agricultural states, Reagan had promised during his campaign to end the embargo.
At this point occurred one of those paradoxes of political life: Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan each held what would have normally been the other’s position. The liberal Speaker, champion of relief for the little man, urged the hard-line anticommunist to beware of deciding the issue merely on the complaints from the farm states. Before making a concession, Reagan should demand a quid pro quo. “What are the Soviets giving us in return?”
“Tip had last word & it was a good one,” Reagan jotted in his diary that night. “He told me I was Pres. and had to think of all the states. The gist was—was lifting the embargo good for the U.S. and our security vis a vis the Soviets?”
Here was a moment when Tip seemed as much advisor as adversary. And he’d been right when he’d told the Times that Reagan was riding high. Now the Washington Post reported that“by 77 to 17 percent, an overwhelming majority gives him positive marks on inspiring confidence in the White House.” In other words, three-quarters of the American people—including a great many Democrats—were rooting for him.
O’Neill was perceptive enough to understand the country had anew leader that it wanted to believe in. After the tragedy of Dallas, after the quicksand of Vietnam, the scandal of Watergate, and the “malaise” of Jimmy Carter, it needed one. He realized how wrong it would be, even dangerous, to diminish such faith. Anyway, the most important job Tip had right now involved defense, not attack—at least for the moment.
He now needed to man his battle station on the Hill. From the bully pulpit of his regular daily press briefing, he stoutly warned that the Democratic House wasn’t going to “rubber-stamp” whatever Reagan proposed.“I have been up here long enough,” he stated, “to know that legislation in haste makes for a lot of waste.” He was starting to signal the way he was going to deal with President Ronald Reagan.
Although not quite ready to take on Reagan mano a mano, Tip was slowly getting used to the new American political arena.“With a Republican in the White House and the House still controlled by the Democrats, I now assumed a new role—leader of the opposition,” he’d later explain.“And with Jimmy Carter back in Georgia and Ted Kennedy now stuck in a Republican-controlled Senate, I also became the chief spokesman for the Democrats.”
Two nights after the O’Neills had dined at the White House, Reagan presented his economic program to both houses of Congress. As custom dictated, the Speaker of the House introduced him. After Tip had performed these honors, the president fired his opening salvo. The size of the national debt, he said, was a looming danger.
“A few weeks ago, I called such a figure, a trillion dollars, incomprehensible, and I’ve been trying ever since to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion really is. And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand dollar bills sixty-seven miles high.”
From there he moved on to the meat of his address, which dealt with why he had come to Washington, and called for a list of spending cuts that would come to include education, the arts, food stamps, and college loans, sparing only the military; now he threw down the gauntlet.“I would direct a question,” he proposed, “to those who have indicated already an unwillingness to accept such a plan: have they an alternative which offers a greater chance of balancing the budget, reducing and eliminating inflation, stimulating the creation of jobs, and reducing the tax burden? And, if they haven’t, are they suggesting we can continue on the present course without coming to a day of reckoning?”
It was a one-two punch: one, we have a big challenge here, and two,
At this point occurred one of those paradoxes of political life: Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan each held what would have normally been the other’s position. The liberal Speaker, champion of relief for the little man, urged the hard-line anticommunist to beware of deciding the issue merely on the complaints from the farm states. Before making a concession, Reagan should demand a quid pro quo. “What are the Soviets giving us in return?”
“Tip had last word & it was a good one,” Reagan jotted in his diary that night. “He told me I was Pres. and had to think of all the states. The gist was—was lifting the embargo good for the U.S. and our security vis a vis the Soviets?”
Here was a moment when Tip seemed as much advisor as adversary. And he’d been right when he’d told the Times that Reagan was riding high. Now the Washington Post reported that“by 77 to 17 percent, an overwhelming majority gives him positive marks on inspiring confidence in the White House.” In other words, three-quarters of the American people—including a great many Democrats—were rooting for him.
O’Neill was perceptive enough to understand the country had anew leader that it wanted to believe in. After the tragedy of Dallas, after the quicksand of Vietnam, the scandal of Watergate, and the “malaise” of Jimmy Carter, it needed one. He realized how wrong it would be, even dangerous, to diminish such faith. Anyway, the most important job Tip had right now involved defense, not attack—at least for the moment.
He now needed to man his battle station on the Hill. From the bully pulpit of his regular daily press briefing, he stoutly warned that the Democratic House wasn’t going to “rubber-stamp” whatever Reagan proposed.“I have been up here long enough,” he stated, “to know that legislation in haste makes for a lot of waste.” He was starting to signal the way he was going to deal with President Ronald Reagan.
Although not quite ready to take on Reagan mano a mano, Tip was slowly getting used to the new American political arena.“With a Republican in the White House and the House still controlled by the Democrats, I now assumed a new role—leader of the opposition,” he’d later explain.“And with Jimmy Carter back in Georgia and Ted Kennedy now stuck in a Republican-controlled Senate, I also became the chief spokesman for the Democrats.”
Two nights after the O’Neills had dined at the White House, Reagan presented his economic program to both houses of Congress. As custom dictated, the Speaker of the House introduced him. After Tip had performed these honors, the president fired his opening salvo. The size of the national debt, he said, was a looming danger.
“A few weeks ago, I called such a figure, a trillion dollars, incomprehensible, and I’ve been trying ever since to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion really is. And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand dollar bills sixty-seven miles high.”
From there he moved on to the meat of his address, which dealt with why he had come to Washington, and called for a list of spending cuts that would come to include education, the arts, food stamps, and college loans, sparing only the military; now he threw down the gauntlet.“I would direct a question,” he proposed, “to those who have indicated already an unwillingness to accept such a plan: have they an alternative which offers a greater chance of balancing the budget, reducing and eliminating inflation, stimulating the creation of jobs, and reducing the tax burden? And, if they haven’t, are they suggesting we can continue on the present course without coming to a day of reckoning?”
It was a one-two punch: one, we have a big challenge here, and two,
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