Who Stole the American Dream?

by Hedrick Smith

  5 “I don’t want to abolish government” Mara Liasson, “Conservative Advocate,” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, May 25, 2011, http://​www.​npr.​org.

  6 “The Right’s ideology [is] vehemently antistatist” Donald T. Critchlow, The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 2.

  7 The Republican Party’s steady (if interrupted) march Hacker and Pierson, Winner-Take-All Politics, 293. Their term is “more conservative.”

  8 There are many brands of conservatism Andrew Kohut, Carroll Doherty, Michael Dimock, et al., “Beyond Red vs. Blue: Political Typology,” Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, May 4, 2011, http://​www.​people-​press.​org.

  9 “Siren song of socialism” “Ike’s Medical Plan a Puzzle to Democrats; Goldwater Terms It Dime-Store New Deal,” Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1960.

  10 Goldwater lashed out at Ike’s budget “Republicans: The Backward Look,” Time, April 22, 1957.

  11 Goldwater struck themes that are echoed Critchlow, Conservative Ascendancy, 43–50.

  12 His fervent anticommunism Nicol C. Rae, The Decline and Fall of the Liberal Republicans from 1952 to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 55–70.

  13 “More dangerous to our country than Sputnik” “Reuther’s Profit-Sharing Proposal Hits Rough Going at UAW Session,” Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1958.

  14 “What has been frightening here” Richard Rovere, The Goldwater Caper (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965), 88.

  15 “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” Barry Goldwater, “Goldwater’s 1964 Acceptance Speech,” The Washington Post online, www.​washington​post.​com.

  16 An image of rampant extremism Critchlow, Conservative Ascendancy, 70–72.

  17 The finale of the Goldwater campaign Lou Cannon, Reagan (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982), 13–14.

  18 Paul Weyrich Canaway, “Righting Reagan’s Revolution.”

  19 Helped gear up the New Right “The Heritage Foundation Mourns Loss of Founding President Paul Weyrich,” Heritage Foundation, December 18, 2008, http://​www.​heritage.​org.

  20 Wealthy individuals such as David and Charles Koch W. John Moore, “Wichita Pipeline,” National Journal, May 16, 1992.

  21 “Government is not the solution” Lou Cannon, “Reagan Announces, Urges Strength at Home, Abroad,” The Washington Post, November 15, 1979.

  22 Abolish entire cabinet departments Doug Kneeland, “A Summary of Reagan’s Positions on the Major Issues of This Year’s Campaign,” The New York Times, July 16, 1980.

  23 Reagan disappointed the hard-core Right Hedrick Smith, “Reagan Loyalists Are Worrying About Their Champion’s Loyalty,” The New York Times, November 20, 1980.

  24 Stop Reagan’s nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor Jane Mayer, “Politics ’84—Nurturing Conservatives: New Right Tends a New Generation,” The Wall Street Journal, December 4, 1984.

  25 “Starve the Beast” Bruce Bartlett, “ ‘Starve the Beast’: Origins and Development of a Budgetary Metaphor,” Independent Review 12, no. 1 (Summer 2007).

  26 “Phony war on spending” David A. Stockman, The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), 454.

  27 “No Reagan Revolution” Hedrick Smith, The Power Game: How Washington Works (New York: Random House, 1988), 654.

  28 Gingrich personified the confrontational politics Newt Gingrich, speech, June 24, 1978, cited in “The Long March of Newt Gingrich,” PBS Frontline, January 16, 1996, http://​www.​pbs.​org.

  29 Getting into high-profile scraps Smith, Power Game, 141–43.

  30 “Newt had this vision of how” Norman Ornstein, interview, January 7, 2010.

  31 Gingrich built a formidable political machine “House Republicans Elect Gingrich of Georgia as Whip,” The New York Times, March 23, 1989.

  32 “This war has to be fought” Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Gingrich Stuck to Caustic Path in Ethics Battles,” The New York Times, January 26, 2012.

  33 It took a titanic effort by Clinton David E. Rosenbaum, “House Passes Budget Plan, Backing Clinton by 218–216 After Hectic Maneuvering,” The New York Times, August 6, 1993.

  34 The Senate deadlocked, 50–50 David E. Rosenbaum, “Clinton Wins Approval of His Budget Plan as Gore Votes to Break Senate Deadlock,” The New York Times, August 7, 1993.

  35 More than half the bills (56 percent) died Binder, “Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock.”

  36 Least productive sessions in half a century Ibid.

  37 “Perhaps the worst congress” “Perhaps the Worst Congress,” The Washington Post, October 7, 1994.

