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What I did was

And they didn't have that part in there just because of China going ahead.

But the president, you can't say, and they will not say, as a result of China, the president has gone up to 54.

What you do is you say the first thing is 67% approved the China trip.

Then you say, in the same poll, the president's approval has risen to 54% from the May low of 48.

That's true.

May was low.

That was their low.

48.

So they just say from the main level of 48.

Great.

Now that confuses the hell out of the Gallup, which is, because the Gallup level is also 48.

And this, in fact, this puts a comparison of 54 to 48.

What is the Gallup plan you're going to use?

I don't know.

Well, hell, we just don't know on Monday.

Yeah, we ought to be able to find out.

It must be in the mail, as a matter of fact, it has to be.

I guess you could probably use the 48 again.

Well, he beat Mark Cleverer to bounce it up 150, you know, and said, which are you selling stuff?

Yeah, he came up with exactly the same figure, in a sense, 49, 38.

Now, he reported, you know, that's the first figure he gave us, and then he dropped it on a million.

He gave you 50 for 38.

That's the first figure he gave you, and then he dropped it on 48, 39, 60.

Well, it's all a game.

It's all a game.

Let me tell you what I'm getting at here about these people.

I read the act in Henry II before about the defense thing.

We really do have to shake the camera.

We just can't have $30 billion in deficits.

We've got to go for a tax increase.

I don't see that a tax increase is going to make people a hell of a bit happy.

I just, I understand the responsibility thing and all of that.

Somehow we've got to stop saying we're for everything and say...

Well, John says we haven't said that, but the other point is we haven't.

As far as people are concerned, we haven't because your goddamn budget spells it out.

John, it's your budget.

The other point that bothers me is that I'm going to look at these political interests.

I don't know.

Is it?

People are going to be proud of me.

I don't know.

Is it worth a share?

There's no bonus to having a share.

because of the reason for coming out here.

Great, the rock bar, a few other people, but God damn it, those are gonna kill the lady who killed the real big door in the dance.

And we'll drop it next year.

I know there's no votes in family assistance, Bob.

I don't think there's no votes in the contest, but I think we should kill them.

You see my point?

Yeah, I do.

The point that John wanted to disperse, and anybody in the domestic field always says, but the president's got to have some coonskins on the hang of the wall.

So it's too bad.

We've done our best.

Our blue skin should be foreign policy.

And in domestic policy, we fought like hell for a few little things that didn't come through.

So then we finally came up with an economy that moved ahead, better jobs, and so forth.

I don't know.

What's going to affect?

I think what affects the private sector is what's important.

And I don't have, maybe I can't turn that as a dozen, but I don't even, I'm not even happy that you are about that business.

It seems like a small amount of $40 million for the arts.

I'm just not sure we ought to piss away that kind of money.

I'm just not sure we should, but I'll accept it.

The argument for it, I can see why, the argument for it is that it's peanuts for a large...

It's peanuts for 40 million dollars.

Yeah, for 40 million dollars it's peanuts, and what you're talking about... You're talking about tenths of a billion, because the figure you're working with, the ordered figures, is 3.2 billion and that kind of stuff.

I'll tell you what I know right off the bat.

I know what I understand.

And I know what you don't want.

Now let's send the exam.

Sure.

And you're absolutely right.

I want you to get back to Weinberger on this one.

I wanted to cut things like H-U-E, H-E-W, transportation.

And, frankly, you can look around over any of the other, and, oh, the independent agencies.

The running smart ones are about there.

All those goddamn independent agencies, everybody wants you to be cut.

There you have it.

Every regulatory agency is to be cut.

God damn it, they can be cut.

And that's just pretty good.

Now, everybody pulls in his belt.

Now, it is going to affect the economy.

It's next year.

The price is supposed to be back next year.

It takes too long to do it.

That's right.

You're counting 200,000, 300,000 we're talking about.

300,000 to 400,000 people.

Ten percent cut would be treated as a thousand people.

Well, so basically, I'd vote to come to the military too.

