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Press Secretary Briefings, 1/30/75
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Press Secretary Briefings, 1/30/75
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This file contains materials relating to the National Council of Churches.
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Ron Nessen Files (Ford Administration)
Ron Nessen's Press Briefing Transcripts
subjects
White House (Washington, D.C.)
Federal Election Commission. Office of the Staff Directory. Office of the Commission Secretary. 1975-ca. 2005
Amnesty
Federal budget
Food aid
Insurance
Petroleum
Presidential appointments
Public opinion polls
Rationing
Unemployment
Veterans
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1975-01-30
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1975
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1975-01-30
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1
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1975
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Digitized from Box 6 of the Ron Nessen Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
This Copy For
NEWS CONFERENCE
#136
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
WITH RON NESSEN
AT 12:03 P.M. EST
JANUARY 30, 1975
THURSDAY
MR. NESSEN: I know you are all refreshed in
spirit and uplifted in soul after the prayer breakfast.
Q One, why wasn't that open? Could you not
have used your influence to get that opened up for
coverage?
MR. NESSEN: It is a religious service rather
than a news event.
Q
If the President is there, it can be both,
couldn't it?
MR. NESSEN: For instance, he goes to St. Johns,
and we don't have filming in there.
Q But you don't bar coverage, either. I am
not concerned about filming.
MR. NESSEN: It is not a White House event. It
was considered to be a religious service.
Q Isn't that carrying the separation of church
and State to the extreme?
MR. NESSEN: No, it isn't. It is keeping the
President's very deeply held view that his religious beliefs
and practices and everybody's religious beliefs and
practices are a private matter.
Q
Why weren't we allowed to go in there?
The question of lights and sound and film is one matter.
I was denied access to even pray.
MR. NESSEN: I didn't know that.
MORE
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Q
What about us who wanted to go in and pray
a little?
Q I am serious, Ron.
MR. NESSEN: If you just wait a second.
I am listening.
Q The Senate and the House prayer groups --
can they handle credentials and who gets in and so forth?
MR. NESSEN: Somebody else does the credentialing
of the Senate and House prayer groups. I don't understand
why reporters were not let in, but we don't have any control
over it.
As you know, the President left here at 7:40 a.m.
and went to the prayer breakfast, and I think you probably
have copies of his remarks by now.
Then, you saw Prime Minister Wilson arrive. The
President and the Prime Minister are still in their meeting,
as far as I know, and we will post some information, a
brief report, anyhow, after the meeting. They do have
another meeting tomorrow, so it is not likely that there
is going to be any lengthy report on this meeting.
At 2 o'clock this afternoon, the President is
meeting with the heads of 31 Protestant and Orthodox Churches,
which make up the National Council of Churches. These groups
asked for this meeting to present the President their views
on various domestic and international issues. He will dis-
cuss with them some aspects of his economic and energy
programs, in which the leaders of the churches have expressed
interest.
There will be a chance to take pictures there.
This is the first in a series of meetings the President is
expected to hold with the heads of various churches.
Q Which churches do you mean by Orthodox?
MR. NESSEN: Do you mean which ones are in this
meeting? We will have a list of participants. We are
going to post the list, but just so you understand, it is
the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese and the Armenian Church
of America and those kinds of churches.
MORE
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At 3 o'clock, the President will have a meeting
with Roy Ash and two of his assistants for a review of the
major aspects of the 1976 budget.
For those who were not here yesterday, the plans
are for the budget briefing to be held on Saturday by
Roy Ash, at 10 o'clock in the morning, at the State
Department auditorium. We hope to have most of the budget
material tomorrow afternoon in Room 2108 of the New
Executive Office Building. The budget and all the various
materials are for release at noon on Monday.
The President and Mrs. Ford tonight will be the
hosts at a formal State dinner for Prime Minister and Mrs.
Wilson. The details of the coverage arrangements are
available and can be obtained from Bill Roberts and/or
Sheila Weidenfeld.
For the coverage of the various arrival activities,
no black tie is needed, but for those who will cover the
exchange of toasts and the entertainment and the start of
the dancing, black tie is required for the men. You can
get the complete details from Bill Roberts and Sheila.
