The Price of Politics
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To Benjamin C. Bradlee
I had two terrific people assist me full-time on this book: Rob Garver, a 20-year veteran reporter and editor, spent just six months on this project, coming to work for me in February 2012. I call him the workhorse who energized and focused me. Determined and fair-minded, he did at least two days’ work in each single day. He never wasted a minute as best I can tell. His mature insights, skills and willingness to tell me “no” when it was needed kept us on track. Rob, 43, is one of the best natural editors and reporters I have ever worked with. He graduated from the University of Vermont and has a master’s degree from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. His sophisticated understanding of business, banking and policymaking guided me at every step. He quickly grasped the story we were trying to get and went after it. He is a delight in every way, enduring a long commute each day to and from Springfield, Virginia, where he lives with his two sons, Ryan and Andrew. Several mornings each week, he arrived at work by 6:30 a.m., before the newspapers. Without Rob, this book never would have been completed—not even close.
Evelyn M. Duffy, who worked with me on two previous books,
The War Within
and
Obama’s Wars
, continued on this third book. I will say it again, Thank God. Now 27, she is a lady of balance and levelheadedness. She again transcribed hundreds of hours of digitally
recorded interviews with President Obama and top White House and congressional officials. Her editing skills have grown immensely. What seems a decent draft will come back to me covered in countless marks as she identifies inconsistencies, factual errors and grammatical problems. She can find any person and almost any information. Evelyn graduated from George Washington University in 2007 with a degree in English and creative writing. Her work and presence are marked by grace, kindness and integrity. She is smart, practical and knows how to enjoy a good laugh. No one I have ever worked with of any age has more common sense. I thank her with gratitude. Without her efforts and wisdom we would never have finished.
Nearly all the information in this book comes from interviews with key White House and congressional officials. Some provided documents, contemporaneous meeting notes, working papers, diaries, emails, transcripts and chronologies. Democrats and Republicans cooperated in about equal amounts.
This book examines the struggle between President Obama and the United States Congress to manage federal spending and tax policy for the three and one half years between 2009 and the summer of 2012. More than half the book focuses on the intense 44-day crisis in June and July 2011 when the United States came to the brink of a potentially catastrophic default on its debt.
Most interviews were conducted on “background,” meaning the information could be used in the book but none of the sources would be identified by name. Many sources were interviewed multiple times, and nearly all allowed me to digitally record our interviews. These recordings produced transcripts that run to thousands of pages. In all, more than 100 people were interviewed for this project.
Three key figures spoke to me on the record. I interviewed President Barack Obama for 1 hour and 25 minutes in the Oval Office on July 11, 2012; House Speaker John Boehner in his Capitol office on June 8, 2012, for 1 hour and 25 minutes; and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at his Capitol office for an hour on July 12, 2012.
As much as possible, I have tried to preserve the language of the main participants by quoting them directly or using their words to reflect their speech and attitudes. Verbal exchanges were checked and rechecked with participants as much as possible. No reporting can provide the equivalent of a perfect engineer’s drawing of events. This is the best obtainable version, and it is impossible to do this work and not realize—and be humbled by—what you have not discovered and do not know.
Any attribution of thoughts, conclusions or feelings to a person comes from that person directly, from notes, or from a colleague whom the person told.
In the course of such an in-depth immersion in the decision making during such a crisis, the attitudes of the players become clear. Occasionally, a person said something was “off the record,” meaning it could not be used unless the information is obtained elsewhere. In many cases, I was able to get the information from others so it could be put in this book. Some people think they can lock up and prevent publication of information by declaring it “off the record” or by saying that they don’t want to see it in the book. But in the White House and Congress, nearly everyone’s business and attitudes become known to others. And in the course of extensive interviews with firsthand sources about key decisions, the role and goals of the major players become clear.
Bob Woodward
July 14, 2012
Washington, D.C.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Barack H. Obama
VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Joseph R. Biden
Ron Klain, chief of staff (to January 14, 2011)
Bruce Reed, chief of staff (January 14, 2011–present)
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Timothy Geithner (January 26, 2009–present)
WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC TEAM
Director, National Economic Council
Larry Summers (January 20, 2009–December 31, 2010)
Gene Sperling (January 20, 2011–present)
Director, Office of Management and Budget
Peter Orszag (January 20, 2009–July 30, 2010)
Jack Lew (November 18, 2010–January 27, 2012)
WHITE HOUSE STAFF
Chief of staff
Rahm Emanuel (January 20, 2009–October 1, 2010)
William Daley (January 13, 2011–January 27, 2012)
Jack Lew (January 27, 2012–present)
Senior adviser to the president
David Plouffe
Director of legislative affairs
Rob Nabors
Director of communications
Dan Pfeiffer
Press secretary
Jay Carney
THE SENATE
Majority Leader
Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada
David Krone, chief of staff
Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky
Rohit Kumar, domestic policy director and deputy chief of staff
Senators
Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, chairman, Finance Committee
Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, chairman, Budget Committee
Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, Majority Whip
Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, Minority Whip
Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington State, supercommittee co–chair
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Speaker of the House (to January 2011)
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California
Speaker of the House (January 2011–present)
John Boehner, Republican of Ohio
Barry Jackson, chief of staff
Brett Loper, policy director
Kevin Smith, communications director
Michael Steel, press secretary
Majority leader
Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland (to January 2011)
Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia (January 2011–present)
Steven Stombres, chief of staff
Neil Bradley, policy director
Brad Dayspring, communications director
Members of the House