Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 248-011
Date: Wednesday, April 14, 1971 at 3:07 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/248-011

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] John, I got that suggested.
[0:06] I'm overworking on my notes here at the conference, but I got the suggestion that you made about not going to do it Monday morning.
[0:19] I'm just talking about welfare.
[0:23] I'm sure you know that.
[0:26] It won't do any good for us unless I really hit it in terms of the hard line.
[0:33] I had commonly came back from Texas, you know, and he says, you know, of course, they're going to count on the drop for one thing.
[0:40] But he said, you just can't imagine people are so goddamn mad about wealth.
[0:45] Down there, it goes to Mexicans.
[0:48] See?
[0:49] But they are mad about welfare.
[0:51] Everybody's pissed off about welfare.
[0:52] And I just feel that right here, we're on a bad way.
[0:55] And we've just got to keep repeating that we're hard-line on welfare.
[1:00] I don't know whether we can do it with, I don't know, and lose and hold other support.
[1:04] But you know, our friend Wilbur is playing both ways.
[1:08] He's saying, well, we're hard-line on our friendly assistance, too.
[1:11] But all we have heard is that we want to add
[1:16] 18 million people in the welfare world.
[1:18] People don't want that decision.
[1:23] I commend this.
[1:25] I commend Governor Rockefeller, Governor Reagan, the leadership, that at the national level, we do this, this, this, and this.
[1:31] It is time that people do this.
[1:33] Get some hard, tough records.
[1:34] We have a South Byron.
[1:35] I mean, tough records are okay.
[1:38] Get South Byron.
[1:38] That's what you must do.
[1:40] You can't.
[1:43] I want some hard rhetoric on the welfare.
[1:49] I think it's just the right line for us to take.
[1:53] I think it's a good idea.
[2:01] Another thing, Barbara, I don't want to slobber around about it.
[2:06] I don't mind saying, let's take care of those that need to stay alive.
[2:12] Don't go on, let's add 15 million to the welfare rolls and see that every working poor gets taken care of.
[2:18] Don't belabor that.
[2:19] I mean, I just, I'd like to flush that.
[2:22] Well, you can't flush it.
[2:24] You've got to, you've got to mention so that you, I mean, I guess you've got to mention support of our program.
[2:35] But, yeah.
[2:36] But the purpose is we have got to get people into jobs.
[2:39] And then put it in very personal terms.
[2:42] It is the man working and earning so much of money, trying to be, hold his head high, and he lives next door to somebody who's on welfare and gets food stamps.
[2:52] Here's one of those horrible examples, like Reagan.
[2:53] Here's some examples.
[2:56] He gets food stamps and does this and that and so forth and so on and so on.
[3:00] And no matter, no one reads a map.
[3:02] And, you know, then, of course, the idea of taking people into jobs, you know.
[3:10] Yeah.
[3:11] I like the idea of the words provided here by the hard-hitting writers, the writers who say it can't be any more than 2,000 words.
[3:20] That's our outside line on speeches these days.
[3:30] Well, not a word of... Yeah, the need to clean up the welfare mess.
[3:34] It's H.R.
[3:34] 1, and it is number one priority.
[3:37] Then, at the outset, say that...
[3:39] You know, when you say I, if you've got the public and government, you know, at the National Governors' Conference, I emphasize, you start out with the A, well, I get excited for the other part, support, revenue sharing, and so forth.
[3:54] And we need your support.
[3:55] We urge you, you know, to do this.
[3:57] And the support of these governors is essential to them.
[4:01] This is a bipartisan program.
[4:02] I'm talking about another bipartisan program today.
[4:04] We're all there for this.
[4:06] Welfare is a mess, it is H.R.
[4:07] 1.
[4:07] I proposed this program on October 1st, 1967.
[4:10] Now we have new ideas.
[4:11] The governor has taken the lead.
[4:15] And then some horrible statistics about how many have been added to the welfare rolls.
[4:23] And then a couple of striking examples of, you know, like, I don't know, some of the Reagan speeches.
[4:31] The man, the man next door.
[4:34] Don't have any W on it, you know.
[4:36] Okay?
[4:37] All right.
[4:37] Do Ken and Michael more than Sapphire, I'm not sure.
[4:42] Get Sapphire on this then.
[4:47] Tell Sapphire, because the main things to tell Sapphire are hard on and examples.
[4:56] Okay.