We are preparing a Presidential statement, which
should be off the machines by the end of this briefing.
I can read it for you.
"Last September the President announced a program
of earned return for those who were draft evaders and
military absentees during the Vietnam conflict. This
program was intended to reach a broad group of young Americans
who had been convicted, charged, investigated, or who were
still sought for violations of the Military Selective
Service Act or of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
"Also, this program was intended to provide a
way for many persons who received an undesirable discharge
from military service, for absentee-related offenses, to
upgrade their discharge certificate to a clemency discharge.
"After reviewing the progress of this program,
the President believes that many of those who could benefit
from it are only now learning of its application to their
cases. This belief is based on a significant increase
in the number of applicants and also in the number of
inquiries over the past few weeks, when publicity and
communications about the program were greatly expanded.
"Therefore, today, the President is extending
the termination date for applications from tomorrow, when
it was originally intended to expire, until March 1, 1975."
We will have that ready for you by the end of this
briefing.
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The President also has directed the Adminis-
trator of the Veterans Administration, Richard L.
Roudebush, to accelerate the payment of 1975 GI insurance
dividends to over two and a half million policy holders
in the three VA life insurance programs.
Normally, the dividends from these insurance
policies of veterans are paid throughout the year on
the anniversary date of the policy. The President's
directive means that a person who would normally have
received a dividend payment at any point during the year
from March through December will now receive that
dividend payment within the next 45 days.
The President feels that this action will
distribute a substantial amount of cash at a time when
it is needed to give a boost to consumer spending.
Q May I ask a question about that, Ron?
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q Are you finished with that part? I want
to ask you a question on this.
MR. NESSEN: I have some numbers to give you.
The total amount of money involved here is
$335 million 600 thousand. Of that, $177 million 800
thousand will be in the form of checks mailed out in the
next 45 days instead of spread throughout the year.
The rest of it is money that is dividends that
the veterans have elected in the past to either credit
toward their premium or to credit toward the
purchase of extra insurance. This is an election that
they have had in the past.
Based on the previous elections, it is
estimated that $177.8 million would be in cash, and the
rest of the $335 million would go toward premium payments
or to buy extra insurance.
This program applies to three different forms
of insurance held by veterans; that is, National Service
Life Insurance, United States Government Life Insurance,
and Veterans Special Life Insurance.
The number of veterans involved here is as
follows: There are 2.3 million World War II veterans
involved in the program. They will receive an average
early dividend payment of $69. The 111,000 World War II
veterans in these three insurance programs will receive
an early dividend payment averaging $168, and 345,000
Korean War veterans involved are just now becoming eligible
for their first dividend payment.
MORE
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- 5 -
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These insurance policies have to be in force a
certain number of years, and this will be the first year
that Korean veterans will be eligible. Their average
early dividend payment will be $9..
Q Ron, you say this is the first insurance
dividend that Korean War veterans will have received?
Q I know that isn't true.
MR. NESSEN: I think that is right, but I
will double-check it.
Q It is not true, Ron.
MR. NESSEN: It is not true? Let's hold up a
minute and. find out why it says this.
Q I have been getting mine for years.
MR. NESSEN: You better get those checks back
before they catch you. (Laughter)
We should straighten that out. It is written
that way, but we will find out.
The impact of this, as far as the budget goes,
is clearly not an extra increase in spending, it is a
shifting of spending that normally would have taken
place in the first half of the fiscal year 1976 budget
and moving that same amount of spending into the second
half of the fiscal 1975 budget.
Q I had a question about it, which is now two
questions, but the original question was, some dividend
checks on GI insurance went out just a short time ago,
and they have already been received.
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q Was that for 1974? Wasn't this part?
MR. NESSEN: No, I say the checks go out all
year long, from January to December, based on the
anniversary date of the policy, so the people whose
anniversary date was in January have gotten theirs.
Q There was an announcement the other day
that dividend checks were going out. That was not
this program?
MR. NESSEN: As far as I am aware, this is the
first announcement of a Presidential decision.
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Q The other question refers to the fact that
you said this is the first one for Korean War veterans.
