Remembering President Gerald Ford's Economic Legacy
Wednesday, December 27, 2006SUSIE GHARIB: A somber day for Americans as they mourned the death of President Gerald Ford. American flags at the White House and across the country are flying tonight at half staff as preparations are under way for a state funeral for the 38th president. He took over the presidency at a difficult time in the aftermath of Watergate and President Nixon's resignation and with the economy in turmoil. Washington bureau chief Darren Gersh takes a closer look at President Ford's economic legacy.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: As if Watergate were not bad enough, when Gerald Ford took office, the economy had just been slugged by the Arab oil embargo. The oil squeeze sent inflation to 11 percent. Carla Hills was Gerald Ford's secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
CARLA HILLS, FORD HUD SECRETARY: His feeling was, we've got to get inflation under control. That's the cruelest tax on the poorest people. So he really sat on pork and he just vetoed bill after bill to stop that from happening.
GERSH: Ford declared inflation public enemy number one. But the president's "whip inflation now" buttons were ridiculed as his calls for voluntary price controls were ignored. Still, the Ford administration laid the groundwork for what would become a decades-long deregulatory push in transportation and communications. Hills says Ford believed more economic flexibility would bring down prices.
HILLS: I think that President Ford understood that regulation hog ties the economy.
GERSH: Ford was a classic middle-of-the-road conservative when it came to Federal spending, but a sharp and steep recession made it impossible to balance the budget on his watch. Still, Ford's Office of Management and Budget Director James Lynn calls his former boss a budget director's dream. He was willing to make tough choices and smart investments, like the Hubble telescope.
JAMES LYNN, FORD OMB DIRECTOR: And he looked at me, he said, "you've got real guts." he says. "You're in here having me cut this bill over here, which would cost me votes and terrible things like that, and now you want me to put in millions of dollars for a telescope." I said, "yes, sir, I am." And he paused and, well, he said, "we have to do it, don't we."
GERSH: Ford surrounded himself with a stellar cast of economic talent, including Alan Greenspan. In a statement today, Greenspan said, "Jerry Ford was the most decent man I ever encountered in public life. His reputation has risen year by year since he left office. I expect that to continue. It was a great privilege to work for him. I will miss him." Stephen Hess worked for Ford and says the former president's greatest contribution to the nation and the economy was his ability to restore confidence.
STEPHEN HESS, POLITICAL ANALYST, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It took some doing and a special sort of person who was so ordinary, who was so simple and was so decent. And that to me, was a time when that was exactly the quality that we needed, decency.
GERSH: Gerald Ford will lie in state in the Capitol building this weekend before his funeral next week. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.
