Richard Nixon

The Cost of Living Council (hereinafter referred to as the Council), established by section 2 of Executive Order No. 11615 of August 15, 1971, is hereby continued and shall continue to act as an agency of the United States.

The Council shall develop and recommend to the President policies, mechanisms and procedures to achieve and maintain stability of prices and costs in a growing economy.

This budget allocates $2.5 billion in 1972 and $5.3 billion in 1973 to make General Revenue Sharing a reality now.

In submitting this budget I am therefore urging the Congress, before it considers any appropriations bills, to enact a rigid ceiling on outlays that will prevent the Government spending more than the $246 billion requested in this budget.

I have proposed Allied Services legislation that would assist State and local governments to respond to human needs more efficiently, more flexibly, and more comprehensively.

We take that medicine because we need it, not because we like it; as our economy successfully combats unemployment, we will stop taking the medicine well before we become addicted to it.

It is vital that the Executive and the Congress act together to stop raids on the Treasury which would trigger another inflationary spiral.

We have been reordering our research and development investments in defense and space.

Our success in reducing our involvement in Vietnam by 480,000 men before May 1, 1972, and comparable materiel reductions will help enable us for the first time---to spend more in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare than we…

That ceiling on expenditures should apply equally to the Congress and to the executive branch.

We must not undercut the efforts of developing nations to stand on their own.

We are not only talking about returning power--economic power, real power--to people and localities, we are doing something about it.

It costs far less to maintain our strength than it would cost to fall behind and have to catch up, even if that could be done.

I intend to resist the kind of spending that drives up taxes or drives up prices.

I strongly urge the Congress to respect the full-employment spending guideline this year, just as business and labor are expected to respect wage and price guidelines set forth to protect the earning and buying power of the American worker…

Proposals, no matter how attractive, must be paid for, and when spending is proposed that takes us beyond full employment balance, that payment must either be in the form of new taxes or rising prices.

Federal programs to assist State and local governments had become a maze of separate programs, understood only by members of a new profession--grantsmanship specialists.

We urgently need an absolute limit on Government spending.

THE PRESIDENT welcomes the signing today in Brussels of the treaty enlarging the European Community to include the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway.

The problems are pressing, and I have asked you to complete such a study as soon as possible, and to keep me advised in the interim as to the progress of your study.

I very much appreciate the willingness of the Commission to undertake this effort.

In our discussion last week with Neil McElroy, I requested the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations to undertake a study on this subject.

You will have the complete cooperation and assistance of the Vice President, Secretary Connally and Secretary Richardson, as well as of the Domestic Council.

I requested the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations to undertake a study on this subject.

I announce these decisions because I believe there should be no uncertainty regarding U.S. policy