MR. NESSEN: We will get that straight. John
is calling now.
Just to give you one other announcement today,
the President is transmitting to Congress his eighth
special message on recissions and deferrals. I think you
will have some material on that. This amounts to 40
new recissions and 26 deferrals.
The total of this is $2.6 billion. I think
most of the rest of what you need is in the package.
Q These are new decisions?
MR. NESSEN: Five of the recissions are involved
in making some changes in previously sent up recissions,
and 12 of the deferrals make some changes in previously
reported deferrals.
Q Is this $2.6 billion in new savings?
MR. NESSEN: In new savings, right.
Q Do you know what the total of his recission
is?
MR. NESSEN: The total number of deferrals,
counting today's package, is 150, adding up to $21.2
billion. If you count today's deferrals, plus all previous
deferrals, you get 150 in number, and in amount you get
$21.2 billion.
If you take today's recissions and all the
previous ones, you get a total of 74, and the dollar amount
is $1.8 billion.
Q Is that deferrals or 74 recissions?
MR. NESSEN: Seventy-four recissions and 150
deferrals.
Q Ron, could you please go over just once
more how these work in terms of Congress?
MR. NESSEN: I was afraid you were going to ask
me that, Dick. That is another question for John when
he gets out with the answer to this other question.
Some take effect unless Congress acts, and the
others don't take effect unless Congress acts. We will
get it straightened away.
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Q Will today's special message take $2.6
billion out of the economy that would have been there if
the President did not take this action?
MR. NESSEN: I don't understand the question,
Ted.
If Congress goes along with its role in this,
the budget would be reduced from today's actions by
$2.6 billion.
Q I am using the same words you used about
the $335 million that goes out to veterans. You say
that is money that is going to be pumped into or distri-
buted into the economy, and it will give a boost to
consumer spending.
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q My question is, on the other hand, is the
other action taking $2.6 billion out of the economy?
MR. NESSEN: As you know, these are deferrals.
Deferrals are actions that put off certain spending --
Q Government spending.
MR. NESSEN - rather than canceling it and
recissions are what the name says, recissions.
Q But isn't it a fact, Ron, that this money
is presently impounded by the Administration until
Congress acts, so it is not really in the economy?
MR. NESSEN: That is certainly true, yes.
Q Yes, but didn't he, within the last few
weeks, release the water resources funds that were on
deferral?
MR. NESSEN: I saw something about some funds
being released, and I don't know what their status was.
I thought I understood that they were impounded from
the previous administration, but I better not talk about
that since I don't know the exact facts on it.
I don't have any other announcements. We
are waiting for John to give us the explanation of
deferrals and recissions and to give us an explanation
of my remark about the Korean insurance.
If you want to start the questions while we
wait, we can do that.
MORE
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- 8 -
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Q On the clemency, do you have any numbers?
MR. NESSEN: Charlie Goodell's office, I think,
is keeping track of the numbers. I have not been keeping
track of them here.
Q Do you have any idea of how much more
widely you would expect this program to be used by
giving it this month's extension?
MR. NESSEN: In numbers?
Q In numbers, magnitude, any way you want to
express it.
MR. NESSEN: I am told that the rate has gone
up something like tenfold in just the past couple of
weeks, and I don't know what Senator Goodell feels will
be the increase over the next month.
MORE
#136
- 9 -
#136
Q
Does this refer to all three programs, both
the Charlie Goodell program, the Clemency Board and the
Defense Department program?
MR. NESSEN: The tenfold?
Q
No, the clemency.
MR. NESSEN: Yes. The entire clemency program
is extended for 30 days.
Q Ron, what was the reasoning for limiting it
to one month, in view of the possibility that there might
have been some additional returnees that would take longer?
Do they think a maximum of 30 days --
MR. NESSEN: That was the President's judgment.
Q
There was some pretty strong feeling the
other way, was there not?
MR. NESSEN: I was not in on the meeting. You
would have to ask Senator Goodell.
Q
What are the possibilities of extending the
program beyond March 1?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know of any plans to do it.
Q
Ron, why is the program indefinite?
