Conversation 530-004

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Oh, yeah.

Well, I opened up by saying that the president over the past week has been meeting with a number of people regarding the economy.

This morning on a Sunday, I said, both Camp David and the cabinet meeting this morning, the president made it clear that Secretary Conley was his chief economic spokesman.

And I said, so I thought it would be worthwhile to have the president's chief economic spokesman this morning come out and talk to you about the economy.

Well, they picked up on it immediately.

And then some of the questions, even they said, Secretary Conley is the president's chief economic spokesman.

What do you think about this?

Well, then Secretary Conley proceeded to articulate the points which you went over with him just right down the line.

Just right down the line.

So much better than these other guys you put out.

Well, he's good enough that, for example, the network's still doing that alert.

Cut it with the network.

And he made it clear that you had confidence in the policies that

There would be no wage and price boards, no acceleration of tax cuts.

Made all those points, referred to the economy and how the unemployment where it stood now versus previous periods, talked about the number of defense people who have left, the civil people who left the Defense Department, the troops coming back home, which all contribute to unemployment, compared the rate

current rate of unemployment to what it would be if this was not a factor.

Made the point that on the 4% that the American people want lower unemployment, but they're not willing to go to war in order to achieve it.

And just all the way along referred to construction starts and housing starts and the industrial production, which is increasing and providing a good base across the country for expansion.

referred to the fiscal side, how the budgets are expansionary, but that you were not going to, just for the sake of increasing expenditure spend, particularly referred to the public works bill, and took a little bit of a pass-by, Burns, just briefly, by saying that there are two sides to the economy, fiscal and monetary, and we expect the monetary side then.

Then they asked me afterwards whether or not this meant that John McCracken's role changed.

And I said, no one's role has changed.

The president simply has indicated the secretary will be his chief economic advisor.

He will be involved, he said, in all economic decisions, all budgetary decisions.

You go to California this summer with the secretary.

And I made the point that no,

But they will.

They're going to draw a little political suffrage out of this, which is dysfunctional.

What I want to do is build him up, if you want to do that.

Oh, this is going to be a deal.

We build him up.

We're going to build him up again.

We're going to keep putting him out there.

Because he's the best fighter we've got.

There's so few that have got any goddamn balls that they...

I just don't know.

Nothing has happened on that yet.

Well, this will still get played.

It's going to get a good deal.

More than one story.

Then tomorrow, the crime figures, the FBI.

It's too bad they're prescribing one of these things like this to the Productivity Commission.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Productivity Commission, I was... Well, you did.

I didn't make the Productivity Commission.

I was in... Secretary Connolly was briefing.

I gave him some hard shots.

Oh, and the other point the Secretary made was that you were going to use the press team and the force of your office to deal with the wage and price thing where you saw that...

He's made virtually every point that you asked him to make.

Oh, great.

Well, you weren't there, so I just, I didn't know.

I think the world's going to be like it.

I'm not going to feel alone.

I'm from Sapphire.

Well, I don't think I would do too much on that.

Okay.

That would be the least.

Okay, that's political, but we're having a competition.

Was Secretary Laird at the cabinet meeting this morning?

I noticed somebody had a picture in the papers.

I'm sorry.

The idea of the top secret is still good.

That's going to be, that's going to, that's going to change around as it comes on.

People have a certain feeling about it.

I don't know what the hell is secret and what is and what shouldn't be.

I think there's a lot like the idea of a guy stealing stuff.

There's never been a question in my mind about that.

Plus, the more exposure Ellsberg gets, the better off he is.

Well, he was on yesterday.

But he, you know, still twitching.

Joe Kraft had an interesting column this morning.

The end was not as, but the point he made was that Ellsberg had been totally committed to the Vietnam buildup at the beginning.

And basically the impression he got that he's going through a process of trying to cleanse his own soul, like a number of

You were trying to purge him, so, or Muskie was trying to purge him, so, now Muskie made a big speech, advocating in 1968 that they would get the nomination.