Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 920-001
Date: Wednesday, May 16, 1973 at 4:09 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Shultz, George P.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/920-001

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:04] and his position as a propounder of the increase in supply has shifted that.
[0:10] On the other hand, there's a tremendous urge to do something dramatic, and I think John Connolly, the last I talked with him anyway, he doesn't seem to be doing anything dramatic.
[0:21] The part is, well, he can't do something wrong.
[0:25] Yeah, Red Freight, who was in favor of Phase 3, has a
[0:30] thinks that we're in a wildly bad situation.
[0:33] I know.
[0:34] Many people do.
[0:35] And I always want to be sure you see that side of it.
[0:38] I see it.
[0:39] Try to see that my views are not the only views.
[0:42] I see it.
[0:43] I see it.
[0:44] And I know that there are people that say, Christ, do something, do something, do something.
[0:48] But every time I look over, George, the spy hasn't changed his view.
[0:54] He sent you an interesting little memo that I wrote over the top of.
[0:58] That kind of goes through the arc as he sees them.
[1:02] He's in Europe this week.
[1:06] Well, it's important to recognize that phase three is not a sort of static thing that was put into place and there it is.
[1:18] It's an administrative process.
[1:20] And I think one of our problems is one day I think you and John and I were discussing
[1:26] One of our problems is that the sense of an administrative presence has not come through to the country.
[1:33] And partly that's because it's been dominated by other things, particularly for a long while the congressional action and fooling around with the wage-price system.
[1:44] But we are making our presence felt more, and I've gotten ahold of Bill Baruti, who understands how to do these things better than I do.
[1:53] and trying to get him working with Dunlop to see if we can make this presence felt and known about.
[1:58] In the meantime, many things are going pretty well.
[2:01] What?
[2:02] Like the wage bargaining.
[2:03] Yeah, yeah, that's right.
[2:05] With all the rough talk from the Indian people, the settlement's so far fine.
[2:11] And I've spent quite a little time and went to a big dinner and took him out playing golf with Fitzsimmons and talked to Einar Mohn and quite a few of the Teamster guys.
[2:22] And I don't think we're going to have a big problem with that de-injection contract.
[2:25] And that's a big one.
[2:27] And the GE seems to be coming pretty well.
[2:30] Rubber came in all right.
[2:32] So, so far, with our... And also that, the CDI in our start goes, you know, it's, it's, it's going to go up a W's amount, an extra four by one, you know.
[2:47] We'll have, as you said in your message at the time, we're going to have some rough price performances ahead, but I think it is going to gradually settle down.
[2:59] If we freeze, then where do you go from there?
[3:02] That's right.
[3:02] If we put in controls, then it's going to explode on you at some point.
[3:06] Where do you go from there?
[3:07] At the present time, as I told Tom, I said, I don't have a better plan.
[3:11] And I said, I'm not going to do something wrong simply because people say you can be great in front of God.
[3:17] I'm very excited right now.
[3:19] I hope it will stay through.
[3:21] In the back of my mind, this is why I brought up the budget business and the possibility of getting a balanced budget.
[3:31] I think that continued pounding on that and showing that we are getting somewhere.
[3:36] And that the is a consideration.