WASHINGTON -- President Reagan made a Father's Day appeal Saturday for a return to traditional family values, telling voters in his weekly radio speech that families are better off now than they were under the Democrats.
In the paid political address from the Camp David, Md. presidential retreat, Reagan said the recovery that occurred under his administration helped families cope economically, and he again hinted that a tax reform study he ordered in the Treasury Department may increase the exemption for children.
A White House aide said the study, to be completed by the end of the year, will probably urge an increase in the exemption for children and other dependents from the current $1,000. Reagan said had the exemption kept pace with inflation from its inception in the 1940s, it would be worth more than $3,000 now.
Reagan arrived at Camp David Friday morning, and he was to return to the White House briefly Sunday before flying to Uniondale, N.Y., to open the International Games for the Disabled, an Olympics-style competition for the blind and victims of amputation and cerebral palsy.
Although most Americans no longer hold only one job or live in only one house in their lifetimes, Reagan said in the speech, 'I think we can and should preserve family values -- values of faith, honesty, responsiblity, tolerance, kindness and love.'
House Speaker Thomas O'Neill responded to Reagan's speech with renewed criticism of the president for refusing to allow Senate Republicans to separate a summer youth jobs program from a bill to provide covert aid to Nicaraguan rebels.
'It's a disgrace that a president who talks about the family holds 100,000 summers jobs hostage to his covert war in Nicaragua,' O'Neill said in a statement. 'It's sad for the country that the man in Camp David denies jobs to the kid on the street.'
Reagan also reiterated his support for a crackdown on child pornographers and on parents who are delinquent in child support payments, and he announced plans for a federal 'sophisticated detective program' to help local police identify and capture 'serial killers' who murder women and children one after the other.
Aides said the Justice Department will be developing a computerized system for identifying patterns of behavior and tracking those who travel across the country preying on women and children.
'It's hard to locate them through standard detective techniques due to the nomadic nature of their travel,' one aide said.
Reagan also urged a solution to permanent foster care of handicapped or underprivileged children and adoption of unwanted children instead of abortion.
'The outlook for families in America is better than in 1980, and we're determined to make it better. Happy Father's Day,' he concluded.
Under the Democrats, Reagan charged, familiess 'saw the golden promise of the American dream disappearing behind storm clouds of economic misery. Liberals urged huge government subsidies paying parents for expenses they used to handle themselves, but big government becoming big brother pushing parents aside, interfering with one parental responsiblity after another is no solution.'
Reagan, whose younger daughter Patti has said people shouldn't be arrested for smoking marijuana and that there is nothing wrong with unmarried couples living together, noted that 'it's become more difficult to raise children than it once was.'
In an article in Family Weekly magazine, Reagan was quoted as saying, 'I'm just sorry that spanking if out of fashion now.'
