The Price of Politics (55 page)

(
27
) Neil Bradley, Cantor’s deputy chief of staff and policy director, thought the Biden committee showed promise at the start. “Where else do you walk into a room and find $123 billion in savings?” he asked after one of the first meetings.

(
28
) President Obama with Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader. “Nancy has always been there for us,” Obama said. Rob Nabors, the White House director of legislative affairs, said of Pelosi, “She is absolutely nails.”

(
29
) Majority Leader Harry Reid negotiated with the Republicans and almost joined them in making a deficit reduction deal, but President Obama pulled him back. Reid complained, “Republicans can’t deliver the big deal. They’re jeopardizing the future of the country.”

(
30
) When Boehner suggested that he and the president begin face-to-face discussions on the debt limit, the question among White House staff was: Should we engage at all? From left, President Obama, chief of staff Bill Daley, director of legislative affairs Rob Nabors, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling, deputy NEC director Jason Furman, Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew, senior adviser David Plouffe, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

(
31
) Speaker John Boehner, Vice President Joe Biden, President Obama and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor meet in the Oval Office on July 20 when they seemed to be getting close to a budget deal. On revenue, Boehner told the president, “Our necks are out as far as they can go.”

(
32
) President Obama at a press conference after Speaker Boehner pulled out of their talks for a second time. “I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times,” he said, adding that Republicans would have to take “responsibility” for the failed talks. The president’s press conference took place right after he hung up with Boehner. “He was spewing coals,” Boehner said of their conversation. “I was pretty angry,” Obama later recalled. “And look, the reason is, here we’ve got a national crisis that needs to get resolved. The entire world is watching.”

(
33
) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Boehner in the White House Cabinet Room on July 23, 2011. “Mr. President,” said Boehner, “as I read the Constitution, the Congress writes the laws. You get to decide if you want to sign them.” Reid then asked the President to leave the room so congressional leaders could speak privately. “You know, the truth of the matter is, at that point, all I’m concerned about is getting this thing done,” the president recalled. “And so I’m not concerned about protocol.”

(
34
) Rohit Kumar, far right, McConnell’s chief domestic policy adviser, conducted key negotiations for the minority leader. When he showed up at home at 8 p.m. on July 29, his wife, Hilary, was stunned that he wasn’t still at work. “The fact that I’m here at eight o’clock,” he told her, “tells you how screwed we are. We’re nowhere. We have no deal.”

(
35
) By July 31, just two days before the Treasury would run out of money, White House staffers were exhausted from a month of intense negotiations. Bruce Reed, the vice president’s chief of staff, said it was comparable to an economic “modernday Cuban Missile Crisis.” From left, President Obama, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling, chief of staff Bill Daley, Reed, director of legislative affairs Rob Nabors, Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew, Vice President Joe Biden, and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

(
36
) President Obama in the Oval Office on July 11. He told his senior staff he would not sign a short-term extension of the debt limit. “Under any scenario we risk a default,” he said. “That’s not my control. The Republicans are forcing the risk of a default on us. I can’t stop them from doing that. We can have the fight now, or we can have the fight later on, but the fight is coming to us.”

(
37
) President Obama, chief of staff Bill Daley, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “This is insanity,” said Geithner, as the final debt ceiling negotiations threatened to come undone over cuts to Defense spending.