Yeah, but that, you'd get a pretty, as they have said, that's the cheapest way of unemployment insurance there is.

You could say the same for these bastards.

Now, if you pay the civilian employees much more money.

especially at the low end.

I personally think that if you give you a person who thinks there's a hell of a lot more hay and cutting 200,000 people on a federal plot, they will understand.

There's a lot.

People like to see it done.

I think one other thing.

I think the fact that the financial community has no confidence in our inflationary policies.

But I still...

There's no reason that they keep talking about that great big piece of the pie that's uncontrollable.

It's only uncontrollable if you don't control it.

The uncontrollable argument is not a totally valid argument.

Well, it is.

It's uncontrollable social debt.

Alright, that's uncontrollable.

That's real social security.

That's real.

Alright.

That's half of the uncontrollables.

But the other half of the uncontrollables are ongoing acceleration of Great Society programs.

And sure, you have to pay the social security increases and you have to pay the interest on the debt.

And see what's good with that?

But the other thing is, you're still, you've got, there's 150, whatever it is, 156 billion is your domestic budget this year.

It's going up to 100, it's 170, so you've got to cut it to 175.

It's 176 in their target, then you've got 175.

Seems to me that the argument would be to go just the other way, to make them cut that.

to 165, which is still a, the uncontrolled, no, not the uncontrolled, it's the total domestic.

The total non-defense.

165, and raise defense to 80.

You've got a hell of a lot more people abiding, raising defense now.

You know, my purpose is to have defense.

just to get it reorganized.

I'm gonna force those bastards to reorganize.

Now, Henry, Henry just sits there and mumbles around, but he hasn't done a good job on this, because he doesn't, they smell him like everybody else, and he's too busy with it.

And we're gonna get to them and done.

He hasn't paid any attention to them, but he's a beautiful guy, for sure.

But if you've got, well, Defense 77,

make them cut it back to 75 or less, then go in with your own two, three, four, or five billion dollar new defense program of stuff that makes some sense.

In other words, make them cut out the crap they've got now, but then come back with, there must be some new, what do you think we ought to be doing or something?

You know, Weinberger, that I like writing, he's giving me a list of controls.

on controls that are in legislation where legislative recommendations could be made to abolish, you know what I mean?

That's kind of, yeah, I need to see, I don't want to say the school mail program, it's a bunch of boys over there just dancing, but they all come in when they see statements.

But there must be some things over there that ought to be cut.

and that are politically desirable for us to cut.

The other thing to do here is to go home and just budget and raise taxes.

I mean, it does look good to know.

Will that help the private economy?

No.

I don't know.

It sure won't help politically.

It doesn't help psychologically.

It won't help the economy.

Okay.

I think John, the things John will come in with probably this afternoon will be more peanuts, be more, you know, 40, 50 million or 300 million or something like that, even cancer reserves, where you can get some money from that.

But there's good things we ought to cut out.

We ought to get rid of Johnson's peanuts and start using Nixon's peanuts to be peanuts to the elephants.

Well, the point is this, though, that we have too hard to take the peanuts out of the general relationship.

It's a hell of a big peanut.

And the other big peanut is family assistance.

Now those damn things, we're going to flush.

I don't know about general revenue sharing.

The special revenue sharing, you know, if you can make a level of general revenue sharing, of course, is a tremendous need for the state.

But they're going to have to come to both.

If not even special revenue sharing, you cut out the other stuff.

If you cut out the

The General and Sherry Mills screw around, fire around with the gunman and he's like, should I take these?

We'd better just cut taxes.

Let's see what they come up with.

They'll shake them up a little together, thinking in different ways.

The thing is that the way they were coming up with Bob, just as they came up with last year and the year before, is my doing.

More of the same.

Let's face it, what did we come up with a year or two years ago?

The environment.

It was a very, in that motion, maybe it was necessary to avoid there having an issue.

So the environment's not an issue.

That's what John's saying.

It's okay to say it's not an issue.