MR. NESSEN: I think, when the President spelled
out his purposes at the beginning, he explained why there
was, at that point, a three-month program. I don't remember
precisely what they were; I would have to dig out that
statement and find out.
Yes, ma'am
Q Ron, the new Democratic Governor of Tennessee,
Ray Blackman, was in town and had lunch with the House
Congressional delegation. Among the things he proposed was
that there be rationing and that the Selective Service Office
would be the ones that would handle rationing. Has there
been any thought given to the use of the Selective Service
Offices throughout the country for rationing?
MORE
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- 10 -
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MR. NESSEN: I think one day recently, when we
talked about what the President sees as the difficulties
with rationing and why he is opposed to it, there was a
figure that the FEA came up with in terms of the number
of local boards that would be needed to administer this
program and deal with the kinds of special exceptions that
people would expect. It seemed to me the number was some-
thing like 1,500, but since this Administration, the
President, is opposed to rationing, there has obviously
been no thought given to how to run a rationing program.
Q
Ron, when will the President name members
to the Federal Election Commission?
MR. NESSEN: I don't have any timetables on any
appointments.
Q
Is John Bell Williams being considered as
one member?
MR. NESSEN: I just don't think it is the proper
practice to talk about who is or is not being considered for
this or any other Presidential appointment.
Q
The House nominated their appointees
yesterday.
MR. NESSEN: It is being worked on, and we will
announce it when the President has made his choices.
Q
John Bell Williams, the Black Caucus opposes
his nomination, if the President should nominate him.
MR. NESSEN: Phil.
Q
Secretary Schlesinger said that troubles may
break out in a number of areas as a result of the decline
of U. S. military power. Has he advised the President of
this, and does the President agree with this assessment?
MR. NESSEN: I have not seen the Secretary's
remarks, Phil, and I would like to look at them first and
I also would like to check what he has told the President.
Q
Ron, could you tell us about the President's
meeting with Al Ullman yesterday? Is there another one
scheduled, and what is happening in connection with his
consultations to the Congress?
MR. NESSEN: Well, he had an hour's meeting with
Al Ullman, and I think I read what Al Ullman said about
it. And it seemed to me to be an accurate account of what
happened. There are not any other meetings scheduled that
I know of. The President's views on the so-called compromise
with Congress, I thought, were spelled out with great
clarity to the economic writers yesterday.
MORE
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Q
Ron, up on the Hill this morning, Arthur
Burns suggested that Congressional leaders and the President
sit down at Camp David or some other pleasant place -- as
he put it and work out a compromise. Do you think the
President might follow Dr. Burns' advice?
MR. NESSEN: Well, again, I say that the clearest
explanation of the President's views on a so-called com-
promise was from his own mouth yesterday. I think they
were very clear, and you can see, yourself, he is making
the point that -- how can you compromise on the energy
program at the moment when there is nothing to compromise
with? A compromise, it seems to me, by definition, means
that you have two rival programs and you somehow bring
them together and form a compromise program.
In this case, you have the President's energy
program on one side and nothing on the other side. There
is simply nothing to compromise with.
Now, on the taxes, the tax cut to fight the
recession, I think the President also was clear in his views.
I am sure some of you have seen
the Harris poll that came out today, which shows that 67
percent of the people favor the President's tax cut proposal.
It was described to the families polled as "Do you favor
or oppose an immediate Federal income tax cut of 12 percent
across-the-board with a $1,000 limit, which would reduce
everybody's 1974 Federal income tax by 12 percent," which
is a pretty fair description, I guess.
Sixty-seven percent said they favored it, and
21 percent said they opposed it.
Q Twenty-one percent said they opposed it?
MR. NESSEN: Twenty-one percent said they did
oppose it, Pete.
Anyhow, I think the President's views on getting
his antirecession tax cut are that he believes his way is
the best way and apparently 67 percent of the people
agree with him and that he would like Congress to
pass it and soon.
Q
They didn't get any alternative; it was
not as if they just liked his suggestion or a higher or
lower one.
MR. NESSEN: That is just about where we stand now,
isn't it, Fran?
