Budget Message Remarks at the Signing Ceremony.

THE PRESIDENT. In about 2 hours, the 1980 fiscal year budget will be presented to the Congress. And my role in this ceremony is to sign the official copies of the budget which will go to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and to the Vice President, who, as you know, is the President of the Senate.

My first inclination, however, is to thank the superb staff in the Office of Management and Budget, under the direction of Jim Mcintyre, for the great work they have done on this budget. It has been a very difficult, stringent, severe, and tough budget in its preparation. And I think only with the most careful and constant consultation with those who are not satisfied with having had their own desires met and a realization on their part, after scrutiny, that the budget is indeed fair to everyone in our Nation, has there been an alleviation of the intense criticisms that were evident earlier late last year and would have been so present now. A tough budget that is fair, I believe, is acceptable.

Our most important role, economically speaking, this year, is to control inflation. And this budget meets that requirement. This budget eliminates unnecessary spending. It cuts back drastically on the Federal deficit. It lowers the percentage of our national income that is collected and spent by the Government down to 21 percent, a goal that we never thought we would meet so early.

Obviously, there's no way to please everyone in the preparation of any budget, particularly one designed, as is this one, to be stringent and to control Government spending and to control inflation. We realize, however, that we must live within our means, that we must put restraints on the always-rising demands on Government, and that we must make strong moves to eliminate inefficiency, waste, fraud, and corruption.

This budget, when implemented, will make major strides towards solving the problems of our country forthrightly, fairly, and with compassion and concern for those who depend most heavily on the services of Government.

Controlling inflation is the best policy that we can espouse, and particularly for those who are the poor, the elderly, those who live on small and fixed incomes, those who quite often are inarticulate and lacking in political influence, and who are not mobile enough or well-trained enough to travel around to different places to seek out better jobs and better opportunities.

This is a budget that is good enough so that I am sure that the American people will support it. It's a budget that's good enough that I will fight for it. And it's a budget that's good enough so that I have no doubt the Congress will adopt it.

In closing, let me express my thanks again to the superb professionals in the Office of Management and Budget, to Secretary of Treasury Mike Blumenthal, Secretary Kreps, my own economic advisers under Charles Schultze, and many others who have worked so well with us on the budget. Even though it will be presented officially at noon today, large numbers of key Members of Congress have already been briefed as thoroughly as possible on the elements of this budget document, and I believe at this point it's fair to say that the response has been very encouraging.

So, thank you all for being so effective in your difficult job. And at this point, I'd like to sign the copy of the budget that will go to the Speaker of the House.

And now to sign the copy that will go to the President of the Senate.

And I have already signed, first, a copy of the budget that will go to Jim Mcintyre, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Jim, thank you.

MR. MCINTYRE. Mr. President, thank you very much for the kind words you've had to say about the staff at OMB. I'd like to second the professionalism at OMB, but, most importantly, tell you how dedicated these people are to seeing that your policies are translated into the proper budget documents and into the proper statements and legislation so that they can be carried out by the Congress.

We feel we're very proud to be associated with this budget. It's a good budget; it's a tough budget, but one that does meet the needs of the American people. Thank you for your support in this effort.

THE PRESIDENT. I might say that after these long months of hard work, in some of which I participated, I think it's important that the OMB staff have some well-deserved rest. And I would suggest that in August, when the Congress adopts this budget, that you give some of your people— [laughter] —