Conversation 566-007

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Well, I'm sorry I had to do it full time.

They had 40 pluggers.

They had all their men prepared for the visit.

Come on, sir.

Let's hurry together tonight, those guys.

I think that tomorrow's time will... We do have, uh...

Let me tell you what I have in mind.

I think it's very important.

But it is very important to keep the momentum and the offensive on the Senate.

We have a very great psychological wisdom in the country.

If, on the other hand, I was trying to put those guys on the spot every day in a nice way, but if, on the other hand, the Congress drags its feet for trying to make a Christmas tree, or any of that, without that, it could go, it could stand.

Now, they're going to try to lay all that business about the interest rate, you know.

I told John Compton...

But in terms of this whole package, it can have...

an enormous effect on Joe Biden's economy, yet the country gets the impression that the Congress is going to move on the investment tax credit, on the excise taxes,

They're going to screw off on this, believe me.

And they're going to screw off.

They're going to delay.

They're going to do it.

Now, they're caught off balance now.

And as you know, they must all be eating.

And you know what?

Because all the Democrats who are coming on this issue, all of them asked us to do these things, mostly in one degree or another.

Now that we've done it, their only answer can be, well,

Why didn't we do it?

You've got to watch.

Some of them will not.

Some of them, they're going to be partisan.

It's all because they see the space well.

Now, this is a time of Republicans who can't even, in my view, on the partisan issue, just came and said, this is for the good of the country.

This is something that's for jobs.

Let's not have this down here.

Let's not have partisan.

Because you've got a country behind you.

Like in your state, I imagine that 75% of the people would be for Trump.

Well, I was in Denver, Mr. President, coming down last night.

And they interviewed 20 people at the Denver Post.

And that's not a very favorable paper.

They interviewed 20 people.

18 out of the 20 were enthusiastic.

And two were a little mixed, but not really antagonistic.

Except for the guy here and there that's going to miss out on a week.

And some of the government employees, even them, though, they cited some of their wives for saying, well, we're delighted if you keep prices down.

See, the wives know the weight increases, and the point that I made in that whole speech, that the effect of it.

And as I say, and I put an award in peace, and I always get it back to the worship, that in the four war years, 65 to 69, American wages got huge wage increases.

But as the riots know, they were totally not by price increases, which they were.

And we're stopping that with this.

So there's wage increases.

That's just how it works.

I asked Wilbur Mills when he was going to start hearings because I wanted it on the record in front of everybody.

And that forced old Russell to turn around a little bit.

Yeah, Russell was there trying to squirm off.

put in some of his own pet ideas.

Now, we'll take those things up in January, but we must not, if we can avoid it, Bob, we must not butter up the Senate with 30 different amendments for every pet thing.

Now, if they lose it all, some will take it.

But you just let it be.

The thing to do is to make it short and surgical and right and move on to that amendment.

And then take the other things in January and say, all right, that's the time for a tax reform.

Let's go ahead and say, they'll try to say, well, now's the time to have an exemption for your tuition, or now's the time to have an exemption for that.

Sure, maybe the time, but not now.

This is not the time for more cuts of that sort.

Mr. President, Chuck passed into me a little memo on what he thought we might say.

And Chuck, I don't think right now, in light of the attitude of that meeting, I ought to, or anybody else, should go out and attack me, or go out and hit McGovern.

I think there...

can all find themselves in an unpopular position in the 20th century.

The point that I make is this.

Don't let them, however, build men.

The business, this person of business is not the working man, it's only the businessman.

Don't let them get away with that.

Now, in other words, these little lies can become part of the national consciousness.

So, at appropriate times, I think you've got to take on.

Huber and the others, they're all sort of taking part in this stuff.

I would say, I would mourn sorrow and anger.

I would say, isn't it too bad that they're partisan about something that the great majority of the country...

and put it in terms of the challenges of peace.

We've got to meet this as we meet the challenges.

It's the greatest of war.

This is a time for our partners.

This is a time to put the country first, and not narrow parts of China.

I can cram it down your damn throats.

These guys are desperate, politically.

They know they've been hit.

You know, maybe they don't know the reason, John.

Well, Harris says we've just, uh, cut their legs out from under them.

