MR. SMITH.. The next question to Vice President Nixon from Mr. Fleming.
MR. FLEMING. Mr. Vice President, do I take it, then, you believe that you could work better with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate than Senator Kennedy could work with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate??
MR. NIXON. I would say this: That we, of course, expect to pick up some seats in both in the House and the Senate.
We would hope to control the House, to get a majority in the House in this election. We cannot, of course, control the Senate.
I would say that a President will be able to lead, a President will be able to get his program through to the effect that he has the support of the country, the support of the people.
Sometimes we--we get the opinion that in getting programs through the House or the Senate it's purely a question of legislative finagling and all that sort of thing.
It isn't really that. Whenever a majority of the people are for a program, the House and the Senate responds to it; and whether this House and Senate, in the next session is Democratic or Republican, if the country will have voted for the candidate for the Presidency and for the proposals that he has made, I believe that you will find that the President, if it were a Republican, as it would be in my case, would be able to get his program through that Congress.
Now I also say that as far as Senator Kennedy's proposals are concerned, that again the question is not simply one of a Presidential veto stopping programs. You must always remember that a President can't stop anything unless he has the people behind him, and the reason President Eisenhower's vetoes have been sustained, the reason the Congress does not send up bills to him which they think will be vetoed is because the people and the Congress, the majority of them, know the country is behind the President.
MR. SMITH.. Senator Kennedy.
MR. KENNEDY. Well, now let's look at these bills that the Vice President suggests were too extreme.
One was a bill for a dollar twenty-five cents an hour for anyone who works in a store or company that has a million dollars a year business. I don't think that's extreme at all, and yet nearly two-thirds to three-fourths of the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against that proposal.
Secondly was the Federal aid to education bill. It - it was a very--because of the defeat of teacher salaries, it was not a bill that met, in my opinion, the needs. The fact of the matter is it was a bill that was less than you recommended, Mr. Nixon, this morning in your proposal.
It was not an extreme bill, and yet we could not get one Republican to join; at least, I think, four of the eight Democrats voted to send it to the floor of the House, not one Republican, and they joined with those Democrats who were opposed to it.
I don't say the Democrats are united in their support of the program, but I do say a majority are and I say a majority of the Republicans are opposed to it.
The third is medical care for the aged, which is tied to social security, which is financed out of social security funds, does not put a deficit on the Treasury.
The proposal advanced by you and by Mr. Javits would have cost $600 millions. Mr. Rockefeller rejected it in New York; he said he didn't agree with the financing at all; said it ought to be on social security.
So these are three programs which are quite moderate. I think it shows the difference between the two parties.
One party is ready to move in these programs; the other party gives them lipservice.
MR. SMITH.. Mr. Warren's question for Senator Kennedy.
MR. WARREN. Senator Kennedy, on another subject:
Communism is so often described as an ideology or a belief which exists somewhere other than in the United States. Let me ask you, sir:
Just how serious a threat to our national security are these Communist subversive activities in the United States today?
MR. KENNEDY. Well, I think they're serious. I think it's a matter that we should continue to give great care and attention to.
We should support the laws which the United States has passed in order to protect us from uh - those who would destroy us from within.
We should sustain the Department of Justice in its efforts and the FBI and we should be continually alert.
I think if the United States is maintaining a strong society here in the United States, I think that we can meet any internal threat. The major threat is external and will continue.
MR. SMITH.. Mr. Nixon, comment?
MR. NIXON. I agree with Senator Kennedy's appraisal generally in this respect.
The question of communism within the United States has been one that has worried us in the past. It is one that will continue to be a problem for years to come.
We have to remember that the cold war that Mr. Khrushchev is waging and his colleagues are waging, is waged all over the world and it's waged right here in the United States.
That's why we have to continue to be alert.
It is also essential in being alert that we be fair--fair because by being fair, we uphold the very freedoms that the Communists would destroy.
We uphold the standards of conduct which they would never follow and in this connection I think that we must look to the future having in mind the fact that we fight communism at home not only by our laws to deal with Communists, the few who do become Communists and the few who do become fellow travelers, but we also fight communism at home by moving against those various injustices which exist in our society; which the Communists feed upon. And in that connection I again would say that while Senator Kennedy says we are for the status quo, I do believe that he would agree that I am just as sincere in believing that my proposals for Federal aid to education, my proposals for health care are just as sincerely held as his.
The question again is not one of goals. We are for those goals. It's one of means.
MR. SMITH.. Mr. Vanocur's question for Vice President Nixon.
MR. VANOCUR. Mr. Vice President, in one of your earlier statements you said we have moved ahead, we have built more schools, we have built more hospitals.
Now, sir, isn't it true that the building of more schools is a local matter for financing?
Were you claiming that the Eisenhower administration was responsible for the building of these schools or is it the local school districts that provide for them?
MR. NIXON. Not at all. As a matter of fact, your question brings out a point that I am very glad to make. Too often in appraising whether we are moving ahead or not we think only of what the Federal Government is doing.
Now, that isn't the test of whether America moves. The test of whether America moves is whether the Federal Government plus the State government plus the local government plus the biggest segment of all, individual enterprise, moves.
We have, for example, a gross national product of approximately $500 billion. Roughly $100 to $125 billion of that is the result of Government activity. Four hundred billion, approximately, is the result of what individuals do.
Now the reason the Eisenhower administration has moved, the reason that we've had the funds, for example, locally to build the schools and the hospitals and the highways, to make the progress that we have, is because this administration has encouraged individual enterprise and it has resulted in the greatest expansion of the private sector of the economy that has ever been witnessed in an 8-year period, and that is growth. That is the growth that we are looking for. It is the growth that this administration has supported and that its policies have stimulated.
MR. SMITH.. Senator Kennedy.
MR. KENNEDY. Well, I must say the reason that the schools have been constructed is because the local school districts were willing to increase the property taxes to a tremendously high figure, in my opinion, almost to the point of diminishing returns, in order to sustain these schools.
Secondly, I think we have a rich country. And I think we have a powerful country. I think what we have to do, however, is have the President and the leadership set before our country exactly what we must do in the next decade, if we're going to maintain our security in education, in economic growth, in development of natural resources.
The Soviet Union is making great gains. It isn't enough to compare what might have been done 8 years ago or 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 20 years ago.
I want to compare what we're doing with what our adversaries are doing, so that by the year 1970 the United States is ahead in education, in health, in building, in homes, in economic strength.
I think that's the big assignment, the big task, the big function of the Federal Government.