Who's In Control?
Darman, Richard
Books In Review - "Who's In Control?" With Clinton thinking aloud, Newt Gingrich explaining what the Tofers meant, and everyone trying to define "self-esteem," merry cynics like Ferguson are tempted to conclude that the...
...With oil shock fears, high longterm interest rates, and Iraqi war uncertainty, one can imagine that if there had been no budget agreement, reactions in financial markets and the real economy might have been disastrous," Darman says...
...He had one for the Reagan presidency after Iran-contra broke, a plan for reviving the administration's popularity and clout...
...The spectacle of latter-day Babbitts on expense-account guilt trips activated Ferguson's "what's wrong with this picture...
...Foreword, bibliographical essay, index...
...As a journalist, I've dealt with Darman for years, and never have I interviewed him when I didn't learn something...
...Another factor, he says, is that the economic recovery that began under Bush in 1991 continues...
...At this writing, that five-year total-half a trillion 1990 dollars -is still the largest [deficit savings program] ever...
...I'm not free to disclose it, but in any case it was a plan not taken...
...One reason he's summoned to power so often is that he's always got a plan, or two or three or four of them...
...The pressure gets worse, far worse, incomparably worse, by-another-order-ofmagnitude worse...
...Maybe so, but had Bush and barman fought and won a better budget agreement-rather than just negotiated a bad one-things might have been far from disastrous...
...Soon Phil Gramm calls and, Darman writes, even he "knew that with Democratic control of Congress there might have to be a concession on taxes down the road...
...These aren't entitlements, but they're not chicken feed either...
...America is hooked on talking cures, Ferguson believes, because our Protestant heritage deprived us of the sacrament of Confession...
...What if they'd gotten a better deal with more spending cuts as a result...
...And that is the point of Darman's tendentious though riveting book-to make the case that he was right at the time about raising taxes, and still is...
...His answer is bleak: "The revolution proceeds without a shot being fired, with scarcely a peep of protest...
...With Clinton thinking aloud, Newt Gingrich explaining what the Tof ers meant, and everyone trying to define "self-esteem," merry cynics like Ferguson are tempted to conclude that the examined life is not worth living...
...Guess what...
...Spin maybe, but never anything untrue...
...That the most conservative members of society, the business community, are themselves seasoned veterans of soulsearching workshops, explains why Clinton has gotten away with his emotionwracked, hysteria-prone presidency...
...We invite you to request a free copy of our catalogue...
...He's on somewhat firmer ground in insisting that Clinton deserves no credit for the decline in the deficit on his watch...
...about himself...
...And who needs the Export-Import Bank and three separate federally run weather bureaus and AmeriCorps...
...Recall that a recession began in the third quarter of 1990...
...Next time he sees Ted Williams, barman ought to ask him about these superfluous agencies...
...I laughed out loud when I read this, but not because Williams's advice was absurd...
...Don't get me wrong...
...Darman accepts some but by no means all of the blame for Bush's defeat in 1992...
...the button-down squares whose hackles should have been raised, had been doing precisely the same thing for years...
...A bibliographical essay traces the polemical response to Meyer's writings...
...and "Western Civilization: The Problem of Political Freedom...
...He's stuck in the rut that assumes most government programs are popular and thus can't be eliminated...
...Darman doesn't argue that the 1990 budget agreement was creative, only that it worked...
...My guess is Williams would give him advice he doesn't want to hear...
...What if they had taken their case to the people...
...8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300, Dept...
...The new Liberty Fund edition includes nine related essays, among them "Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism," "In Defense of John Stuart Mill," "Libertarianism or Libertinism...
...In spring 1989, Darman attends a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with Bush, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and baseball great Ted Williams...
...Therefore, the proper end of political thought and action is the establishment and preservation of freedom...
...Like most Harvard intellectuals, Darman is in awe of Williams, the Splendid Splinter of the Boston Red Sox...
...Darman appears not to have considered the fight-rather-than-switch approach...
...Modern Editions of Classic Worksfor Today's Readers IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM AND RELATED ESSAYS By Frank S. Meyer Foreword by William C. Dennis When it first appeared in 1962, In Defense of Freedom was hailed by Richard M. Weaver as "a brilliant defense of the primacy of the person" and an "indictment of statism and bureaucratism...
...And that puts him in a small class of honorable people in Washington...
...Frankly, I expect Richard Dannan's Bi e f romDararman an st fd s slightly yo ,who w as deputy chief of staff in the Reagan White House and Hit Strikes Out deputy treasury secretary in Reagan's sec ond term before heading the Office of Management and Budget under Bush...
...Also, he's the one of the most politically imaginative people in town...
...A strong conservative, Williams had no favorable inclination toward either big government or taxes...
...Indeed, everyone Darman talks to knows this: Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, then-House Republican leader Bob Michel, Drew Lewis and Bob Strauss of the National Economic Commission...
...In his view, both the dominant Liberalism and the "New Conservatism" of the American tradition place undue emphasis on the claims of social order at the expense of the individual person and liberty...