They thought it was their issue.

They're trying to say to Pat, you know, neither Muskie nor Kennedy have issued any signal.

Their offices won't even count.

And Muskie is

We've got to have wage rising.

Voluntary.

And then Sunday night, the most historic announcement that the president makes in must-see sound.

It's just not a word.

Not a word.

And to let that answer get a little bit, it's just amazing.

When this meeting broke up, did the press get to Mike and to Uber Mills?

Was there some way that they could get to them there?

We never had a briefing for the five-hour solution, so we couldn't tell them anything.

Gee, that would have been a time that made all those guys.

I stood there while he talked to Wilbur and with Mike and said, now what can I say?

And Ron wrote it down.

I stood right there.

And Ron went out and he put it on the record.

Mr. President, he's not very cooperative.

Wilbur is the guy.

That's why I played the line and looked over.

You suggested something.

I think that's a line that we should continue.

Give him the credit.

Yes, sir.

In the end, you're going to give us credit.

Who does it?

It's us.

If times are bad, they throw us out.

That's why.

Let me say, watch it.

Don't let it build up.

We'll keep in touch with you.

Don't let it build up into a...

If you look at the papers yesterday in the debate, our news analysts said that there was more, of course, the China announcement had an enormous effect, but they couldn't write as many stories because nobody knew enough about it.

But this has more dominated the news, more dominated even the China announcement, and more basically than even the war announcement.

It's kind of more sustained, yeah, which has had an awe and awe and awe.

And we'll continue for a couple of days, but the point you make, Mr. President, of not letting these guys get too much initiative to go in against us is terribly important because I think you've got to, as you put it this morning, you've got to keep their heads low.

And if they do start to get irresponsible, I mean, Humphrey's statement was generally his support.

Jackson's was kind of...

We want to build it.

President city.

You're not.

I think it's a very interesting kind of thing.

We could just keep going.

Well, we'll have the bill through the House the first week in October.

On the schedule that Wilbur committed himself to.

But you're going to have pretty tough countries.

The set house up in countries will be tough.

You'll have mills,

You never heard of that sign?

Oh, Wilbur and Johnny will never sign that.

Wilbur told me that today.

I said, you know what?

I'm going to screw this up.

You see what you're going to do?

No.

I said, you promise?

They can't all stand up.

This is one time.

Jared, Bob, you've got to get our 12 Republican assistants, you know, moving.

They've got to tell them that's all.

that it must be this and nothing more.

Can you get that across to them?

It's got to be this program and nothing more.

And hold fast on that.

Don't add anything to it.

Don't take anything away.

This is it.

So it's that money that wrote you about wages, prices, and action.

My God, those are the long words that Elaine wanted, and they ought to...

But I should say that we can also test the problem that's happening.

Because it shouldn't be anymore.

If you start screwing it up, it could get way out of hand.

And also, delay, delay, delay.

That's the air traffic.

Delay at Proxmire and here now.

You know what I'm afraid, excuse me, Chuck, about Proxmire.

And that's why I asked about ADR.

Proxmire might try to put in that bill on the Senate side.

A repealer of your authority for the ADR.

Accelerated depreciation.

Now, they can't do that on the House side.

But, you know, he's been making this big fight.

In fact, I think he's started a lawsuit, didn't he?

He or somebody.

Some of them.

That's the only time.

Don't let him fool around with it.

He's the worst Democrat.

Oh.

I will say you cut the ground with him on the end of it.

His statements have been good.

And he's been very, very strong and supportive of it from the very start.

A lot of them are going to go home after Clark, you know, retired.

Well, anyway, good luck.

Thanks for coming back.

Good night, everybody.

All right.

But anything I can do the day before I leave, you're going to have to take a look at this.

I'll give you that.

Yeah, I'd like a copy of this.

Get that to the shelf.

This is what Chuck wrote me.

I think right now, if they start to undermine that, then I think it's serious.

Keep a little suppressive fire.

Keep the hits.

I'll be back in Michigan Sunday.

I'll be good.

Well, thank you for the service.

Oh, I just wanted to talk to you about that a little bit.

I hope we can sit and relax a little bit.

I probably won't be able to, you know, aren't going to be able to take it.

