Diary Entry - 03/26/1984

Why are Mondays all so busy. Called Paul Volcker whose Fed. board meets tomorrow to urge him not to go for any drastic action. Let this recovery continue. Frankly I dont know what he will do. An N.S.C. briefing & then a Cab. Council meeting on—whoops—that came along in the afternoon. It was on energy. We have an energy policy & it’s working. We need to get rid of excessive regulations to cut the building time on Nuclear Reactors now 12 to 14 yrs. down to 5 to 7 as it is in other countries. Now back to the A.M. I met briefly with the Att. Gen’s. from our 50 states. We have a good working relation with them & they all sound supportive of what we’re doing with regard to crime. At noon Nancy & I hosted the Medal of Freedom lunch. We gave 14 medals—some to old friends like Jimmy Cagney & Tennessee Ernie Ford. Also to Howard Baker & Mrs. Jackie Robinson for her deceased husband. She’s quite a lady. The news headline one though was the son of Whittaker Chambers accepting for his father. Dropped in to greet the Council of 100 who were in for a meeting. They are Black Leaders supporting us. The delegation that went to El Salvador as observers of the election—part Dem. part Repub. members of Congress plus some citizen reps—came to the Cab. Room to report. They were greatly impressed by what they’d seen. The T.V. news was a false picture in view of what they’d seen—people who would risk their lives to vote. Story after story confirmed that the people of El Salvador want Democracy & we should help them. Leaders of Nat. Cattlemens Assn. came by. We had a bill signing for a power situation local to Abbeville S.C. Then over to the Shoreham to greet the “Inner Circle” $1000 contributors to the Sen. Campaign fund & home.