This doesn't make any sense, but I don't understand why there isn't, why the major domestic issue, or the domestic challenge, attack, that the Nixon administration isn't to

explain that budget in very simple terms of where all that money goes and say we ain't going to spend all that money for lousy programs and demand that the Congress let us or follow CACSA announce we are not going to fund those programs and don't budget for funding.

And then if Congress forces you to fund them, the millennium on that is after the re-election so it doesn't make any difference.

What you get is 11 months from January to November of 72 of standing

A lot of them.

Unfortunately, it's terribly sensitive.

But there are a lot of people that are going to go to the other constituencies and scream, rage, hell, and riot.

Terry Blacker's take Head Star.

Now, Head Star has to be flushed very cleverly.

Because that involves the blacks.

It involves everybody yelling about Head Star.

And so forth and so on.

But my view is flush it down.

But that guy, then, Blacker, I knew he would do that when he got in there.

He's a devil in the room.

He's got one of them.

Did you know that?

Not that, he's got one.

But he's gonna cut it.

I'm gonna have to realize what I'm acting with, at least for a purpose, but then actually get rid of it.

I'm gonna get rid of it.

We always go down this path.

We're really not cutting, we're really doing more.

God damn it, I wanna cut some of these things.

I don't believe it.

I'll tell you one thing.

I have no doubts about the assistance.

It is a brand loser.

It's a far loser.

I support it in that way.

I've finally reached a conclusion, mainly just out of conviction, that we just should help people more in this country.

I think the welfare psychology is deeply embedded.

I think the psychology among young people is deeply embedded.

We're all entitled to go to coffee.

We're all entitled to free lunch.

We're all entitled to free food stamps.

We're all entitled to free lunches.

We're all entitled to welfare.

We're all entitled to this, that, and the other thing.

Everything should be ignored.

And God damn, I'm not for it.

I think you've got to make a weak society out of this.

I don't know.

Just hang on.

We had a whole system set up for you to get it on the hill today.

One of the most sensitive guys is Bill Rodgers.

Bill Rodgers mentions him in every poll he sees.

It wasn't that good of a bull in front of me.

I mean, the Harris bull, what I said is, you know, I'd grab the content as we could go, but very sensitive children.

Get it to each other, you know, get it out of the nation.

I fired out there.

Next, it goes up to 54 or so.

So we know that 54 is not very, you know, better for women.

Oh, it's not bad.

Let me say, 54 or 32 is a hell of a lot better than that.

shall we say, 4036, right?

Which was the honest number in Maine, or 50 for that matter.

It's sort of fluctuates in that ballpark.

But I think, we know these men never lie to us.

He just tells us what he finds.

Is Dirge a veteran author?

Is he an institution?

No, I'm not sure where he is right at the moment.

He's started this one.

I just wanted to know if I should call him sometime.

He's probably going through an emotional experience.

I think people go through it.

He'll get older.

But, you know, a little bit of help in Congress.

Also, I want to be sure to go out and see Stuart also.

I'll go out next week.

I'm just going to just flip out there.

I'm expecting him.

I don't know what the time is.

No notice.

I don't want to say we're anybody.

I'll just get in my car and go.

Do you want to use the boat tonight?

Just cool it out.

Okay.

I'll see you.

I've got to talk to Colin in a second.

I just don't think we can make any points by going forward, you know, this or that or the other thing.

First, I don't think we just get any credit for it.

I don't think food stamps, I don't think that thing I did for a hundred is making one fucking vote.

Do you?

No, sir.

And we just loaded us a copy of the food stamps every now and then.

And I don't think it's done any good in any other places either.

Just a little reduction and a hell of a lot of reform.

That's the domestic burger to run on.

And let's let these Mickey Mouse things have something to do with cancer.

I'm all for that.

Drug control, drug abuse.

But I don't think they're abused.

Because the way I'm looking at it, you know, running clinics and all that sort of thing.

And I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to do it.

