Reagan Outlines Plans for Final Year in Office

President Reagan, who has exactly one year left in his second term, looked over an audience of perhaps 1,000 political appointees who had just given him a two-minute standing ovation Tuesday and cracked: “My goodness, if they’d have done this for ‘Bedtime for Bonzo,’ I never would have left Hollywood.”

With that cheering section in front of him and his Cabinet and an Army band behind him, Reagan outlined his plans for the eighth year of his presidency and declared: “As they say in show biz, let’s bring them to their feet with our closing act.”

“Remember, one more year, not for the Gipper, but for Americans and for all mankind,” he said, using another Hollywood reference--to a movie in which he portrayed football hero George Gipp.

Mostly Loose Ends

But his agenda--before returning to Southern California in retirement--is mostly one of cleaning up loose ends: Ratification of the treaty banning medium-range missiles that he signed in December with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, confirmation of Judge Anthony M. Kennedy to the Supreme Court, the removal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan and renewed funding for the rebels fighting in Nicaragua.

“This is . . . the year that the United States will strongly affirm that democracy, not communism, is the future of Central America,” Reagan said.

He said that he hopes “Congress does not, in the months ahead, take away in the committee room what the Soviets were unable to get at the bargaining table,” an allusion to his Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars” spaced-based missile defense program.

Biggest Problem

But White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., in warming up the crowd for Reagan, made it clear that the biggest problem facing the President may be that imposed by the calendar. He repeatedly told the annual gathering of senior appointees to disregard the conventional wisdom that a President’s power diminishes rapidly with the approach of his successor’s election.

Baker, the former Senate Republican leader who was summoned to the White House nearly a year ago to take over as chief of staff when the Reagan presidency was suffering under the weight of the Iran-Contra scandal, said:

“I’m aware, he is aware, I’m sure all of you are aware, that Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States for eight years and not seven. I believe we will demonstrate Ronald Reagan has made lame-duck status an anachronism in the United States. He will continue to show he is a dynamic, energetic, fully engaged President of the United States who is determined to lead until the last day.”

Won’t Be on Defensive

Indeed, the theme was continued by Reagan himself, who said: “In the year ahead, we’re not going to be on the defensive, shoring up problems and answering our critics.”

His audience applauded when he tied the future of U.S.-Soviet relations to the resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan between the Soviet-backed Marxist government and rebels supplied by the United States.

“The Soviet government needs to realize that relations with the United States cannot be expected to flourish while Soviet troops remain in Afghanistan,” the President said. Still, he said he was optimistic about better East-West relations.

Reagan, looking back over his tenure, also said: “Something that seems to be popular of late is suggesting that greed has characterized the 1980s in America. Well, I don’t happen to believe that pejorative word is appropriate. We should applaud people who are trying to better their lot, not put them down.”

Charitable Giving Rises

Between 1980 and 1986, Reagan said, charitable giving increased 77%. “So much for the so-called era of greed,” he added.

The President, exhorting his audience in a pep-rally preview of his themes for 1988 that is likely to be echoed in his State of the Union address Monday evening, said: “We are moving forward, and I have no doubt that when we look back, 1988 will be a year of great accomplishment toward our goals.”

Nevertheless, the shake-ups that have occurred throughout his Administration, which took office at noon on Jan. 20, 1981, were evident Tuesday. On stage was the one remaining member of the original Reagan Cabinet: Samuel R. Pierce Jr., secretary of housing and urban development.

And, when he asked those who had been with the Administration since 1981 to stand, only about 20% of the audience in Constitution Hall rose. “Well, it is 1988,” Reagan said.