  38 To generate public disgust with Congress Ornstein, interview, January 7, 2010.

  39 Right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh “F.C.C. Votes Down Fairness Doctrine in a 4–0 Decision,” The New York Times, August 5, 1987.

  40 Pollster Frank Luntz “Call-in Political Talk Radio: Background, Content, Audiences, Portrayal in Mainstream Media” (Philadelphia: Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, August 7, 1996), http://​www.​anne​nberg​public​policy​center.​org; U.S. News & World Report, May 1993; Talk Daily, August 1995.

  41 Limbaugh’s importance “Republicans Get a Pep Talk from Rush Limbaugh,” The New York Times, December 12, 1994; Linda Killian, The Freshmen: What Happened to the Republican Revolution? (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998), 26.

  42 “Contract with America” The account that follows comes principally from the author’s reporting and interviews reflected in the transcript of Hedrick Smith Productions, The People and the Power Game, PBS, September 3 and 10, 1996, www.​hedrick​smith.​com.

  43 A confrontation with President Clinton “President Vetoes Stopgap Budget; Shutdown Looms,” The New York Times, November 14, 1995.

  44 A 51 percent majority blamed the Republicans “As Standoff Ends, Clinton Is Seeking High Ground,” The New York Times, November 21, 1995.

  45 “The tax collector for the welfare state” Richard Reeves, “The Republicans,” The New York Times Magazine, September 9, 1984.

  46 Senate Republicans had tired Smith, The People and the Power Game.

  47 Gingrich had to back down “Clinton Meets Challenge by Offering Budget Plan; Crucial Talks Begin Soon,” The New York Times, January 7, 1996.

  48 Target No. 1 was Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter Peter Ross Range, “Thunder from the Right,” The New York Times Magazine, February 8, 1981.

  49 Specter the defector Martin Tolchin, “The Washington Priorities of a Philadelphia Pragmatist,” The New York Times, April 8, 1984.

  50 “If we beat Specter” James Dao, “Conservative Takes on Moderate G.O.P. Senator in Pennsylvania,” The New York Times, April 3, 2004.

  51 “Not far right, he’s far out” Ibid.

  52 “Since my election in 1980” “Specter Statement on His Decision to Switch Parties,” The New York Times, April 28, 2009.

  53 Toomey won Specter’s old Senate seat “Toomey at Helm of a Republican Wave in Pennsylvania,” The New York Times, November 3, 2010; “Senate Tea Party Caucus Holds First Meeting Without Some Who Had Embraced Banner,” The Washington Post, January 28, 2011.

  54 “Ideological cleansing” Dana Milbank, “I’ll Miss You, Sen. Apostasy,” The Washington Post, May 23, 2010.

  55 Cannibalism—“eating or defeating your own” “Specter Farewell Speech Slams GOP ‘Cannibalism,’ ” Associated Press, December 22, 2010, http://​www.​delcotimes.​com.

  56 A $1.2 trillion stimulus Ryan Lizza, “Inside the Crisis: Larry Summers and the White House Economic Team,” The New Yorker, October 12, 2009.

  57 A supersized stimulus of $1.5 trillion to $2.4 trillion Paul Krugman, “The Obama Gap,” The New York Times, January 9, 2009; Baker, False Profits, 2.

  58 Could “spook markets” Larry Summers, “Executive Summary of Economic Policy Work,” memo to President-Elect Barack Obama, December 1
5, 2008, http://​s3.​documentcloud.​org/​documents/​285065/​summers-​12-​15-​08-​memo.​pdf.

  59 He told Obama Ryan Lizza, “The Obama Memos: The Making of a Post-Post-Partisan Presidency,” The New Yorker, January 30, 2012.

  60 “All you capitalists” Squawk Box, CNBC, February 19, 2009, http://​www.​cnbc.​com.

  61 Big-time right-wing political donors Jane Mayer, “Covert Operations: The Billionaire Brothers Who Are Waging a War Against Obama,” The New Yorker, August 30, 2010.

  62 Far to the right of average Americans “Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated,” The New York Times, April 14, 2010; “Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe,” CBS News, April 14, 2010; polling data, http://​s3.​amazonaws.​com/​nytdocs/​docs/​312/​312.​pdf.

  63 In the Republican primaries “Tea Party Set to Win Enough Races for Wide Influence,” The New York Times, October 15, 2010; “Where Tea Party Candidates Are Running,” The New York Times, October 15, 2010.

  64 House Republicans cut millions “House Republicans Vote to Cut Millions from Food Safety Funds,” The Washington Post, June 17, 2011.

  65 “They are more rigid” Ornstein, interview, May 25, 2011.

