Reagan Says He’ll Spend Summer and Fall on Road

President Reagan announced to business leaders today that he will spend this summer and fall traveling around the country to urge Americans to stop “deficit spenders in Congress from wrecking America’s economic future.”

In remarks to the National Assn. of Manufacturers, Reagan also said he will ask leaders of the Western industrialized nations at the economic summit in Venice next month “to buy more goods” from America and from throughout the world to expand global prosperity.

“Anyone who tells you we can’t cut the deficit without raising taxes and attacking defense is just not telling you the truth,” Reagan said. “Last year we got the special interests out of the tax code. Now it’s time to get them out of the budget.”

He said he will tell the heads of state at the Venice summit that “I will spend this summer and fall going to cities and towns all over America. I will be asking the American people to hel1881175411from wrecking America’s economic future. This is my pledge. This is my promise. It’s a fight I look forward to.”

Reagan said that both houses had passed budget plans “that gut defense and raise taxes.”

“And how they could attack pay and weapons for our men in uniform who are committed to protecting freedom and democracy--well, it’s beyond me,” he said.

Reagan recited a litany of the “mess” he said the business leaders “helped us clean up.”

“All in all,” he added, “we got the tax-and-spend crowd on the run, and you know the results.”

The President scoffed at reports that the middle class is disappearing and that America is deindustrializing. He contended that the middle class is healthy and said U.S. manufacturing productivity “has shot ahead at the fastest pace in 20 years.”