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Q
Some other proposals --
Q
As long as you have discussed this
new Harris poll with us, would you discuss the White House
reaction, your reaction, or the President's, to the two
previous polls, one by the Gallup organization for News-
week Magazine that showed 55 percent of the public in
favor of gas rationing and a previous one by Harris --
since you cited the Harris poll which showed that the
President had an 86 percent negative rating on his handling
of the economy the highest negative rating ever received
by a President on a specific issue?
MR. NESSEN: Well, I see we are embarked on a
great poll trading expedition here.
Q
You brought it up.
MR. NESSEN: Yes, I can see that. I can see the
error of my ways.
The 86 percent poll, as you know, Jim, was before
he proposed his energy and economic programs, and I really
think that we need to wait and see what a similar poll
would find now. It seems to me that there is some clue
perhaps to what it would find in Newsweek's Gallup poll,
which showed, immediately after the library speech and the
State of the Union speech, that when asked "Do you now have
more or less confidence in the economy after hearing these
two speeches," 44 percent said more confidence. But I
think to get an exact duplicate of that, you would have to
ask the same question now that he has announced his
programs.
The other poll you cited was the 55 on rationing?
Q Right.
MR. NESSEN: Which was done a day or two or three
after the announcement of his program, and he feels that
since then there has been a better understanding of the
inefficiencies and inequities of rationing. Again, I think
we really would have to have an updated version of that.
Q Would you like to see Gallup and Harris
repeat those polls now, or would you invite them to do so,
and would you be prepared to stand on the results?
MR. NESSEN: Well, I don't think it is proper for
the White House to invite or order polls. I am sure the
polls will be made. I think maybe we talked too much about
polls anyway.
Q
Ron, by your bringing this up this afternoon,
does that show the President is anymore sensitive to polls
now than he was before?
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MR. NESSEN: Oh, no, certainly not.
I was asked about the tax compromise and it just
seemed to be something that was involved in the issue.
Q
Ron, do you want to talk about the poll
that said that Richard Nixon is the seventh most admired
American?
MR. NESSEN: I don't believe I will talk about
that one. Henry Kissinger would probably like to talk about
that one.
Q
You wouldn't touch that one with a ten-foot
pole?
Q . Ron, does the President have a cold?
MR. NESSEN: Not that I know of.
Q
Not that you know of?
MR. NESSEN: No.
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Q Ron, we were told yesterday that the
President intends to make an all-out fight for this aid
to South Vietnam. Has he any reason for encouragement
about the chances that this aid will be passed by Congress?
Everybody in Congress seems to say it does not stand
much of a chance at all, including the Republican
leaders.
MR. NESSEN: I don't know. I think that is an
oversimplification to say that everybody in Congress
thinks it has no chance at all. He is going to explain
why he feels it is needed and fight hard to make that
case, and he believes that
those Members who are
not now convinced he hopes will be convinced after they
have heard what he believes are persuasive arguments.
Q Ron, is this an attempt to hold Congress
to account before the American people so that if the
South Vietnamese government ultimately falls, that the
finger of responsibility can be pointed at Congress?
MR. NESSEN: Absolutely not. The President
feels he wants the money for the reasons he stated in
the message, and as for this kind of suggestion, it just
has not come up in any way that I am aware of at the
White House.
I think what you are suggesting is to build
an excuse and that is just not part of the idea of why he
is doing it. The idea he is doing this is because he
believes that South Vietnam and Cambodia need the money
to survive.
Q What is your assessment or the White House
assessment of the chances of getting that aid through
Congress at this point?
MR. NESSEN: I am not much of a Congressional
head counter.
Q Ron, could you comment on the use of the
word "disaster" yesterday in refering to what might
happen if they didn't get the money?
MR. NESSEN: As I say, he didn't spell it out,
but based on the conversations that I have heard, I think
what he is talking about is the possibility of South
Vietnam and Cambodia not being able to avert the military
defeatat the hands of the North Vietnamese.
Q What about the traumatic experience phrase?
Could you elaborate on the traumatic experience phrase?
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MR. NESSEN: I think what he is talking about
there is an experience of seeing a country that America
itself had been involved in for some long time, the
reaction of Americans to seeing that country possibly
captured by the North Vietnamese.