  66 “An infantile form of conservatism” Matt Bai, “Establishment Republicans Look at These Guys and Say, ‘You’re Nuts!’ ” The New York Times Magazine, October 16, 2011.

  67 “Some revenue in the mix” President Barack Obama, news conference, White House transcript, June 29, 2011, http://​www.​whitehouse.​gov.

  68 “Come on, you and I” Paul Kane, “President, Speaker Motivated by ‘Big Deal,’ ” The Washington Post, July 10, 2011.

  69 Reduce the national debt by $4 trillion Carl Hulse, “A Lofty Vision vs. Realpolitik,” The New York Times, July 11, 2011; “Boehner Says Obama ‘Not Serious’ About Deficit,” CBS News, Face the Nation, May 15, 2011; Kane, “President, Speaker Motivated by ‘Big Deal.’ ” Matt Bai, “The Game Is Called Chicken,” The New York Times Magazine, April 1, 2012.

  70 The risk was Kane, “President, Speaker Motivated by ‘Big Deal.’ ”

  71 Boehner had to back out Ibid.; David A. Fahrenthold and Paul Kane, “Eric Cantor Emerges a Key Player in Debt Negotiations,” The Washington Post, July 11, 2011.

  72 “The Mother of All No-Brainers” David Brooks, “The Mother of All No-Brainers,” The New York Times, July 5, 2011.

  73 In this final push, their grand bargain Bai, “The Game Is Called Chicken,” and Peter Wallstein, Lori Montgomery, and Scott Wilson, “He Promised Change in Washington. Then the Debt Deal Collapsed. So Obama Changed Course,” The Washington Post, March 18, 2012.

  74 Lowest level in sixty years Senator Daniel K. Inouye, “Domestic Discretionary Spending Flat Since 2001; Not Responsible for Growing Debt,” press release, Senate Committee on Appropriations, June 30, 2011, http://​appropriations.​senate.​gov.

  75 Third lowest overall tax rates “U.S. Is One of the Least Taxed Developed Countries,” Citizens for Tax Justice, June 30, 2011, www.​ctj.​org/​pdf/​oecd201101.​pdf.

  76 Millionaires when elected “Tea Party House Members Even Wealthier than Other GOP Lawmakers,” Center for Responsive Politics, January 4, 2012, www.​opensecrets.​org.

  77 “On balance, they’re rich” “Freshmen in 112th Congress Exceedingly Wealthy Despite Struggling Economy,” Center for Responsive Politics, March 9, 2011, http://​www.​opensecrets.​org.

  78 Has a large crop of millionaires “Congressional Members’ Personal Wealth Expands Despite Sour National Economy,” Open​Secrets.​org, November 17, 2010, http://​www.​open​secrets.​org.

  79 Wealth in Congress has shot up Eric Lichtblau, “Economic Slide Took a Detour on Capitol Hill,” The New York Times, December 27, 2011.

  80 Cantor is a multimillionaire Kate Andews, “Eric Cantor’s Climb Up the Hill,” September 2007, Richmond magazine.​com, http://​www.​richmond​magazine.​com.

  81 Worth about $5 million Eric Cantor, Financial Disclosure Statement, May 13, 2011, Legislative Resource Center, U.S. House of Representatives, http://​pfds.​opensecrets.​org/​N00013131_​2010.​pdf.

  82 More than $2 million in campaign donations Alec MacGillis, “In Cantor, Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms Have Voice at Debt Ceiling Negotiations,” The Washington Post, July 25, 2011.

  83 “Hypnotizing” influence Deval Patrick, “How Grover Norquist Hypnotized the GOP,” The Washington Post, June 30, 2011.

  84 The de facto leader of Steve Kroft, “The Pledge: Grover Norquist’s Hold on the GOP,” CBS News, 60 Minutes, November 20, 2011. Alexander Bolton, “Reid Says Republican Lawmakers ‘Being Led Like Puppets’ by Grover Norquist,” The Hill, November 1, 2011.

  85 across-the-board reductions Grover Norquist, testimony, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, June 30, 2010. Although Norquist framed his proposal as a freeze in discretionary spending, by his freezing program budgets at fiscal year 2007 levels, he is actually advocating reducing all programs from their already higher levels of fiscal year 2011. http://​www.​fiscal​commission.​gov/​meetings/​public-​forum/​3/​Grover_​Norquist_​6_​30_​2010.​pdf.

  86 Oppose virtually all government Norquist, testimony, National Commission, June 30, 2010. “Who Is Grover Norquist?” Americans for Tax Reform, July 7, 2011, http://​www.​atr.​org; Rick Henderson and Steven Hayward, “Happy Warrior,” Reason magazine, February 1997; Robert Dreyfuss, “Grover Norquist: ‘Field Marshal’ of the Bush Plan,” The Nation, May 14, 2001, 11–16.