Go to a few more jails.

that has her, I must say, we haven't gotten any credit on it, but you know, everything we do is the best we can do, and nothing seems to get the truth or the public doesn't.

Like, I tried to work with this man, who had made the announcement, the announcement that there would be a show, and people would get happy, and how crime in the district of Columbia is down 18%, but the only one that ever mentioned that to me was the Julie, Julie said, Jesus, and I'm waiting for her, and I said, before you see her,

There we go.

Isn't that wonderful?

Now, it's, the reason people, it is getting through in the sense that it's being recorded.

I know people are getting pretty good mileage on the drug.

And day in and day out, they're practicing the same thing.

That's right.

Over a period of time, maybe it will be.

I don't know whether it will or not.

I don't know whether it will.

Well, drugs take good care.

The broker organization took a poll.

Did a national study of 2,000 people.

on do you think things are better or worse, in good shape or not, and they very strongly think things are in bad shape and getting worse in every area.

Well, just in general, they said that.

But then they said, what most worries you?

And by far the largest figure is drugs, the use of drugs, the increasing use of drugs.

Right.

It's over.

First of all, I said, do you think the things in this country are generally going in the right direction today, or have they seriously gotten off the wrong track, on the wrong track?

23% say in the right direction, and 64% say they're off on the wrong track.

That's our problem with psychology.

And they say the dissatisfaction with our national direction is felt by every group in the population.

64% of those under 25 think we're on the wrong track, and 68% of those over 49 think we're on the wrong track.

So in every section of the country, so on.

And then they say, what's gone wrong?

What's brought this about?

Well, they said, which one or more of the things on this list do you feel is a major cause of the problems in this country today?

Use of drugs, 47%.

War in Vietnam, 40%.

Racial tensions, 33%.

People forgetting the golden rule, 31%.

Lack of strong leadership, 30%.

The economic situation, 27%.

That's the first economic thing.

27.

Too much emphasis on money and materialism, 26%.

Permissiveness, 23%.

Radical attempts to force change, 20%.

Communism, 18%.

Youth and its values, 13%.

Growing conservatism, 4%.

Too much technology, 4%.

Because he says that...

Where's the apartment?

Well, they didn't have it on the list.

See, they gave them the list, you see.

Well, the critical thing we have here is that most people, very few, there's some people think that things are going wrong rather than going right.

And have that people think the reason in that case is drugs.

Yeah, and that affects, of course, our understanding.

I mean, after all, we are the man.

I think we answered, like I said, on the encouraging side.

We've got answers to two of those things.

In the back, one, we've got the leadership, the strong leadership thing.

In the back, because the China thing helps you, honestly.

Or does it?

I don't know.

It has to be done in some way.

Is that getting through or not?

I guess they don't have to work on it.

They could have, they're going to have to, they don't have to, they haven't had to, I don't know, but that is the way they've got it.

Now it's too good.

Everybody's got to talk about the President's strong leadership, right?

Yep.

The story is certainly written for a weekend.

Don't assume that it continues to run.

They say at any rate the heavy focus on drug use suggests it may be bearing more than its realistic burden of responsibility and may have become a scapegoat for the New Orleans.

I think that's probably right.

That's very good.

They said this is especially interesting because scapegoats are more typically sought in the political region.

And it's interesting that the drugs are taking that.

Yeah, the leadership thinks 30%.

I guess in the early 1950s, it was communism which the large minority blamed for what was wrong.

Today, communism is 10th on the list, named it by only 18%.

I'll let the leadership point it.

We cannot make, we cannot make.

It never could be gotten across.

Kennedy did it with the Bay of Pigs, Bob, you know, in the Cuban competition.

That was all.

And if I catch a group in and I shake their timbers on that point and say, now, God damn it, here is a real leadership thing.

at least with China, that's a bad way to, that ain't gonna happen.

But other people don't.

People don't see that.

But don't you think that this is our leadership thing?

Let's go with the leadership thing.

