Conversation 018-036

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Secretary Connick, sir.

Mr. President.

Hi, John.

How are you, sir?

I hope I'm not interrupting you.

No, sir.

I'm just meeting with my staff.

I just stepped out.

We're just talking about how we reconstitute ourselves, what ideas we can give you to solve some of the problems this country faces.

I don't know that we're going to come up with anything.

You've been doing pretty good so far.

I hope you will ask Ms. Nixon to forgive us for not being out there last night.

Oh, goodness.

You shouldn't have asked me.

They did not stop us all day, and we were coming, and it was such bad weather, it fell down on my back, and I just thought we wouldn't do it, and I didn't realize it was going to be... Not on your life.

Will you please ask her to forgive us?

No, no, no.

We didn't expect people to come, John.

Well, we felt real bad when we... You know what I mean?

Just a few were able to come anyway, but it was just great.

Let me ask you one question, and I won't bother you long.

I'm working in the State of the Union this week, you know, and I just talked to John Ehrlichman before noon.

He said that he talked to you briefly about this plan on value-added and so forth, and that he felt that you felt that it was all right to handle it on this basis of sort of trial ballooning.

In other words, that what we would do in order to preempt the issue, as I understand it, that I would try to meet

this week with McElroy, you and I and Richardson would meet with McElroy, that we would have the Intergovernmental Committee chaired by Agnew, that he'd get them together.

first of next week and so forth, before the State of the Union, and you'd be present in Richardson again and vote the idea there with them and ask them to think about it.

Right.

In the State of the Union, I would just refer to the idea and say that this is a problem of grave concern and that I've taken these steps and consultations and have directed the Secretary of the Treasury

give me a recommendation, so forth and so on.

Now, that would leave us, as I understand it, in a position to either go or stop three or four months from now.

Does that sound all right to you?

I think it sounds like a very plausible and intelligent way to handle it.

Because I just don't think, Mr. President, you want to go up with any kind of legislation right now that ties you down without any accruing benefits.

I think it's an issue.

You can capture the issue.

You can talk about it in general terms and get all of the value and none of the disadvantages because you don't tie yourself down to specifics.

And I would sure let them float it.

I think the Vice President's idea of doing it through that advisory council and their government relations is a damn good one.

Now, we will use your name in it, but then you at some time will just say, well, yes, I'm studying it, and my people are studying it, and it's a very... Something has to be done, but we don't want to... Another thing, argument, I think, John, you should make to everybody...

is to say look we have a very practical thing and that you and the president talk about this and that we don't want to send down to that committee with all it has on its plate a piece of legislation that is for pure political reasons we want to we know they're not ready for it yet and we want to think about it more and they get a chance to think about it and then send it on isn't that makes sense yes sir yes sir because wilbur is going to have the uh you know his own revenue sharing he's got

have health he's got to have the gold bill he's got all these things that and i think that's a good reason for so uh now in terms of the state of the union itself uh then that really doesn't isn't going to leave us too much in the way of something really quite new

Now, I wonder what you feel, whether that probably isn't all right, in a sense.

Yes.

Or tell me what you think.

I've been having them try to scrub up something, but I haven't seen anything that's worth a damn.

I don't think, if you can't have something with real substance and real meat in it, I wouldn't try to.

I would just, in general terms, I hadn't thought in terms of language, but talk about this as a period of...

of consolidation.

We've undertaken great changes in the domestic economic front, the international economic front, the international diplomatic front, and frankly, this is going to be a year of expansion and consolidation.

And we can ask the Congress now to act on those things that we already presented before.

Reorganization of health and welfare.

See, really, in a sense, with welfare reform, health, government reorganization, revenue sharing,

we have everything there already that is needed.

Not to mention, of course, the cleaning up of the international monetary thing.

So I really think that we say now, here it is, Congress, and there really isn't... Also, another thing that concerns me is that

We mustn't create the impression that there's a bold new scheme to solve every problem.

There really isn't, is there?

No, there isn't.

No, and I think you've taken it.

I think you have to lend credence to what you've been saying, that you've taken bold steps in the international field, winding down the war, the trip to Moscow, China, the International Monetary Front, the international economic...

as well as the domestic economic front, you have to take the position that you've taken these steps.

But now it's a question of cleaning up your plate, in effect, before in the Congress and of stabilizing and making the initiatives function that you've already announced.

And that this is a period of expansion and consolidation and whatever other words we can come up with.

Well, as soon as I...

I'll get something by Thursday or Friday.

I'd like to have you take a look.

The language is as important as anything else.

Is what you have in your back a muscle spasm?

Yes, sir.

It's just...

Ever had it before?

Not particularly, no.

I used to.

I always have.

When Ryland comes down on Wednesday, you wouldn't like for him to take a little...

He's this great osteopath.

I use him every week.

Want to take a crack at it?

Well, I sure do if I've still got it.

Well, no, no, no.

The point is, do it if you don't have it even, because what it is, is this is the best Rockefeller user that my user, Mitchell, does, and he is the great one in the country.

He's an MD, too.

All right.

You bet.

And so is the Chief Justice.

Well, that's great.

He's the best.

I'll be in good company anyway.

That's right.

Okay.

I'll have him call you and make an appointment.

That'd be wonderful.

Thank you.