Author: Bob Woodward
Title: “The Price of Politics”
Publication: 2012, Simon & Schuster, ISBN
978-1-4516-5110-2, 428 pages, hardcover, 40 chapters, indexed.
Maybe it takes long memories now to recall the bitter debt
ceiling debate during the summer of 2011. During that time, it appeared, at
least to the casual blogger, that “Tea Party” Republican congressmen and (to a
lesser extent) Senators were willing to torch the entire American economy to
prove an ideological point: that taxes on profitable businesses or individuals
not be raised to pay for the needs of others.
This was a job for “families.” For his part, President Obama may have
added some additional fuel to the fire by some intransigent veto threats,
because he rightfully didn’t want to face a debt ceiling crisis every six
months.
Woodward does indeed, around p. 327, describe the potential
for financial apocalypse were default to occur and not be remedied
quickly. I had covered this on my “Issues”
blog in July 2011. In the worst
scenario, cash itself could have become worthless and ordinary savings could be
wiped out, according to some sources in the book. Maybe that what extremists want, a righteous (or right wing) revolution.
There was a lot of hype that summer on “entitlements”, and
sometimes speakers forgot that Social Security benefits are related,
substantially but not absolutely, to FICA tax contributions by former workers
and their spouses. They are essentially
annuities that have been earned. Were
current beneficiaries really to be stiffed?
Yet, Woodward mentions the possibility of means testing at least for
some high income (or high net worth?) persons already on some means testing (I
wasn’t sure that happens now, I’ll have to check).
The style of the book is a bit perfunctory, with lots of
short paragraphs and detailed narratives of all the meetings and exchanges of
the debate, including the famous Friday afternoon breakdown between Boehner and
Obama.
In the last chapter, Woodward presents his views on the
leadership failures of both Boehner and Obama.
Call this book, “The Price of Partisan Politics”.
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