Easing Into Power

"Remember," Richard Nixon admonished Republican congressional leaders last week, "we've got a Democratic Congress and we want to get along with them." His warning underscored what has become a dominant element in Nixon's plans for the immediate future. After a cautious campaign and a transition period relatively free of friction, Nixon apparently intends to ease through his first months of incumbency in much the same manner.

At a two-hour meeting in Washington with the Republican leaders of Congress, the President-elect made it clear that he had no intention of hurriedly sending an ambitious legislative program up to Capitol Hill. "We've got to mark time for a while," said one participant.

Instead of requesting major legislation, Nixon intends to use executive orders and existing programs whenever possible. His approach was aptly summed up by Robert Finch, a longtime Nixon friend who is resigning his post as Lieutenant Governor of California to become the new Administration's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. "Our job," Finch told newsmen last week, "is to rationalize and implement the legislation now on the books."

Shift of Emphasis. An apt example is the law-and-order field. There, the President-elect may work with the Omnibus Crime Control Act, passed by the 90th Congress, to expand federal aid to local law enforcement authorities. Under the Act, Nixon's Attorney General may sanction the use of wiretapping in certain cases--authority that the Johnson Administration declined to use. Nixon may also double the size of the Justice Department's organized crime section, raise it to the status of a separate division within the agency and elevate its chief to the rank of Assistant Attorney General.

Skeptical of the maze of domestic programs created by the Great Society, the President-elect hopes to shift the emphasis from federal action to private initiative in antipoverty efforts and slum rehabilitation. Even Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat who as Assistant Secretary of Labor helped create the anti-poverty program and who will serve Nixon as a White House assistant specializing in urban problems, is highly critical of the way the present setup works. In a book to be published this winter, Moynihan calls the current Administration's approach "sloppy" and misguided (see box, page 14).

Nixon would like to shift Operation Head Start, one of the few major successes of the war on poverty, to HEW. The poverty program's effort to furnish legal aid to the poor may be assigned to the Justice Department. Nixon and Moynihan would also like to scrap the Job Corps, which they consider inefficient. But he would need congressional approval for such steps--sanction that would not be easily obtained.

Dollar Standing. The desire to avoid losing fights with an opposition Congress adds to the new Administration's problems. There are other reasons for speaking softly and brandishing a very small stick. Though Nixon has had liaison men working with the Budget Bureau, and though Johnson hinted last week that the new budget may be tight enough to show a small surplus, the President-elect does not yet know the precise shape of the fiscal 1970 budget that will go to Congress next month. He does know, however, that his chances of making important changes are small. The question of extending the 10% income tax surcharge beyond June 30 is another cause for uncertainty.

In addition, the new Administration will be subject to stronger conflicting pressures than usual. Both liberals in Congress and beneficiaries of existing spending programs will resist cutbacks. With his credit already poor among Negroes, Nixon will also be leary of reducing assistance to the ghettos. Moreover, Nixon must keep an eye on unemployment, which he is determined to keep below 4% (it is now 3.3%). But Nixon is pledged to check the increase in Government spending both to control inflation and improve the dollar's international standing.

The same squeeze applies to military spending. Even if the Viet Nam war ends soon--a big if--the armed services will be seeking extra billions both to replenish stockpiles depleted by the war and to undertake weapons development schemes that have been deferred for several years. Most of these projects would require tremendous investments. A new continental air-defense system sought by the Air Force would run to more than $14 billion. Nixon has promised to redress what he calls the "security gap" and in Representative Melvin Laird he has chosen a Defense Secretary of like mind. But both know that complex new weapons systems would be forbiddingly expensive, as would the all-volunteer Army that Nixon has proposed for after the war. Thus Laird now intends to appoint a study commission that will take between six months and a year to report on the nation's defense posture. Until the findings are in, the Nixon Administration is expected to call for relatively modest increases in military research and development funds.

Avoiding Commitment. A desire to avoid commitment, in fact, has become the dominant characteristic of the Government in waiting. As Press Aide Ron Ziegler put it, Nixon's "position in the transition period is that he will not be discussing positions." When the issue of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty was raised, for example, Nixon made it clear that if it were to come up for Senate consideration before Inauguration Day, he would neither support nor oppose it. In other areas too, Nixon has resisted defining his plans when possible. And when he warned his Cabinet to make no policy statements until Jan. 20, he added that anyone violating the rule "will have difficulty being in the Cabinet."

At the same time, Nixon encouraged his appointees to hold news conferences. The danger of attempting to say nothing while talking, however, immediately became apparent. When Chicago Banker David Kennedy, who will head the Treasury, was asked about the Government's fixed price for gold ($35 an ounce), he declared: "I want to keep every option open." Kennedy really meant to avoid any policy statement at all. But his remark immediately set off a flurry of speculation that the gold price might be raised (see BUSINESS).

Alaska Governor Walter Hickel also stirred controversy when discussing his new job as Interior Secretary. "I think we have had a policy of conservation for conservation's sake," he said. "Just to withdraw a large area for conservation purposes and lock it up for no reason doesn't have any merit." His statement immediately evoked the image of a reckless exploitation of natural resources.

Symbolic Gesture. Determined not to get himself locked into positions that he might later regret, Nixon in public confined himself largely to cautious or symbolic gestures. His conference with Republican leaders was little more than that. He had failed to say much about the United Nations during the campaign, so last week he took incoming Secretary of State William Rogers and Henry Kissinger, who will be the White House assistant for national security affairs, on a visit to the United Nations for a conference with Secretary-General U Thant. Early in the new Administration, Nixon intends to make a good-will trip to Western Europe for conferences with the principal NATO allies, but the decision is still tentative. The firmest plan that emerged from Nixon headquarters was his itinerary for the holiday season. He is to spend this week in Key Biscayne, Fla., where he has just bought a $128,000 house, then fly to Los Angeles for the Rose Bowl game. A fan of U.S.C. Running Back O. J. Simpson, the 1968 Heisman Trophy winner, Nixon is thought to favor the Trojans over Ohio State. But naturally he declined to commit himself in advance.

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