Q What is the reaction the President fears?
MR. NESSEN: Oh, I don't know that I can explain
it much beyond --
Q Does he fear something like what the
Republican Party said of the Democrats after the fall of
mainland China in the late forties? Is that the sort
of thing?
MR. NESSEN: No, I have not heard that.
Q Ron, one of the concerns of the churchmen
who are coming in to see the President this afternoon
is the level of U.S. foreign food aid. Have the
direct decisions now been made by the President?
MR. NESSEN: No, they have not.
Q When do you expect them to be made?
MR. NESSEN: I suspect shortly, but I cannot
give you a date.
Q What is delaying that?
MR. NESSEN: It is complicated, and it involves
some consultation with Congress.
Q At least based on what you have already
said about the question of food aid, are you not now in a
position to say that the decision has been made as to
the dollar amount but not as to the allocation and that
the remaining work to be done is on the question of
which country gets how much?
MR. NESSEN: I think there is still not a firm
dollar decision, al though the area, as we said the other
day, the decision has been made to go toward the high
side on the dollars. As you say, the allocation by
country is one of the elements that is holding up the
decision. There is Congressional legislation that is
involved, and that is why consultations are going on
with Congress.
Q How does the President weigh the relative
concerns that have been expressed by Dr. Kissinger and
others? Does he think military strategy and diplomatic
strategy are vital in food aid decisions and maybe
heavier in balance than the humanitarian concerns that
others are expressing?
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MR. NESSEN: I think what I would rather do is
wait and see how he explains his decision after he has
made it.
Q I wanted to ask a question about the
duration of the recession again. You mentioned that the
estimate is it will begin to turn around about mid-
summer.
MR. NESSEN: Midyear.
Q Midyear. The President yesterday was
asked about unemployment, and he indicated that the
unemployment figures may not turn around until the third
or fourth quarter.
MR. NESSEN: That is the second half of the
year. The third quarter begins the second half of the
year.
Q The third would be late summer, and the
fourth would be in the winter?
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q What I am getting at is, since unemployment
is a major indicator of recession, is that an estimate
by the White House that the recession may last until
the fall or winter?
MR. NESSEN: No, Tom. I don't think SO. I
think really if you look back you will see that this
particular forecast has not really changed in any way.
It has always been said that the recession would
bottom out and would begin to turn around in the middle
of the year.
As I understand it, that is a generally accepted
forecast by economists outside of the government as well
as inside the government.
As some of you know, I do have a weekly
session with Alan Greenspan, as well as other meetings,
and in all the times we have been doing this that fore-
cast has never changed.
Q The President spoke yesterday of a jump
in unemployment for January and a lot of people are
talking about that jump going to 8 percent. Has he been
told that that will be the figure for January?
MR. NESSEN: No, he has not, and it is not
expected to be.
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Q Ron, you mentioned earlier about the
President fearing that South Vietnam and Cambodia might
"not be able to avert military defeat." Is he saying,
in other words, and does he believe that if this
additional money is not sent to South Vietnam that
they will be conquered by the Communists?
MR. NESSEN: There is that possibility.
Q When does he think they will run out of
ammunition? I understand that that is a problem in
Cambodia even more than in South Vietnam.
MR. NESSEN: Yes. I would rather have you check
with military people. I have heard some dates and so
forth kicked around, but I think probably in order to
get a more accurate estimate you ought to talk to the
Pentagon about that.
Q On that subject, has the President been
advised that there are indications of a possibly major
oil discovery in South Vietnam, that that is an
additional reason for hanging on there for a few more
years?
MR. NESSEN: Let me just start an answer without
any reference to what you said, because I think all the
assumptions you make are wrong.
The President knows that there is a possibility,
at least, of some oil there and his feeling is that this
would be an opportunity for South Vietnam to have a
stable and prosperous economy. It is in that sense that
he knows about the oil there. But in any of the terms
you mention, it has not come up.
Q What can you tell us about the size of that?
MR. NESSEN: I have zero knowledge of it
except that there is the possibility that it is there.
Q Now that things have taken such a turn for
the worst, is there any reconsideration of the President
feeling that maybe he may have to ask Congress for
something in addition to financial aid?