  87 “No sacred cows” Americans for Tax Reform, letter to Speaker John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, “Conservative Leaders Call on Congress to Consider Defense Spending Cuts: Coalition Asks Republican Leaders to Restrain All Federal Outlays, Reject the Practice of Protecting Sacred Cows,” November 30, 2010. See also press release on letter, http://​s3.​amazonaws.​com/​atrfiles/​files/​files/​11302010pr_​Defense​%20Letter(2).​pdf.

  88 Signing a pledge “Who Is Grover Norquist?”

  89 No congressional Republican Ibid., accessed April 9, 2012.

  90 “We will make it” Patrick, “How Grover Norquist Hypnotized the GOP.”

  91 Just as Grover Norquist had predicted “House Passes Deal to Raise Debt Cap and Defuse Crisis,” The New York Times, August 2, 2011.

  92 “It is an unhappy fact” David Bromwich, “Obama: His Words and His Deeds,” New York Review of Books, July 14, 2011.

  93 Appalled at the “irresponsible actions” Chuck Hagel, interview, Financial Times Video, August 31, 2011. http://​video.​ft.​com/​v/​1138459180001/​Former-​Republican-​senator-​criticises-​party.

  94 “I find it frustrating” Jennifer Steinhauer, “Snowe Opts Not to Seek Re-election in Maine,” The New York Times, February 29, 2012.

  95 “Lugar was knocked off” Monica Davey, “Lugar Loses Primary Challenge in Indiana,” The New York Times, May 8, 2012; Kirk Johnson, “Leader of ’76 Insurgency Is Now the Target of One,” The New York Times, May 22, 2012.

  96 “It’s not honorable to kowtow” David Brooks, “The Possum Republicans,” The New York Times, February 28, 2012.

  97 “Today’s Republican Party” Mann and Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, 102.

  98 “Bringing the Republican Party” Ibid.

  CHAPTER 20: THE HIGH COST OF IMPERIAL OVERSTRETCH

  1 “To amass military power” President Dwight Eisenhower, State of the Union Address, February 2, 1953, http://​www.​eisenhower​memorial.​org.

  2 “The total amount” Christopher A. Preble, The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), 3.

  3 “The hell that was Anbar Province” Matthew Hoh, “Measuring Quick Sand,” Huff Post World, June 9, 2011, http://​www.​huffington​post.​com.

  4 Twenty-one thousand more U.S. troops Presiden
t Barack Obama, remarks, “A New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan,” March 27, 2009, http://​www.​whitehouse.​gov; Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 95–98, 113.

  5 Win support among the tribes Karen DeYoung, “U.S. Official Resigns over Afghan War,” The Washington Post, October 27, 2009.

  6 There was not one insurgency Ibid.

  7 America was widely perceived as the occupier Matthew Hoh, resignation letter to Ambassador Nancy J. Powell, director general of the United States Foreign Service, September 10, 2009, http://​www.​washington​post.​com.

  8 “The people we are fighting” Matthew Hoh, media press conference, ABC News, October 27, 2009, http://​abcnews.​go.​com.

  9 “I have lost understanding” Hoh, resignation letter.

  10 The initial withdrawal President Barack Obama, remarks, “The Way Forward in Afghanistan,” June 22, 2011, http://​www.​whitehouse.​gov.

  11 “If we’re going to cut programs” House Clerk records, final vote results for roll call 373, May 26, 2011, show vote of 215–204 against the measure (207 Republicans and 8 Democrats against; 26 Republicans and 178 Democrats in favor), http://​clerk.​house.​gov/​evs/​2011/​roll373.​xml.

  12 Forced to make “deeply painful cuts” Michael Cooper, “Mayors See End to Wars a Fix for Struggling Cities,” The New York Times, June 18, 2011.

  13 “We can no longer” “Cost of Wars a Rising Issue as Obama Weighs Troop Levels,” The New York Times, June 22, 2011.

  14 Appropriated $1.4 trillion in funds Amy Belasco, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” Congressional Research Service, March 29, 2011, fpc.​state.​gov.

  15 Totaled the costs of the war through fiscal year 2015 Eisenhower Study Group, “The Costs of War Since 2001: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.” (Providence, RI: Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, June 2011), table 5. From their total estimated cost of $3.668 trillion, I have subtracted $155 billion listed as projected Pentagon war spending for fiscal years 2016–2020 because U.S. military engagement in that period is highly problematic. That gives a total of $3.513 trillion. For simplicity, I have also combined cost for fiscal year 2012 with previous years.