Cut the cost of the federal government by at least 25 percent

We advocate an immediate and drastic reduction of governmental expenditures by abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating departments and bureaus, and eliminating extravagance to accomplish a saving of not less than twenty-five per cent in the cost of the Federal Government.

That admirable document, the platform which you have adopted, is clear. I accept it 100 percent.

Blanket endorsement of every plank.

For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that Government--Federal and State and local--costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching. As an immediate program of action we must abolish useless offices. We must eliminate unnecessary functions of Government

Let us have the courage to stop borrowing to meet continuing deficits. Stop the deficits.

I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peace times in all our history. It is an Administration that has piled bureau on bureau, commission on commission, and has failed to anticipate the dire needs and the reduced earning power of the people.

And on my part I ask you very simply to assign to me the task of reducing the annual operating expenses of your national Government.

I shall approach the problem of carrying out the plain precept of our Party, which is to reduce the cost of current Federal Government operations by 25 percent.

I regard reduction in Federal spending as one of the most important issues of this campaign. In my opinion it is the most direct and effective contribution that Government can make to business.

Before any man enters my Cabinet he must give me a two-fold pledge:

In accordance with this fundamental policy it is equally necessary to eliminate from Federal budget-making during this emergency all new items except such as relate to direct relief of unemployment.

Deficit spending became the administration's instrument, and the 1937 attempt to reverse it produced a recession.

The "Roosevelt recession" occurred largely because the President, along with some of his advisers (led by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau) were determined to balance the federal budget and had, as a result, reduced government spending.

Roosevelt's own accounting: the Economy Act was the promised retrenchment of ordinary costs; everything else was emergency relief, which the Pittsburgh speech had exempted.

I give you assurance that if this is done there is reasonable prospect that within a year the income of the Government will be sufficient to cover the expenditures of the Government.