...But, like most Americans, he wanted a balanced budget...
...240 + xxiii pages...
...Hardcover $15.00 0-86597-139-0 Paperback $7.50 0-86597-140-4 aGhw-peeW For a nation "conceived in liberty," the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals is a never-ending obligation...
...Williams, now 71, turns out to be an avid follower of the debate in Washington on politics and policy...
...The savings might have been greater than $500 billion...
...On the contrary, he trashes Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp, and Bill Bennett (not Bob Dole, however...
...He wishes Colin Powell had run for president...
...Nor does he note that the recession began a few days after Bush announced he'd be willing to boost taxes...
...What...
...So what's the problem with Darman...
...He's right on this, but a lot of good it did them...
...Part of the credit should go to the spending caps and pay-as-you-go requirements enacted in the 199o budget deal, Darman says...
...He makes other dubious claims for his budget deal...
...FRED BARNES is executive editor of the Weekly Standard...
...So Darman, a bit obsessively, broaches the subject of taxes...
...Darman is honest about his own views...
...Of the author, William F. Buckley, Jr., remarked, "Meyer has done more than anyone in America to search out the metaphysics of freedom...
...No, I laughed at the lengths Darman is willing to go in Who's in Control...
...There's a "federal logic" to "defense, law enforcement, stu dent aid, transportation infrastructure, public health and safety, biomedical research, Social Security, Medicare, and a host of other programs," Darman says...
...He didn't want the President to have to break his pledge...
...Darman seems to think Williams was right, too...
...The implication here is that he and Bush are responsible...
...The one he attended was packed with corporate types listening to windy speeches about "Unleashing the Power of Your Workforce by Managing Diversity," and obediently chanting after their facilitators, "I accept the `onion theory' that I will continue to peel away layers of my own racism for the rest of my life...
...He's a centrist who's comfortable with the Washington establishment, what he calls "the system...
...Imagine the pressure...
...Darman has no way of proving this and doesn't try...
...Then former President Nixon faxes a note arguing that if Bush's "flexible freeze" is a nonstarter, the only other option is a tax hike...
...Meyer examines the tension between the freedom of the person and the power of social institutions...
...Polar Politics and the Sensible Center Richard Darman Simon & Schuster /384 pages / $25 REVIEWED BY Fred Barnes...
...In fact, if Bush had taken it and boldly declared taxes had to go up, he might have fared better politically than he actually did by acceding a year later to the Democratic demands for a tax increase as part of any budget deal...
...taxes to get the deficit down...
...He simply says things could have been worse-you know, "otherwise...
...He envisions yet more budget deals to wipe out the deficit and allow "creative" government policymaking to resume...
...Now, the truly Darmanesque tack would have been to get on the good side of the more conservative Republicans who took over Congress in 1994 and dominate the party...
...Of course, there's no way for budget wonks to know what "otherwise" might have been, absent the Darman-negotiated budget deal...
...Call 800-955-8335 Liberty Fund We pay book Fax 317-579-6060 rate postage on or write: prepaid orders...
...Each title explores the genesis and sustenance of liberty in individual life, in society, governance, and economics...
...Darman doesn't try...
...His attitude seemed to be if you've really got to do it, just explain yourself directly, and do it...
...Leaving Clinton an economy in recovery didn't hurt the Democrat, that's for sure...
...After reflecting a bit, he volunteered, "People would understand if the President just stepped forward, right out on the front porch, and said he'd have to raise October 19 9 6 • The American Spectator if Bush and Darman had decided to fight for a budget pact with no new taxes...
...To encourage this deliberation, Liberty Fund-a private educational operating foundation established in 1960makes available a wide range of outstanding books...
...I outlined the budget dilemma to him, and asked for his reaction...
...In that case the diversity workshop is our counter-reformation...
...It comes from former Presidents Ford and Carter...
...Our publications include the works of Adam Smith, David Hume, Lord Acton, Ludwig von Mises, Nobel laureates F. A. Hayek and James Buchanan, crucial political writings of the American founding era, and landmark works in philosophy, law, and education...
...It's his relentlessly establishmentarian outlook...
...In contrast, Meyer insists that liberty is essential to the pursuit of virtue...
...The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the deficit was "almost $50o billion less than it otherwise would have been," according to Darman...
...to justify the tax hike he favored but that destroyed Bush's re-election prospects...
...test of conservative values...
...It's not that he's a moderate...
...T]he white-male power structure of late-twentieth-century America [is] the first to pay people to dismantle itself...
...MEAS, Indianapolis, IN 46250 The American Spectator • October r 9 9 6 71...
...But what about the Energy, Education, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development Departments...
...Thirty minutes after his appointment as President Bush's budget director, Richard Darman hears the first plea for Bush to jettison his no-new-taxes pledge...
...70 Though we talked mainly about baseball, Williams was also interested in the federal budget debate...
...He's never given me false information...
...Far from causing a recession, as some critics had predicted, the act actually helped shorten the recession that had started before the agreement was enacted," he writes...
Vol. 29 • October 1996 • No. 10