I'd like to have, let me just say, I'd like to have for two months, I'd like to have a 60 day program

They mentioned it in terms of first, isn't it great that we have somebody who's moving to our piece, but the important thing is, thank God we've got the great, strong leadership in the present, strong, decisive leadership in the present, and courageous leadership.

And second, the top leader in the world.

He could even get a poll.

The real objection is that I cannot have my

Well, it demonstrates that John is not, he obviously wants to go, so he's overlooking that.

But we'll bring him over sometime.

Or I'll let him go on an interview.

It's his own thing.

But he must not be like he went over.

He controls the development.

But I'll arrange that at a later time.

John, let's not go over there.

That's an advancement.

I just can't do it.

That's what he should not do.

It downgrades him, and we've done a good job of building him up, and he is a symbol of your interest in domestic affairs.

He's a man, and he diverts himself to water boxing.

And if John hasn't advanced, he's never been on it, but he has advanced for over two years.

That's a change, and they have changed a lot.

Now, you get out of the Secret Service, we cut them.

They were 10% off, so they've got too many people around them.

And I want you to see what you can do about the White House staff over there, you know what I mean?

There may be just a couple doing it, you know.

They have too many people on hand for the top scum.

Say, now Rex, there's going to be a 10% cut across.

Who could do that?

If somebody retires, just don't replace them.

See, it's a very small staff, man.

Say we aren't going to have as many functions as we're not though, you know what I mean?

The number of state units will be down.

And I will knock the Christmas party off this year.

They can see the functions it is in the apartments.

This year, for example, we're not going to bother with the Christmas thing.

We'll put up a tree and all the rest of it.

I'm not going to do all that crap this year.

I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I mean, it isn't necessary.

My sugar can't be riding on China.

That's my small hobby.

I'll either be gone or I'll be going.

I just don't know.

So that is temporary.

The parties are, they bring in temporary government.

I'll talk to the reps. We can work that out.

It's unfair because they are, as Capra's trying to say, they're cut down to the bone.

And more so than we've already done that temporary government.

Well, all of a sudden I said that the Navy mess is too heavy.

The Navy mess is much too heavy when it goes to California.

They have too many people out there.

Well, they really don't.

They don't hardly have the number of people to go there.

The number of people the mess serves and the operation they handle per man has gone way up.

We have less people serving a lot more.

We really have ground on those things.

The car drivers, the problems we've added, more and more people who have those privileges.

See, we added the domestic council, and they all have mess privileges.

You have the OMB, and they all have mess privileges.

Now they're fighting for more mess privileges for the NSC, Peterson's staff.

They have that mess privileges.

Williams is crushed.

They're all too big.

NSC staff's wings are big.

100%

He's got some people over there that he doesn't really need.

I want him staffed up.

I really want him.

He's got to talk to the rest of them.

I think if they all know that I ordered it up and down the line, it's a 10% cut, then they will.

Now, you know what other places where we can't do it.

There are other places where they can't.

Now, one picture you can start is on the patient run cell steps.

They're not large, but let's just flush them.

Each of them has a staff of 10 people.

All right.

Ventures go to OED.

But his whole staff, he either goes there or he's not taking his people with him.

He's just overdone it.

I don't want you to go to the vice president, but I think he's got a cut, too.

Don't you agree?

Depending upon what we're doing, just say we're making a 10% cut.

I want the final cut to be made before I ask the government to do it.

Let's make the vice presidents open cards.

Yeah, we did right along as we go here.

Now, on Rumsfeld, what is your feeling?

We didn't get to finish our conversation on that as to what we should do.

Isn't it really better to get him the hell out of the White House when we're in the political thing?

I think it is.

Because I think we ought not to have him.

And Jason pointed out,

The White House political operative, all there should be is a little bit of services, so the indent can't handle that, where he takes some phone calls, and that's something which Rumsfeld probably wouldn't do anyway.

What are you going to have Rumsfeld do?

He's going to be the head of the Citizens' Opera.

Right, and then he'll chair for the National Citizens, and he resigns from the President's Cabinet and the White House staff to chair the drive for the President's re-election.

