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# Questions and Answers## 1. Defense BudgetQ. Mr. President, you told the Democratic Platform Committee that you thought present defense expenditures could be reduced by five to seven billion 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 predecessor'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 budget, will show these improvements to a substantial degree.Q. Will next year's defense budget actually be lower then than the one that you just revised. A. I can't say vet.## 2. C.I.A. AccountabilityQ. Do you think it was proper for the C.I.A. to pay off King Hussein and other foreign leaders? And what steps are you taking to make yourself more knowledgeable and more accountable for what the C.I.A. does?A. Well, I've adopted a policy which we might predicate a successful meeting 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 secrecy 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 commitment 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 abouť wage and price "guidelines" which might be voluntary. How is that for an idea?A. Well I think rigid guidelines are a mistake. If we said, for instance, that no price incrcase or no wage increase could exceed 6 percent this would be too restrictive. It would be contrary to my own philosophy of Government and I think that because of the diversity of our society and the fact that it is a free enterprise system, you've got to have some flexibility.But I'd prefer to deal with these problems that arise on increasing prices on an individual bases and I also prefer, of course, to work harmoniously prisoned polal d f risoners in 1231 Korea, in Cuba, in many countris-in several countries, rather,-in 5 uth 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. allad Rachot...We have, I think, a responsibility and a legal right to express our disapprovat of violations of human rights. The Helsinki Agreemtrit,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 board has made itself available to the Inspector General and to any employce within the C.I.A. or within the defense intelligence agencies or any other to receive even rumors of impropriety. They have assessed these operations. They made their inquiries in the past, which is in accordance with an executive order issued by President Ford to the Attorney General of the United States and also to the President.I have read that correspondance. It's quite voluminous and I think that it's accurate to say that Senator Inouye's committee in the Senate and the appropriate committees in the House have also received this information in the past.I have talked to Senator Inouye and he confirms what I've just told you. And I think he would also conurm thatPAGE3BOTTOM