Gerald Ford

I AM pleased to announce today results and accomplishments from the Presidential Management Initiatives program first announced by me on July 23, 1976.

These billions of dollars in savings, actual and prospective, mean a leaner, tighter, more efficient and more effective Government.

Executive Order No. 11846 of March 27, 1975, as amended, is hereby amended as follows.

All reports, findings, advice, determinations, hearing transcripts, briefs, and information shall be transmitted to the President through the Special Representative.

The three new deferrals, totaling $980.8 million affect programs of the Departments of Defense, Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Treasury.

I am withdrawing one previously proposed rescission and reporting three new deferrals.

The revised deferrals are for programs in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and reflect routine increases in the amounts previously deferred.

I am asking each of you to establish specific plans for energy savings during the coming year.

I congratulate you on your victory.

I want to assure you that you will have my complete and wholehearted support as you take the oath of office this January.

I believe I offer experienced leadership; you will have to decide whether my opponent can make the same claim.

It is the test of our political system, a test of the qualities we Americans seek in our leadership.

I need your help; I need your vote.

I have been careful never to promise what I could not deliver.

One of the greatest accomplishments of this administration is that because we are strong, strong internally and strong externally, there is not a single young American fighting or dying on any foreign soil tonight.

I want the opportunity to build on that firm foundation, to keep America moving.

President Ford is for the little taxpayer and President Ford is against the big tax spender.

I promise you from the bottom of my heart I will not let you down.

I ask you to confirm me with your prayers but I ask you to confirm me with your ballots.

You know what? Columbus likes to be, along with the great State of Ohio, on the side of a winner.

I promise you, I pledge you, that I will not let you down.

I never sought the office, but circumstances put me in the position where I stood in the East Room of the White House.

I suspect it might be the right one.

I will tell you where I stand.

I know that you have not confirmed me by your ballots, but I ask you to confirm me by your prayers.