The campaign manager?

He is, yeah.

Like Rumsfeld, the chairman of the campaign.

The chairman of the citizens.

Like Charlie Ryan.

Right.

Or chairman of the campaign.

I don't know.

We'd have to work that out with John.

But he likes to talk about it.

I think so.

And he's been working.

I know he's been working closely with him.

Rumsfeld has a whole new area to work in.

And he just...

He backed her up over there.

See, you don't want Brunstall as a political campaign manager.

He doesn't understand that.

He doesn't understand that the way John does.

He's the guy that go out and get out the people, get the youth excited, get the non-cyber society and the women excited and all the rest of it.

He makes his speeches.

He goes off.

For example, John can't go.

Brunstall goes on TV and is the next-in-chairman.

See, he's the next-in-chairman.

I think basically next-in-chairman is a good image.

And, uh, I think Rumsfeld is an excellent chairman of the author good.

He's an excellent TV man.

And, uh, I really think he'd be a superb agent.

I don't understand how you... Can I, can I ask you, do you agree, do you think it does help Greg Bench to take him out of the captain?

All right.

Please, Ben.

I don't know, let's take a step.

So let me say this.

I didn't, when I talked to him, I left the impression he was gonna get out of the cabin.

Okay, let's go on that assumption and let's say, I guess that the NSC is more important.

I thought, that's obviously true.

Well, Christ, yes, when I say, Bob, the cabin's stunning, and then you're in the NSC, and you have all that.

And then say, you are gonna attend all cabin meetings.

I see no reason why he couldn't attend cabin meetings.

He should have actually.

How about that?

Not a member, but a tenant.

See any problem with that?

The only, yeah, no.

The only problem is the protocol rank, or whatever you want to call it, where you stand in the line.

Well, Bob will be there, so he's 80 in the line, or I mean 15, rather than 14.

He's not here.

He's 13.

What the hell there is to say?

Nothing.

But don't you really?

Don't really get into this.

I mean, I don't think anybody's going to give one ticker's dad.

And he gets in there, but that gives him something to do.

It gives him an office.

But he's going to flush those people, my boy.

And I think Rumsfeld's got to flush his too.

And Rumsfeld's people all work for the OEO, and we pay for them.

They're not on paper.

They're not on the White House staff.

They're on the OEO staff.

But we reimburse OEO for them because we aren't allowed to have details anymore.

Everybody in our clients is just asking for somebody for a staff.

That's unbelievable.

Absolutely unbelievable.

What do they do?

Come in and say, look, I need somebody for the staff, or I need a staff man.

And it's the wrong people.

See, the ones that I have direct control over are understaffed.

Ziegler is understaffed.

The press office doesn't have an adequate staff.

And Colson is understaffed.

we push to do a little more staff because for what he's doing, he's got to have people in his body to do it.

Those people are standard working type people, not prestige types.

Peterson probably needs a staff, I don't know, I suppose he does.

You can't do what he's doing.

Would you tell Erwin's people that I want them to find, if they can for me, something, I want them to give me a recommendation regarding either legislation or an amendment on busing?

I mean, it's the subject that you raised.

But I want it as a direct order.

I want something done.

I not only want them to keep the finger on the damn thing,

I think if you could get in your whole the Morris, the Sapphires, the Cossons, the Clines, the Diggers, etc.

You know, all that for Christ and

We just had the leadership point along that much earlier.

I think, make that a problem.

Is this what we should do with this particular thing?

That's the only thing we can do, because we shouldn't be pushing.

We shouldn't be pushing peace.

We shouldn't be pushing substance.

We shouldn't be pushing that you're going to, you know, what are you going to do about Taiwan or that you're going to open trade with China or anything like that.

It should just be the overwhelming point

The President managed to trust a major world leader and a bold, strong leader.

I mean, so they want leadership.

By God, they're going to get leadership.

And I think, anyhow, that Broadway play, though, is an excellent way to introduce it.