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Campaign Statement in Oklahoma.

November 03, 1972

WHETHER the product is oil, wheat, aerospace hardware, or football players, Oklahoma plays a vigorous role in keeping America moving forward.

Yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz announced that we can now expect a 25-percent increase in the value of U.S. farm exports in the current fiscal year. This $2 billion increase in farm exports, when added to last year's record of $8. 1 billion, will push U.S. agricultural exports over the $10 billion mark for the first time in history.

Earlier in this Administration we announced that our farm export goal was $10 billion. Those who thought this goal was years in the future failed to understand that by expanding our traditional markets and opening new markets in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, we can dramatically increase the potential for peaceful trade among nations. They also failed to reckon with the capacity of States like Oklahoma and other major producing areas to meet the trade potential.

Oklahoma, with its vast agricultural output, is making its contribution to a new era of international trade--it is helping to make such an era possible, and it is going to profit from this new era.

But Oklahoma is more than fields of waving wheat and cattle (which recently have been selling for the highest prices in years). Tulsa is a hub of the aerospace industry in America. Construction of the space shuttle alone will mean that more than $20 million will be passing into the Tulsa economy over the next 2 years.

There are those who speak of the commercial benefits of war, but nobody profits from war at all. The profits are in peace, and Oklahoma will share the profits of peace just as she has shared in the effort to build a structure of peace in the world. The petroleum resources, the manufacturing output, the military and civilian support at the great military bases like Tinker Air Force Base and Fort Sill, and most of all the patriotism of Oklahomans, have all played a vital role in the pursuit of peace.

We are moving toward peace in Vietnam and around the world. But in order to do this we must have a strong America with a vigorous economy. When we came into office nearly 4 years ago, we were confronted with a dangerously overheated economy. Inflation fueled by wartime spending had shot above 6 percent. Today it has been cut almost in half, and we are doing a better job of controlling inflation than any other industrialized country in the free world.

But if we are to have prosperity in peacetime, it will not be enough just to cut inflation. We must stop wages from being eroded by constantly increasing taxes. The only way you can keep taxes in line is by keeping Government spending in line. Since the Congress has refused to meet its responsibility in this matter, I have been forced to exercise the veto on frequent occasions to get rid of budgetbusting and inflationary spending bills. But the long range answer is not the veto; it is a Congress that won't try to spend itself back into office every time an election rolls around.

Dewey Bartlett 1 has a proven record of sound fiscal management in Oklahoma, and he is the kind of man who understands the need for fiscal responsibility at the national level. We both need him in the U.S. Senate; Oklahoma needs him and I need him.

1 Dewey F. Bartlett, Governor of Oklahoma 1967-71, was the Republican candidate for the United States Senate.

At the same time, State and local governments have to do their share in holding the line against increased taxes. In the last 10 years, property taxes in Oklahoma have increased over 60 percent. The purpose of the revenue sharing legislation just passed is to give the tax dollar back to the States and local communities where they know best how it should be spent.

The simple fact is that one of the reasons we have high taxes is because we have such an imbalanced tax distribution system, and revenue sharing is part of an effort to change that. It was because of the property tax increases here in Oklahoma that I was so surprised to see Dewey Bartlett's opponent oppose revenue sharing as he did.

I think we are going to have the kind of Congress we need this year to enact the legislation and to accomplish the goals of the new American majority. As we achieve peace, we need men who understand how to keep the peace, men who understand that the prudent use of power is the surest guarantee of peace. Prosperity, too, is within our reach. But we need people who understand how to bring it about. We need people who know that a nation's wealth isn't measured in how much its government spends but in how much its people have left to spend.

Oklahoma plays a great role in ,America. From the heart of its good land, from all its industrial and extractive output, and from the hearts of its good people, Oklahoma gives much to America. Now we ask Oklahoma to give us a vote for peace and prosperity, and give us men in the Congress and in the Senate who know how to win both peace and prosperity, and who know how to keep them both.

Note: The statement was released at Tulsa, Okla.

Richard Nixon, Campaign Statement in Oklahoma. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/255593

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