence further. Our treaty commitments to South Korea willbe restated in unequivocal terms and we will reestablish the process ofclose consultations between our governments.

We reaffirm our special and historic relationships with the Philippines,Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. Republicanswill recognize the long friendship with these countries and will cultivateand strengthen our diplomatic and trade relationships.

We deplore the brutal acts of Communist Vietnam against the people ofCambodia and Laos. We recognize that the suffering of refugees from theseravaged countries represents a major moral challenge to the world and oneof the great human tragedies of modern times. A Republican Administrationwill work actively to bring relief to these suffering people, especiallythose who have sought refuge in Thailand. We value the special contributionthe people of Thailand have made to the refugees by opening their bordersand saving hundred of thousands of them from death, and we pledge to providefull economic aid and military material to assist Thailand in repellingVietnamese aggression.

We believe that no expanded relations with Communist Vietnam should bepursued while it continues its course of brutal expansionism and genocide.We pledge that a Republican Administration will press for full accountingof Americans still listed as missing in action.

Recognizing the growing importance of the People's Republic of Chinain world affairs, Republicans ‹ who took the historic initiative inopening the lines of communication with that nation ‹ will continuethe process of building a working relation with the PRC. Growing contactsbetween the United States and the People's Republic of China reflect theinterests of both nations. as well as some common perceptions of recentchanges in the global military balance. We will not ignore the profounddifferences in our respective philosophies, governmental institutions, policies,and concepts of individual liberty.

We will strive for the creation of conditions that will foster the peacefulelaboration of our relationship with the People's Republic of China. Wewill exercise due caution and prudence with respect to our own vital interests.especially in the field of expanding trade. including the transfer of sophisticatedtechnology with potential offensive military applications. The relationshipbetween the two countries must be based on mutual respect and reciprocity,with due regard for the need to maintain peace and stability in Asia.

At the same time, we deplore the Carter Administration's treatment ofTaiwan, our long-time ally and friend. We pledge that our concern for thesafety and security of the 17 million people of Taiwan will be constant.We would regard any attempt to alter Taiwan's status by force as a threatto peace in the region. We declare that the Republican Administration, instrengthening relations with Taiwan, will create conditions leading to theexpansion of trade, and will give priority consideration to Taiwan's defenserequirements.

Africa

The Republican Party supports the principle and process of self-determinationin Africa. We reaffirm our commitment to this principle and pledge our strongopposition to the effort of the Soviet Union and its militant allies tosubvert this process. Soviet bases. tens of thousands of Cuban troops, andSoviet-bloc subversion are unacceptable .

We recognize that much is at stake in Africa and that the United Statesand the industrial West have vital interests there ‹ economically,strategically, and politically. Working closely with our allies, a RepublicanAdministration will seek to assist the countries of Africa with our presence,our markets, our know-how, and our investment. We will work to create aclimate of economic and political development and confidence. We will encourageand assist business to play a major role in support of regional industrialdevelopment programs, mineral complexes, and agricultural self-sufficiency.

Republicans believe that African nations, if given a choice, will rejectthe Marxist, totalitarian model being forcibly imposed by the Soviet Unionand its surrogates including Cuban and Nicaraguan troops as well as EastGerman secret police. We believe that they know the Communist powers haverelatively little to offer them and that, for the most part, the Africanpeoples are convinced that the West is central to the world stability andeconomic growth on which their own fortunes ultimately depend.

A Republican Administration will adhere to policies that reflect thecomplex origins of African conflicts, demonstrate that we know what U.S.interests are, and back those interests in meaningful ways. We will recognizethe important role of economic and military assistance programs and willdevote major resources to assisting African development and stability whensuch aid is given on a bilateral basis and contributes directly to Americaninterests on the continent.

In Southern Africa, American policies must be guided by commonsense andby our own humanitarian principles. Republicans believe that our historyhas meaning for Africa in demonstrating that a multiracial society withguarantees of individual rights is possible and can work. We must remainopen and helpful to all parties, whether in the new Zimbabwe, in Namibia,or in the Republic of South Africa. A Republican Administration will notendorse situations or constitutions, in whatever society, which are racistin purpose or in effect. It will not expect miracles, but will press forgenuine progress in achieving goals consistent with American ideals.

Foreign Assistance and Regional Security

The United States has included foreign assistance and regional securityas a major element of its foreign policy for four decades. Properly administeredand focused, foreign assistance can be an effective means of promoting UnitedStates foreign policy objectives, and serve to enhance American securityby assisting friendly nations to become stronger and more capable of defendingthemselves and their regions against foreign subversion and attack.

