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Statement on Proposed Changes in the 1970 Budget.

April 12, 1969

THE ADMINISTRATION'S first full review of the Federal budget for the fiscal year 1970 is now complete. As a result, beginning next week I shall send a series of budget amendments to the Congress.

Amendments for most agencies will go forward within a few days. The overall totals are now being made available.

The budget that we inherited from the previous administration in January stated the estimated expenditures for the fiscal year 1970 at $195.3 billion. Our examination of that budget reveals that some of these estimates--notably those for interest on the Federal debt and farm price support payments--are turning out to be too low. After making the necessary adjustments to cover these underestimated items, we find that the actual expenditures budget submitted by the previous administration is $196.9 billion.

I am proposing new reductions in Federal spending of $4.0 billion, reducing the overall spending figures for the coming fiscal year to $192.9 billion. I am also recommending to the Congress cuts totaling $5.5 billion in appropriations requests and other budget authority--thereby reducing significantly the future spending obligations of the Federal Government.

Our proposals mean not only a substantial cutback in the spending of tax dollars in the coming year, but a substantial reduction in claims against future tax dollars and future budgets. With this approach, we believe we have made a necessary and significant beginning toward bringing the Federal budget under closer Presidential control; we have taken the reins firmly in hand.

We recognize, however, the responsibility for budget control is a continuing one. For the past 8 years--the sole exception being the current year--our Government has run an uninterrupted string of budget deficits. Our actions now, we believe, have brought an end to the era of the chronic budget deficit.

As a result of this review and these cutbacks, we are proposing the largest budget surplus in 18 years--and the fourth largest in our history--a surplus of $5.8 billion dollars for fiscal year 1970.

We believe that a surplus of this magnitude will speak louder than any words to the business and labor communities in this country and to the world that the United States is determined to bring a halt to the inflationary spiral which has seriously affected our economy these last 4 years.

In the last 36 months, inflation has seriously eroded the value of every pay raise won by the average wage earner; it has done unquestionable harm to the economic welfare of the very poor in our society and those millions of Americans living on pensions and social security; it has weakened our international payments position; it has sapped foreign and domestic confidence in the American dollar.

Inflation is the most disguised and least just of all the taxes that can be imposed; and we intend to lift that hidden tax off the backs of an overtaxed people.

These reductions in spending cannot be achieved effortlessly or without making some very difficult decisions as to our priorities. But they can be achieved by an administration and a Congress dedicated to eliminating the crushing burden of inflation and committed to the responsible control of the Federal budget. They can be achieved if this Government is willing to impose upon itself the same new discipline that inflation and rising taxes have imposed upon the American wage earner and his family.

Some of the decreases in the budget will require legislation; others will result from smaller appropriation requests; still others will come from executive actions that I have directed be taken. In sum, these reductions constitute my best judgment as to where to reduce this budget to bring the acceleration of Federal spending under control.

But even in the wake of these cuts-which we believe to be in the best interest of all Americans--great resources remain at our disposal to do the work that needs to be done in our society.

For example, I am proposing for fiscal year 1970 a level of spending for our domestic problems $6 1/2 billion higher than the figure for the fiscal year 1969.

This administration will never turn its back upon the growing needs of the American people. That is why domestic spending in the coming year--even after these cuts--will far exceed that for any other year in American history.

We have come into office convinced that there are better ways than the old ways to solve new problems; and we intend to explore these more hopeful approaches.

With regard to specific cuts, the Secretary of Defense has already identified reductions in defense budget outlays of $1.1 billion. We believe these cuts will enhance our economic security without risk to our national security. Information with regard to other specific cuts will be released by the Bureau of the Budget on Tuesday.

As part of the budget review, I have directed that a substantial reduction be made in the level of Federal employment recommended by the preceding administration. As a result, full-time employment in the executive branch, by the close of the coming fiscal year, will be more than 45,000 below that recommended in the January budget.

These reductions will not be made "across the board," but selectively, since manpower for vital needs such as crime control will have to be increased.

Consistent with these objectives, I will ask Congress for repeal of section 201 of the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act, which imposes restrictions on hiring in the executive branch. I am in full accord with the objective of that legislation. However, that objective is best achieved, not through some arbitrary limitation, but through leadership determined to reduce personnel and willing to make the difficult decisions as to where the cuts should come.

Just as we have made the judgments as to where the Federal budget should be cut, so we ask for the authority to determine those areas where the reduction of personnel can most beneficially be made.

Although the officials of this administration have worked long and hard conducting this review of Federal expenditures and employment, the 1970 budget is not yet a finished effort.

Conditions affecting the budget change constantly.

What will remain constant, however, is our determination to rein in this rising cost of living and to spend the tax dollars of the American people with a full awareness of the personal effort and labor they represent.

Note: Transcripts of two related news briefings by Budget Director Robert P. Mayo and Presidential Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler were released by the White House Press Office on April 12 and 15.

Additional discussion of the budget occurred in a news briefing on April 15 by Mr. Ziegler and Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, House Minority Leader. The text is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 5, P. 561).

As recommended by the President in his statement, section 201 Of the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968 was repealed by section 503 of the Second Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1969 (Public Law 91-47, 83 Stat. 83), which was approved on July 22, 1969.

Richard Nixon, Statement on Proposed Changes in the 1970 Budget. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238816

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