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A. The greater urgency now is to address the unemployment question. We've got so many people out of work, and we've got so much unused industrial capacity, that I think if we carefully target employment opportunities around the country, we can decrease unemployment substantially before we start becoming equally concerned about inflation.
Q. Which would be more important, stimulating the private sector or enlarging the public sector?
A. I think the private sector. But you have to remember how tightly they're interrelated. Public money can ultimately be used to stimulate the private sector. An illustrative point would be in the housing field, where Government action to encourage the building of homes can be done with a minimum expenditure of public funds, but a maximum amount of benefits.
Q. Do you have plans for a major housing program?
A. I think that would be a part of the immediate proposal that I would make to Congress.
Q. Mostly low-cost housing?
A. No, I think not mostly. There would be guarantees of loans by private and corporate agencies; construction of multifamily dwellings, as under the 202 program for senior citizens; some restoration of funds for rehabilitating existing homes. Perhaps some interest subsidy. And I'll do everything I can to hold down interest rates. Perhaps we could modify, through the Government mortgage programs, the scheduled rate of repayment, so that a family that wants to buy a home could make lower monthly payments now, and higher ones later.
Q. What about welfare reform?
A. Our proposals will be forthcoming in 1977. I haven't decided on the specific formula, but there would be both federal and state participation.
Q. With the greater burden on the federal?
A. I think so; I don't have time now to put together a comprehensive welfare or tax or health program, but it will all be done very expeditiously. I would guess all those would be forthcoming this year.
Q. When would you expect the U.S. to have a national health insurance plan?
A. It'll probably take at least four years to fully implement a comprehensive health program for our citizens. And it will be phased in, year by year. The first step has got to be the reorganization of the federal agencies that now handle roughly 300 different health programs.
Q. What changes do you plan for the CIA and the rest of the intelligence community?
A. I wouldn't make any precipitous changes in the intelligence community's functions until I know more about them. My knowledge of the intelligence community outside the CIA is very limited so far.
Q. Are you leaning toward a kind of intelligence czar?
A. Well, President Ford's executive order set up the Director of Central Intelligence as a kind of czar. There are several intelligence agencies, as you know, and I haven't decided whether to change the present arrangement.
Q. Are you thinking about changing the structure and the responsibilities of the FBI?