HOUSTON -- Former President Jimmy Carter, in Texas raising money for his presidential library, says Americans are disillusioned by President Reagan's failure to deliver promised 'simple answers' to complicated national issues.
'A lot of people were... I started to say misled... mistaken in 1980,' Carter said in interviews published Friday.
'They were looking for simple answers to very complicated questions and simple and easy, magic solutions to intransigent problems.
'And President Reagan offered these to them in a very effective way -- that we could cut taxes 30 percent, increase defense expenditures beyond all previous experience in peace time and balance the budget.
'I think now they have been disillusioned about that and know that's not the case,' Carter said.
Carter arrived in Texas Thursday for two days of private talks with friends in Fort Worth, Dallas and Houston to discuss contributions to the construction of a presidential library in Atlanta. Jess Hay, a influential Dallas mortgage banker, said he believed up to $2 million would be raised in Dallas alone. He was interviewed in Houston by the Houston Post and Houston Chronicle.
Carter told reporters in Dallas his favorite for the 1984 Democratic nomination was his former vice president, Walter Mondale of Minnesota. Carter said he would not work actively for Mondale or anyone in the 1984 primaries.
Jane Simpson, one of Carter's current aides, Friday said the Georgian was in Texas to 'bring people up to date about the Carter library and policy center. It's a very casual visit.'
Carter Friday flew to Aspen, Colo., for a cross-country ski vacation and to visit with other friends.
The proposed library, expected to hold 27 million documents from Carter's administration, will cost $25 million and be named the Carter Presidential Library and the Carter Center of Emory University in Atlanta.
