Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 002-012
Date: Tuesday, April 20, 1971 at 4:04 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Mahon, George H.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/002-012

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:00] Yes, I have Congressman George Mahon.
[0:02] Yeah.
[0:03] Hello.
[0:05] Hi, George.
[0:06] How are you?
[0:07] Fine.
[0:08] Fine.
[0:08] I don't want to bother you.
[0:09] I'm sitting here talking to Cliff Harden and Abe Lincoln.
[0:12] They're going down tomorrow to your country.
[0:14] Yeah.
[0:15] And they've got all the authority.
[0:18] They're going over now to talk to John Connolly to see what further thing he has to report.
[0:23] They told me they'd invited you.
[0:25] You couldn't go.
[0:25] But I want you to know they're going to look at the thing, and anything the law allows, we're going to do.
[0:30] I think, I appreciate your call, Mr. President.
[0:34] We are so involved that I didn't plan to go down.
[0:37] Right.
[0:37] In particular since they don't feel it necessary to stop in my area at Lubbock, and I don't either.
[0:41] But they're not going to stop at Lubbock, huh?
[0:43] No, no, they're going to stop at Amarillo.
[0:44] Amarillo, I see.
[0:45] And I saw prices going with them, which I think is very good.
[0:47] Prices, yeah, that's the other, fine.
[0:48] And here is the thing.
[0:50] I don't think we ought to let my Texas friends stampede us on these matters.
[0:56] We have not had rain for a long time, but we've had a pretty general rain, and this may be the beginning of more rain.
[1:03] And I don't want to be talking against doing anything properly.
[1:06] Well, what we're not doing here, we cannot declare it a disaster area.
[1:11] declared a major disaster here, that's just going a little too far.
[1:14] Well, what will happen then, we'll have to declare Southern California, Florida, and perhaps Arizona.
[1:22] And you see, and then you're triggering, of course, unemployment insurance and a lot of other things that are very, very serious.
[1:29] Well, I think that, I believe that Cliff and Abe ought to be interested and show concern and all that, but not over-commit us because...
[1:43] They're going to commit for everything short of a major disaster.
[1:45] I think that's fine.
[1:46] In other words, loans and grain and all that sort of thing.
[1:51] Hay to the extent we can find it.
[1:52] There's no hay in the country, though, I understand.
[1:54] That's a real problem.
[1:56] But if we have a little more rain, what we haven't wanted to do is see the cattle market break.
[2:04] And this drought is going to help postpone any break in the cattle market.
[2:08] And some feed can be found.
[2:10] Not enough, I'm sure.
[2:12] Mr. President, I appreciate your call, man.
[2:15] I'm grateful that you're here.
[2:16] They say, incidentally, they could stop at Lubbock if you want them to.
[2:20] I just don't think it's necessary.
[2:22] It would be very inconvenient for me to try to go when I want them to go.
[2:25] All right, swell.
[2:26] Well, anyway, I just wanted you to know we were thinking about you.
[2:29] You're always most kind.
[2:30] All right, thank you.
[2:31] Goodbye.