The bar was standing by whenever it's convenient for you, Mr. President.

Yeah.

In fact, I think he's right now.

I think he has an empty chair right now, if you'd like to see it.

Yeah.

And, Matt, could I have your signature, please?

Yeah, either that or...

I was thinking that might be more convenient for me at 4.30, I think.

4.30 is fine.

Is he going to...

Nice guys.

They're nice guys, Sam.

Also, if they ever see any opportunities,

slicing and squirming and screaming around.

Goddamn it, our Republicans, whether it's on China or this or anything else, they can't be out and be enthusiastic because you find that purity.

I'm sorry to say this, but I...

I mean, the Rockefeller system, are other Republicans standing up for this or what are they doing?

There's been a very good reaction from the Republicans.

As we try to find those who may help attack, it's a little bit difficult.

It's a little weekend.

A jury just said to me going out, he said, well, if you really want some help and need it by this weekend, he said, I can do something Saturday or Sunday.

Yeah.

I mean, I want to have a genuine positive.

Did you see the, uh, one-by-one report that you got in?

All day, the first hour was up 1, but it was up 0.98.

Second hour was up 4.67, third hour up 5.54.

And it's running at about 5 million shares an hour, which would have to be at 27, 28.

It's at least hanging in, you know, a day or two.

You can't go two days in a row, or five, or it's none of my charm.

You can make the second day, or you're down, or you're down.

This is a very good, salty, good time, because it shows us, if it was salty, and it stays in the evening, or in the evening, you'd be in very good shape.

The TV, that's very good.

We had a 40-grade, which is enormously good for a summer.

which is 48 million viewers in our city.

So we have a good impact.

And I think the buildup, you know, that probably helped.

And some of the other people, some of the nightcars, a lot of people look at TV.

Oh, there is.

But this is bigger than the normal audience.

If you had an 80 chair, which is about, they're probably a little higher than you usually get.

People watching television or watching non-network stations didn't see 80% of it.

50 million people

Well, I just want to report on the medium.

The report to the press went well because John Burns stopped out at the driveway and saw some of the press and gave his answer.

The full cooperation made the points in need for the whole program to pass and so forth.

And gave that report to the press and then I filled it in based on Massville quotes and also on the Burns quote.

Now I want the new one.

I just put it in there.

That's fine.

Why don't you check the staff?

I see one of my teammates, my teammate, and they're more detailed.

Wait, I don't think he needs to be covered.

Right.

And then you can ask my leaders as well.

I'm going to see her, and I'm not going to ask her.

So I'll review my notes ahead, and then we'll get the odds down.

Thanks, Richard.

Too long.

Did you?

Are you positive?

I know some.

I wonder if that would all hit him on the nose.

Just to see that.

Oh.

You didn't see that, did you?

There was some hope that he wouldn't be able to make it, I guess.

The rest of the law recurses to all your responsibilities.

Well, at least we got it out.

If you do that now, this way you're going to get that much credit, more credit for it.

We put them right to the sword.

Right, yeah.

I was talking to Henry earlier and the way he's acting, he sees it in the same terms as his other stuff.

You know, you buy them off your criticism and critics of the ego.

You can't do what you ought to do.

Just like on the Lord, you were doing the right thing, but you had to buy it.

It may or may not work.

Boy, it's...

Just gives people what they want.

It was the fancy cohort kind of throws them off, doesn't it?

Just here to go.

Got something to talk about.

Is anybody with me on these parcels?

That's the beauty of this kind of trip.

You're not going from any place to any place.

Mitchell's going up with you tonight, but you don't have to talk to him.

Oh, I can't.

You've got to work.

And that's no problem.

And you're coming from the National Park.

You're going from Dallas out to LA, or you can count on us to arrive, because he seems to be out there for the veterans' hostel.

We're giving some people some rides.

that they're not people that you know to deal with at all.

I'm wondering if you could do us a check, any contacts, anyone out there that has to do the...

Plenty of good crowds, people that didn't expect.

And so I've talked to her.

I've talked to her.

I just don't want to be caught.

I just want to be sure that we're doing everything we can.

It may be to help us make a difference.

It may be that it's enough.

My guess is that you can always get $1,000.

That's my opinion.