MR. NESSEN: No. No, the President and Secretary
Kissinger both told the Congressional leaders the other
morning just what he said publicly, which is that he
cannot foresee any involvement by American forces.
Q I didn't mean that. I just meant advisers.
MR. NESSEN: I think that falls in the same
category, Bob.
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Q Ron, at his news conference the President
said something which some people took to be ambiguous
about after this $300 million, that would be the end of
it, this $300 million for this year. Some people here
in the White House thought that is what he meant,
but based on what you said yesterday, I gather that this
$300 million supplemental isnot the end of the road,
that we do expect another two or three years' request.
MR. NESSEN: I think Dr. Kissinger spoke about
the possible future help to South Vietnam the other day
at his news conference. I think it is fairly clear.
Let me tell you about recissions, deferrals and
VA insurance. Let's go to the VA insurance first.
Let's back up on the Korean one and strike
out what I said about this being their first payment.
This is not the first dividend payment for Korean
veterans. It is the first payment for Korean veterans
who have one form of insurance, called Veterans Special
Life Insurance.
In case some of you are curious about why the
amount is small for Korean veterans, the dividend amount
depends on the kind of policy, the amount of the
policy, the age of the insured person, how long the policy
has been in force and so forth.
I was incorrect when I said this is the first
payment for Korean veterans. I should have said this
is the first payment for Korean veterans who have the
Veterans Special Life Insurance.
Q Is there any Vietnam veteran coverage
involved in this?
MR. NESSEN: That is my assumption, but let's
just see.
Q Ron, I think I can clear it up for you.
MR. NESSEN: If you have been getting the checks
al these years, you should be an expert on it.
Q Either that or go to jail. (Laughter)
The NSLI insurance was brought about in World
War II and was continued until I believe 1951, at which
time it was terminated and all of the people who had
enlisted or had been drafted prior to that date -- and
I believe it was in 1951 -- retained their insurance
and then a new insurance program was instituted, which
is the one you are talking about, which continued, I
understand, through the Vietnam war.
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MR. NESSEN: I am sure the VA will be able
to help you with a lot of details in case you have a
lot of additional questions.
For Dick and the others, a recission means that
when the President proposes a recission in the budget,
both houses of Congress, by a simple majority, must
approve it in order for the money to be rescinded. The
funds are held up for 45 days while waiting for Congress
to act.
If Congress does not act within 45 days, then
the funds have to be released. If Congress acts positively
by simple majority, each house, then the money is rescinded.
A defer al works the opposite. If Congress
does not take any action within 45 days, then that particular
expenditure is deferred. Congress has to act, in other
words, to override a deferral and that can be done by a
simple majority of only one chamber.
Does that make any sense?
Q Is there any time limit on that deferral
or is that just an indefinite deferral?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know, Jim. I will
check on that.
Q What does the $2.6 billion reduction
now bring down the Administration's estimates of expendi-
tures for fiscal year to?
MR. NESSEN: For this one? I may not have that,
Mort. It may be something that we have to get out of
the budget on Saturday.
John, you didn't keep a running total, did
you, of where the 1975 fiscal budget stands with these
deferrals and recissions?
MR. CARLSON: What this matches up to, you mean?
MR. NESSEN: I mean, if you take where we
stand and subtract $2.6 from it, what figure will we get
right now?
Let John check it.
Q Is that also the size of the deficit?
Q Ron, can you give any more details on
how the President learned of the possibility of an oil
find in South Vietnam, who informed him and when?
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MR. NESSEN: You know, somebody didn't
come bursting in to his office and say, "Hey, guess what?
They found oil in South Vietnam." He reads the news-
papers, and aside from that, he does get reports on
interesting and important events overseas.
There is no time limit on deferrals, whoever
asked that question.
Q These reports circulated with -- I won't
say frequency, but a couple of times, anyway -- about
an oil find in the South China Sea or off the coast of
Vietnam during the Nixon Administration. Are we
talking about the same reports or do we have a new
find?
