The Price of Politics (54 page)

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) Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, was frustrated during the Biden committee meetings by Republicans’ refusal to consider increasing federal revenue or taxes as a way of reducing the deficit. “We’re not going to keep going down this road,” he told Republicans.

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) Senator Jon Kyl, one of the two Republicans on the Biden committee, couldn’t understand why Democrats wouldn’t just accept spending cuts without revenues. “So you’re saying to me that even though there are Medicare savings that you think are reasonable—that we could do—you won’t do them unless we’re going to raise taxes on somebody?” he asked.

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) Democratic Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, aggravated members of both parties during the Biden talks, saying, “I will walk away from any deal” that would make large cuts to the agriculture subsidies important to farmers and ranchers in his state of Montana.

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) David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, took over as senior adviser to the president in January 2011. When President Obama promised to veto a debt limit extension that didn’t last past the 2012 election, Plouffe realized he had drawn a line in the sand. “If he caves,” Plouffe said, “it will have long-lasting political repercussions that we may never get out of.”

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) President Obama with Rob Nabors, the White House director of legislative affairs. Discussing the Democratic vote count for a grand bargain deficit reduction deal, Obama asked Nabors, “How many people do you think are going to vote for it?” Nabors replied, “How many people are you going to tell to vote for it?”

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) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jack Lew with President Obama. Lew was the administration’s point man during staff-level negotiations on the debt limit. Obama joked that Republicans hated negotiating with Lew because he “knew the budget better than anybody.” But Republicans said their real problem with Lew was that he didn’t know how to “get to yes.” Lew became White House chief of staff on January 27, 2012.

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) President Obama with Bill Daley, the White House chief of staff in 2011. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not like Daley’s involvement in congressional budget negotiations. “I’ll tell you when I want your chief of staff coming up here,” Reid told the president.

(
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) Barry Jackson, chief of staff to Speaker of the House John Boehner, looks on as Boehner speaks to the president by phone. “The White House is brilliant at getting out early and defining things their way,” he warned, so it would be essential for Boehner to give his version publicly.

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) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid leaves the White House with his chief of staff, David Krone. “It is really disheartening that you, that this White House, did not have a Plan B,” Krone told the president after the debt talks with Boehner fell through.

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) Brett Loper, Boehner’s policy director, couldn’t believe the impact the Gang of Six proposal had on negotiations with the White House. Who cared what six senators said? he asked.

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) Steven Stombres, Cantor’s chief of staff, was not shy about challenging senior Republican leaders. “You are crazy,” the former Army intelligence officer told Speaker Boehner, who said he could get 170 Republican votes for a large revenue package.