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The language was a touch hyperbolic, the analysis heavily simplified, and a figure or two mildly debatable. For example, the President put the prospective deficit in fiscal 1981, which ends Sept. 30, at $80 billion, vs. the commonly cited estimate of less than $60 billion; he was including the activities of federal lending agencies that are not counted in the formal budget. But on the whole, Reagan made an effective, and graciously nonpartisan, statement of his views; he stressed over and over the explosive growth of spending and deficits in the past 20 years, implicitly blaming Republican as well as Democratic Administrations. Since 1960, he said, the federal budget has increased by 528%, which is almost 23 times as fast as the U.S. population. But Reagan struck a note of hope too, declaring in a confident manner that "all it takes is a little common sense and recognition of our own ability" to begin rebuilding a growing, noninflationary economy.
The speech was only one part of the biggest lobbying effort on a domestic issue to be launched from the White House in years. After Reagan spells out his program in what amounts to a State of the Union address on Feb. 18, the drive will begin to look like a revival of last fall's election campaign. Vice President George Bush and several Cabinet members are expected to go on tour plugging the program; Reagan himself may hit the road for a few days of speechmaking. His kitchen cabinet—close associates from California who have no official positions in the Administration—met last week in Washington with hundreds of community leaders from around the country to drum up support. Political Consultant Stuart Spencer, an election aide, has been rehired by the White House, to devise a nationwide newspaper and TV advertising campaign on behalf of budget and tax cuts. The object of all this effort will be to build pressure in favor of the proposals among the constituents of Senators and Representalives whose votes will be crucial to getting it passed. The message aimed at the home folks, according to a White House aide: "You've won the battle, now don't lose the war."
Meanwhile, the White House is consulting leaders of special-interest groups, urging them to suspend judgment on the program until they see the full details, rather than mobilize now to fend off budget cuts that might hurt them. Reagan met separately last week in the Cabinet Room with a dozen big-city mayors, the 18 members of the Congressional Black Caucus and 30 leaders of farm organizations. He told them that the Administration intends to spread the pain of spending reductions equitably across U.S. society. Though all were apprehensive, most left taking the wait-and-see attitude that the President urged. Even Democratic Representative Shirley Chisholm, a black liberal from New York, was willing to hold her fire. Said she: "There are lots of politicians that perhaps you don't believe from time to time. You have to give a person an opportunity to show whether his word is going to be his bond."