The threat posed to individual third world nations is beyond the meansof any one of them to counter alone. A Republican Administration will seekto strengthen and assist regional security arrangements among nations preparedto assume the burden of their defense.

No longer should American foreign assistance programs seek to force acceptanceof American governmental forms. The principal consideration should be whetheror not extending assistance to a nation or group of nations will advanceAmerica's interests and objectives. The single-minded attempt to force acceptanceof U.S. values and standards of democracy has undermined several friendlynations, and has made possible the advance of Soviet interests in Asia,the Middle East, Africa and in the Western Hemisphere in the past four years.

American foreign economic assistance is not a charitable venture; charityis most effectively carried out by private entities. Only by private economicdevelopment by the people of the nations involved has poverty ever beenovercome. U.S. foreign economic assistance should have a catalytic effecton indigenous economic development, and should only be extended when itis consistent with America's foreign policy interest. America's foreignassistance programs should be a vehicle for exporting the American idea.

A Republican Administration will emphasize bilateral assistance programswhenever possible. Bilateral programs provide the best assurance that aidprograms will be fully accountable to the American taxpayer, and whollyconsistent with our foreign policy interests.

The effort of the Carter Administration to diminish the role of Americanmilitary assistance and foreign military sales in our foreign policy hashad several negative effects:

• it has resulted in the export of many thousands of American jobs as the Soviet Union, Britain, and France have taken sales prohibited to American manufacturers;
• it has reduced the ability of friendly nations to defend their independence against Soviet-sponsored subversion, resulting in several cases, in abject takeovers by overtly pro-Soviet regimes; and
• it has weakened the fabric of the U.S. alliance structure by making the U.S. appear to be an unreliable ally, a trend which can only lead to the undesirable attempt by nations fearful of their security to seek to acquire their own nuclear weapons.

Decisions to provide military assistance should be made on the basisof U.S. foreign policy objectives. Such assistance to any nation need notimply complete approval of a regime's domestic policy. Republicans pledgeto strengthen America's presence abroad by well-constructed programs ofmilitary assistance to promote national and regional security.

The manipulation of foreign arms sales has been one of the most seriouslyabused policy initiatives of the Carter Administration. The establishmentof arbitrary ceilings on foreign sales, and the complex procedural and policyguidelines governing such sales have impeded the support of U.S. foreignpolicy objectives abroad. Friendly and allied nations alike have had toturn elsewhere for arms. This has stimulated the growth of a new arms industryin developing nations. Republicans pledge to reform and rebuild U.S. militaryassistance and foreign arms sales policies so that they will serve Americaninterests in promoting regional security arrangements and the individualdefense needs of friendly nations.

International Economic Policy

The American economy has an abundance of human and material resources,but nevertheless, it is part of a larger global economy. Our domestic prosperityand international competitiveness depend upon our participation in the internationaleconomy. Moreover, our security interests are in part determined by internationaleconomic factors. Yet the Carter Administration has largely ignored therole of international economics in relations between the United States andfriendly nations throughout the world. The Administration has conductedits international economic policy at cross-purposes with other dimensionsof its foreign policy, resulting in strains within the Western allianceand a general decline in the domestic prosperity. Under a Republican Administration,our international economic policy will be harmonized with our foreign anddefense policies to leave no doubt as to the strategy and purpose of Americanpolicy.

The economic policy of the Carter Administration has led to the mostserious decline in the value of the dollar in history. The ability of Americansto purchase goods and services or to invest abroad has been diminished byCarter Administration policies devaluing the dollar. Republicans will conductinternational economic policy in a manner that will stabilize the valueof the dollar at home and abroad.

The Republican Party believes the United States must adopt an aggressiveexport policy. For too long, our trade policy has been geared toward helpingour foreign trading partners. Now, we have to put the United States backon the world export map. We helped pull other countries out of the postWorld War II economic chaos; it is time to remedy our own crisis. Trade,especially exporting, must be high on our list of national priorities. TheRepublicans will put it there and will promote trade to ensure the long-termhealth of the U.S. economy.

Exports can play a key role in strengthening the U.S. economy, creatingjobs and improving our standard of living. A $15 billion increase in exportscan increase employment by 1,000,000, the Gross National Product by $37billion per year, and private investment by $4 billion per year. Nevertheless,the Carter Administration has placed exporting at the bottom of its prioritylist. The present Administration's trade policies lack coordination, cohesiveness,and true commitment to improving our export performance. Rather than helpingto create strong exporters in the United States and thereby create morejobs for Americans, the Carter Administration's trade policies have discouragedtraders. At best, the Administration has adopted a passive approach to trade,merely reacting to changing world economies rather than actively seekingto promote a global structure that best addresses America's needs. As aresult, we lag seriously behind our foreign competitors in trade performanceand economic strength. Export promotion will be a central objective of internationaleconomic policy in a Republican Administration.

