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# 1. Defense Budgetgoing to be a rapid creation of this new department and a heavy emphasis on the importance of energy questions to our people.We will also present to the American people. probably at a joint session of the Congress a speech by me about April 20, a comprehensive energy poli-cy which would involve all the complexities of the energy question. It's something that's long overdue and it's going to be quite profound in its impact on the American consciousness and our society, and I hope it will be compre-.hensive enough so that it can be well-balanced and fair to all.We are quite concerned about the pressures of inuation. The advisers to me on economics are trying to assess all Government programs and private actions that contribute to inflationary pressures. When this analysis is done I will use every means that I have available to me to express these concerns and possibly corrective actions to the American people as well.And the last point is that we will have a complate: analysie underway now on deregulation. And the first question is the deregulation of the air lines. Legislation is in the Congress now. We'll be submitting a message to Congress very shortly on that subject. We will not submit administration legislation because the Congress has already moved substantially forward in dealing with this important issue.And now I'd like to answer questions. Mr. Frank Cormier.## Questions and AnswersQ. Mr. President, you told the Democratic Platform Committee that you thought present defense expenditures could be reduced by five to seven bil-lion dollars. Now I think you may have modified your position somewhat since then. Obviously in your short time in office you didn't find the opportunity to make cuts like that in your precedes-sor's budget. But isn't it also likely that next year's budget for the defense will exceed this year's.A. Well because of inflationary pressures and because of an impossibility of assessing the potential threat to our country from other nations, it's hard to predict exactly what the level of defense spending will be. In the short time that we had available to work on the previous Administration's budget-about three weeks of hard work-we were able to reduce the suggested expenditures by almost $3 billion. I think about $2.75 billion.This was done and I think Senator Stennis in his recent public statements has confirmed that it has been done without weakening our own defense capability. And the substantial savings in defense spending that will still leave us muscle will be in such things as the standardization of weapons, long-range planning, a more businesslike allocation of defense contracting, an assessment of the defense contracts for construction or repair already outstanding.A reassessment of priorities of the evolution of new weapons which in the future can become enormously expensive; a longer assignment of military personnel to a base before they are transferred; some emphasis on the correction of inequities and unfairnesses in the retirement system.These things obviously can't be done in three weeks, but they will be an ongoing effort on my part. And I think the 1979 budget, which will be my Administration's first hudent other nations. Sometimes other Gövernntents cooperate with us fully; sometimes they don't.But I'll try to be sure, and so will Stan. Turner, who will be the next director of the intelligence community. He will try to be sure that every thing we do is not only proper and legal, but also compatible with the attitudes of the American people.One other point I'd like to make is this. It can be extremely damaging to our relationship with other nations, to the potential security of our country even in peacetime, for these kinds of operations which are legitimate and proper to be revealed. It makes it hard for us to lay groulid whi we might predicate a successful meet-ing of a threat to us in time of war if we don't have some degree of secrecy.I'm quite concerned about the number of people now who have access to this kind of information. And I've been working very closely with the Congressional leaders, yesterday and today, to try to reduce the overall number of people who have access to the sources of information that within the bounds that I've described-propriety and legality and American attitudes toward secre-I'll do the best I can not ever to make a mistake. And I'm also assuming on a continuing basis a direct personal reponsibility for the operation of all the ingelligence agencies in our Government to make sure that they are meeting these standards.# 3. Correcting Errors on C.I.A.Q. If there has been erroneous information, wouldn't it behoove you to correct the record?A. In some ways we are correcting the record, but if I began to either dispute or confirm every individual story that's written whether correct or erroneous on every matter relating to the C.I.A., then these matters which are necessarily secret would no longer be secret, so I'm not going to comment on individual items that relate to intelligence.# 4. Difference With MeanyQ. Mr. President, George Meany says he won't go along with your idea for pre-notification on wage and price increases. And my question really is, how hard, are you going to press Mr. Meany to go along and do you have anything else in mind that you could use in the way of Government involving itself to try to control inflation?A. I announced earlier my firm come mitment not to have mandatory wage and price laws or authority, not to have standby wage and price authority. I've not made any proposal to Mr. Meany or any other labor leader nor to any representative of industry or manufacturing. But I will retain the option in the future of assessing what we need to do to control inflation.I've emphasized always the word "voluntary." And to the extent that I can arrive at a common understanding with industry and labor leaders that a certain amount of cooperation and information can be exchanged before a major proposal is made. I think that's a legitimate pursuit of mine. I can't force it. It's got to be voluntary. And that's as far as I can go with my answer.# 5. Wage-Price GuidelinesQ. You mean just directly about wage there are deprivations of human rights even more brutal than the ones on which we've commented up to now.In Uganda the actions there have disgusted the entire civilized world and, as you know, we have no diplomatic relationships with Uganda. But he is an instance where both Ambassador Andrew Young and I have expressed great concern about what is there. The British are now considering asking the United Nations to go into Uganda to assess the horrible murders that parently are taking place in that country-the persecution of those who have aroused the art of Mr. Amin.I've expro my concern ab aers in Korea, in Cuna, in many countris --in several countries, rather,-in Sath America and I'll continue to do so. I have never had an inclination to single out the Soviet Union as the only place where human rights are being abridged.We have, I think, a responsibility and a legal right to express our disapproval of violations of human rights. The Hel sinki Agrecтста, called Raskot Three Provision, insures that some of these human rights shall be preserved. We are a signatory of the Helsinki agreement. We are ourselves culpable in some ways for not giving people adequate rights to move around our country or restricting unnecessarily, in my opinion, visitation to this country by those who disagree with us politically.So I think that we all ought to take a position in our own country and among our friends and allies, among our potential adversaries, that human rights is something on which we should bear a major responsibility for leadership. And I have made it clear to the Soviet Union and to others in the Eastern European community that I'm not trying to launch a unilateral criticism of them, that I'm trying to set a standard in our own country and make my concerns expressed throughout the world, not singled out against any particular country.Q. Mr. President, the other day. getting back to this C.I.A. thing, when that story broke your Press Secretary, when he issued what amounted to a "no comment" by the White House, someone asked him if this story had broken back during the campaign when you were running for Presiden, vould you have given a similar response? And he said "well I don't know." So can I ask you, what would have beer: your response? Would it have been the same? A. I don't know.# 7. Review of C.I.A. ActivitiesQ. Mr. President, on that same subject, you said earlier that you review of C.I.A. activities had found nothing illegal or improper and you later said that these activities are legitimate and proper. Isn't that a value judgment that the American public might like to share? But how can they if you refuse to' give them any idea of what you have discovered during this review about payments, including ones made in secret?A. That is a value judgment. It's made by the independent Intelligence Oversight Board, which was established and appointed by President Ford. This beard has made itself available to the Inspector General and to any employee within the C.I.A. or within the defense intelligence agencies or any other to receive even rumors of impropriety.