That's the number to sort of match.

$1,000 is as good as $5,000 is now.

You know?

That's right.

Just that.

And $10,000 is as good as $100,000.

It's the way it works.

It's just a big number.

Well, the numbers, when you get into the thousands, the numbers don't make any difference.

When you start closing up with the $80,000 to the $10,000, yeah, it just doesn't matter.

Like the names.

Markets just didn't like that.

They were more than $5,000 back then.

They probably were.

Probably were.

The one you couldn't knock out was the economy.

There was, and that's the one you sat there and said, well, Frank doesn't even want to.

Black, he can't knock out anyone.

He, there's no way to knock that one out, even if he did want to.

But you lose more, much more than you gain.

And there's, there's a solid answer there.

It starts with what we're calling an unemployment has to demand.

I understand.

You're about an hour this long.

That's not going to make any difference, but it doesn't matter.

Everybody says, geez, thank God you did it.

The fact of the matter is, we aren't going to debate about it.

Whatever that has to say, what you're doing is working.

I'm sure.

But I just firmly believe that the psychology of technology has been 90% of our problem.

And then you turn at least 90% of it around and therefore solve 80% of the problem.

And you can't help to solve more than that.

It's the unemployment thing, how people held off hiring people because they weren't sure what was happening.

They were worried about this and that, and you might do this, you might do that now.

But money's changed.

Attitude changes.

You know, it's just whether a person gets out in the morning, it's just going to be a good day or a bad day.

You're in a good mood, you can handle a lot of rough news.

I'm trying to help out the contractor.

And if you're bad too, as you turn down things, you don't buy that hurt stuff, you don't go out to them, you don't steal, I help out, you just steal, but I don't feel good about things.

And it doesn't take very much.

difference to make arms change, there's always change.

In fact, the war made people feel a bad attitude towards Iran, and that eventually, in fact, was very disappointing about the war.

Now, let's turn it around.

That's, that's your, that's your closest test.

See if you're one minute.

Can you stand here, silent?

All right.

That's the, that's the re-box.

That's the re-box?

Yeah.

Oh, okay, there's some other stuff.

Yeah, there's some other stuff.

All right, go on, there's some other stuff.

I gotta get that out right away.

Arnie Weber would be glad to stay and do the job.

Well, he works at this point fairly well with Lincoln.

Although, as he says, General Lincoln

We've got to put a dime into the... What we've got to do is get it... We've got to get...

If Arnie's going to leave in 90 days, that gives us about two or three weeks to find a guy and get him in in OEP, and then a couple months for Arnie to really get in.

Well, it is necessarily the case that the OEP will have a special role to play.

I couldn't be doing this.

I've been trying to spin that off

I know we want to spend it better.

But basically, even in the 90 days, I think somebody's got to be there who can inspire confidence and moxie or something of that sort as well.

Do you have anybody else?

We've got some people outside that are good people.

And if one of them has to get a really good time, well, that's one thought, yes.

And with all this strength, you can get a better man for OVP than you could before because you've got to have a spirit.

this job for 90 days.

So we need to do this job.

Now, I really think they're having a valuable business experience to do this for me.

Now, are you going to abandon it while the show would be within 90 days?

No, we're not going to do it.

No, but what I'm getting at, George, is that you didn't get it by default.

It's a hell of a political post that you can get a guy out of some of the other countries on this, on the latest prices.

Right, right.

You see, he's got the exact same shit about him.

He's the guy that can go out and whap me if you have the right on inflation and all

He gets other people to lunch up.

He's good at getting other people to...

I think Ron Saul was fine.

He was, uh, he was a speaker, sort of part of the, uh,

Why don't you just make Arnie O-E-T-M the other?

Why doesn't he run himself?

But there's plenty to do beyond what OED does.

As the executive assistant for economy and as chairman of this cost of living council, it's their job not only to get the freedom operative, but to figure out what comes next.

I think the more sophisticated person who knows, I mean, everybody's going to assume that the guy who leaves, he's going to be the one who's going to be making some decisions with regard to what, you know, these exceptions, like they raised this morning, and they know Rummy just doesn't know it at all.

I mean, I just think that

Well, what are you supposed to do?

Well, you're right.

Okay.