A Republican Administration will emphasize a policy of See trade, butwill expect our trading partners to do so as well. The failure of the CarterAdministration energetically to pursue negotiations designed to improvethe access of American exports to foreign markets has contributed, in part,to protectionist sentiment.

Domestic problems ‹ over-burdensome government regulations, excessivetaxation, inflationary monetary policy, and an unstable economy ‹ havecontributed to the protectionist sentiments as well. We realize that protectionistlegislation has engendered retaliation by America's trading partners inthe past resulting in "beggar thy neighbor" policies that hadsuch disastrous consequences in the 1930s.

Republicans are committed to protect American jobs and American workersfirst and foremost. The Republican Party believes in free trade, and wewill insist that our trade policy be based on the principles of reciprocityand equity. We oppose subsidies, tariff and non-tariff barriers that unfairlyrestrict access of American products to foreign markets. We will not standidly by as the jobs of millions of Americans in domestic industries, suchas automobiles, textiles, steel, and electronics are jeopardized and lost.We pledge to strengthen trade agreements and to change the Carter economicpolicies that have undermined the capability of American agriculture andindustry to compete abroad.

Republicans believe that this nation's international trade balance canbe improved through the elimination of disincentives for exporters. Statutoryand regulatory requirements that inhibit exports should be reviewed and,where practical, eliminated. We further recognize that government can playa role in promoting international trade by establishing incentives for exports,especially those for small and medium size business. We pledge also to workwith our trading partners to eliminate subsidies to exports and dumping.

The ability of the United States to compete in foreign markets is hamperedby the excessive taxation of Americans working abroad who contributed toour domestic well-being by promoting international trade. Increased exportsto our trading partners result in jobs and a rising standard of living athome. Carter Administration policy has the effect of discouraging the presenceof American businessmen abroad due to the unfairly high level of taxationlevied against them. A Republican Administration will support legislationdesigned to eliminate this inequity so that American citizens can fullyparticipate in international commerce without fear of discriminatory taxation.

Our nation must have a strong, competitive, and efficient merchant marineto meet the needs of our international commerce and our national security.We must arrest the significant decline of recent years in the ability ofAmerican-flag shipping to compete effectively for the carriage of worldcommerce. A Republican administration will revitalize our merchant marinethrough a responsive and sustained policy We will encourage the developmentand maintenance of an American-flag ocean transportation system, staffedwith trained American personnel and capable of carrying a substantial portionof our international trade in a competitive and efficient manner. We willpromote the development and support of a domestic shipbuilding and ship-repairmobilization base adequate to both the commercial and the national securityrequirements of the United States.

The security of America's foreign sources of energy and raw materialsupply can no longer be ignored. The United States imports 50 percent ofits domestic petroleum requirements, and depends upon foreign sources for22 of the 74 non-fuel raw materials essential to a modern industrial economy.Nine of the most critical raw materials are almost entirely (i.e., morethan 90 percent) located abroad. In contrast, the Soviet Union imports onlytwo critical minerals at a level in excess of 50 percent of domestic consumption.

Reducing reliance on uncertain foreign sources and assuring access toforeign energy and raw materials requires the harmonization of economicpolicy with our defense and foreign policy. Domestic economic and regulatorypolicy must be adjusted to remove impediments to greater development ofour own energy and raw materials resources. Democratic policies for federalland management, taxation, monetary policy, and economic regulation haveserved to increase America's dependence on foreign sources of energy andraw materials. Republicans pledge to work to eliminate domestic disincentivesto the exploitation of these resources.

Multilateral negotiations have thus far insufficiently focused attentionon U.S. long-term security requirements. A pertinent example of this phenomenonis the Law of the Sea Conference, where negotiations have served to inhibitU.S. exploitation of the sea-bed for its abundant mineral resources. Toomuch concern has been lavished on nations unable to carry out sea-bed miningwith insufficient attention paid to gaining early American access to it.A Republican Administration will conduct multilateral negotiations in amanner that reflects America's abilities and long-term interest in accessto raw material and energy resources.

Resource access will assume an important place in defense and economicplanning under a Republican Administration. Since America's allies are,in most cases, more dependent than the U.S. on foreign sources of energyand raw materials, they too have a vital interest in the defense of theiraccess to these critical resources. Republicans pledge to promote allieddefense cooperation to assure protection from military threats to overseasresources.