When Politics Worked

摘要

A Merican politics was not always this toxic. There was a time not long ago when partisanship actually helped get things done. I know. I was there. When my boss, Tip O'Neill, went to meet Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, he was carrying with him a letter from the President. Ronald Reagan wanted to meet the new Soviet leader. He was happy to have the country's top Democrat delivering the message. O'Neill told Gorbachev that the American people were behind Reagan 100% in the talks that the countries were holding in Geneva on nuclear arms reduction. Reagan and Tip needed each other and behaved accordingly. Both sides wanted to get something done. Presidents had real political honeymoons. The government's budget was debated and agreed to each year. There were no government shutdowns, no threats of debt defaults. The two men from different parties saved Social Security for a generation and passed a historic tax-reform bill that cut rates and plugged loopholes. And O'Neill made sure that Reagan had a free hand in those meetings with Gorbachev.