Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 011-062
Date: Tuesday, October 12, 1971 at 1:32 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Meany, George
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/011-062

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:01] Mr. George Meany, Mr. President.
[0:05] Hello.
[0:05] Mr. President, how are you?
[0:06] All right, fine.
[0:07] I was just going to say that on just looking out this pretty day, you ought to go out and play golf.
[0:11] I'd love to, but I'm busy.
[0:14] I've got to go down, and I know you've been busy.
[0:16] I've got to go down and pay my respects to Eddie Hebert.
[0:19] They're hanging his picture today in the armed services room.
[0:21] Oh, I see.
[0:22] He's a good man.
[0:23] He's a good, strong man.
[0:24] I wanted to tell you, I just got your...
[0:27] George Schultz has brought in your statement, and I greatly appreciate your willingness to work on this thing.
[0:37] And you saw the piece of paper which we sent over.
[0:40] That is my understanding as to what the policy is.
[0:44] That's all right.
[0:45] And when I told the press, I told the press about Connolly.
[0:49] I read the Connolly thing carefully, and then this piece of paper is, and we've also checked it with Connolly, and he totally agrees with it, too.
[0:55] Yeah, well, and that's perfect.
[0:57] So you see, we've got Connolly, as I understand it.
[0:59] Yeah, well, that's all right, except that this piece of paper was a little more precise.
[1:03] More precise.
[1:03] Well, I looked it over, and as you noticed, I initialed it.
[1:06] You've got a copy of it, I think.
[1:08] Yes, yes.
[1:08] But I did want you to know that Connolly also has seen it and agrees that that's what he meant to say.
[1:14] Well, I... Fair enough.
[1:16] That's fine.
[1:16] I hope we can do something on this.
[1:19] I can tell you privately, you'd say between 2% and 3% a year.
[1:24] I'd settle for, if we could get it down to 3.5%.
[1:27] Well, look, the main thing is to make progress, and 3.5% is a damn good number.
[1:32] I'd say so, yes.
[1:33] Right.
[1:33] Considering what we've got.
[1:34] Right.
[1:35] Well, we're trying to... Oh, incidentally, I will put out a statement today, say I welcome the participation of organized labor, etc.,
[1:42] And bring down the customer request.
[1:45] I'm going to, the only thing that we do have some agreement, a disagreement on is on the tax proposal.
[1:51] But I, of course, have to, as you can imagine, push for those.
[1:54] I think you're going to beat us on it.
[1:57] Well, sure, that's fine.
[1:58] But as you understand, if the darn thing works, which it might, then it's more jobs.
[2:03] Yep.
[2:04] Okay.
[2:04] Fine.
[2:05] Bye.
[2:05] Thank you.