Diary Entry - 12/06/1985
Key Facts
President Reagan meets with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss the impact to national security of further defense budget cuts.
President Reagan meets with Secretary of State George Shultz and Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs John Poindexter.
Kathy went out in the morning & picked up the new member of our family—a one year old “King Charles Spaniel.” Nancy had fallen in love with the Buckleys & this one is it’s brother. This is a small dog & we can keep it at the White House.
Back in Wash. I was just in time for a meeting in the Cabinet room with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, O.M.B. & others on the impact further defense cuts will have on our Nat. Security. I’m between a rock & a hard place. I cant let the mil. budget be hacked away any more by Cong. and at the same time I cant veto the Gramm,Rudman,Hollings bill—which threatens to do that. It is the 1st plan ever offered as a way to reduce the deficits. I fear a veto would set us off into an ec. tailspin as people lost confidence that anything would ever be done about deficit spending.
Met with George Shultz & John Poindexter—we discussed getting some ministerial level meetings under way here with the Soviets preparing for next years summit.
Then another Cabinet meeting this time on the ’87 budget. It didn’t leave any of us very happy and we’ll be back at it Monday. A rather long taping session for everything from the Army-Navy game (tomorrow) to the Tournament of Roses parade.