MR. NESSEN: Jim, I don't have the vaguest
notion of where theoil is or how much or how certain it
is. I was asked the question. I said he was aware of
reports that there was some possibility of oil. I
hope that the tone of the questions or the questions
don't indicate that anybody has the thought that the
President is asking $300 million for South Vietnam in
order to protect an oil find because I think his reasons
are spelled out clearly in his message to Congress. The
questions led me to suspect that that may be a thought.
Q Ron, in order to preclude that possibility,
could you tell us how it is that you know that the
President is aware of this oil find, which has been
reported over the years from time to time?
MR. NESSEN: As I said in response to another
question, the President on the one occasion when I have
heard him talk about this, it was in the context of,
if there is this oil there, it would be a way for
South Vietnam to have a stable and a prosperous economy.
Q Ron, what significance did the President
see in the stock market fluctuation yesterday?
MR. NESSEN: I have decided that I am going to
make a rule not to comment on the stock market.
Q Ron, has the President received any
report yet from the FBI or anyone else about these
bombings at the State Department, and at the Oakland,
California Federal installation and the various scares
and threats elsewhere?
I would like to know if he has received any
kind of report on it yet or has he asked for one,
and specifically if he has received any information
about them, has he been told by the FBI or does he
have any reason from other sources to believe that
these bombings were done by the so-called Weathermen
group or has he been given any information that
would make him think that possibly they were done by
someone else?
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MR. NESSEN: These are being investigated by
the appropriate people, and I am not aware that a
report has reached the White House.
Q Has he asked for one?
MR. NESSEN: I will have to check. Since
the appropriate people are investigating it, I don't know
that there would be a need to request one.
Bill?
Q The President, in his remarks to the
economic writers yesterday, said in regard to this
$250 to $345 -- and then said that he was --
MR. NESSEN: I am going to take the occasion
to say that there is no such $345 figure.
Q He said he was irritated, to put it mildly,
when he heard the news that morning and he came in
immediately and asked about it and he didn't finish
his remarks. Was he irritated with the press or was he
irritated with his staff over this?
MR. NESSEN: He was irritated that a figure that
nobody in the government believes is going to be reached
somehow was treated as an upper limit of what the govern-
ment thought would happen when I think both the original
release of that figure a week ago today by the FEA and
then what was described as the disclosure by the White
House again on Monday or Tuesday was portrayed as some-
thing that could happen when on both of those occasions
the people who released the figure said this will not
happen.
Q Why did they postulate that figure in the
first place?
MR. NESSEN: I asked Eric Zausner that question,
and I think the President may have asked Eric that
question. It was in response to a question, and there
had been some public comment, I guess, bytothers on
a ripple effect.
I think you really need to talk to Eric about
the exact form of the question, but as I understand it,
the question was something like, "If there were a
ripple effect, what would the cost be?" He said, "Well,
we figure it would be about $345, but that is not going
to happen," and the "that is not going to happen" I guess
didn't get very widely disseminated.
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Q Ron, just to clarify, in the end, did
he blame the press for this?
MR. NESSEN: No, he didn't. He blamed me,
as a matter of fact, if you must know the truth.
Q Are you declaring the $345 inoperative?
MR. NESSEN: There is a large hole looming
there, and I am going to step right around it.
Q Ron, on the oil in South Vietnam situation,
are you aware and is the President aware that two
Senators who came in to see him came outside and reported --
this is Senator Scott of Virginia and Senator Thurmond --
came outside and told us that one of the reasons the
North Vietnamese were invading was apparently to seize
that oil that had been discovered.
MR. NESSEN: I never heard that said by anybody.
Q I just wonder if they got that out of the
Oval Office or if they got it somewhere else.
MR. NESSEN: I have never heard it at any of
the meetings I have attended.
Q It is not a Presidential theory then or
Administration theory?
MR. NESSEN: Not that I am aware of.
Bob has been trying desperately to get a
question in.
Q Could you go into a little background on
that meeting with Ullman yesterday? Did you ask for the
meeting?
MR. NESSEN: My understanding is that Ullman
asked for the meeting.
Q Did he ask for a White House car for
transportation, too?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know that he had one.
THE PRESS: Thank you, Ron.
END
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