Word: stockmans
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Apart from the hoo-ha attendant to David Stockman's telling us what most of us already knew [Nov. 23], there is something disturbing about the fetish of dogged fidelity to leadership that has become so fashionable in recent Administrations. Like most other virtues, loyalty in moderation is a noble trait. Of late, however, it has taken on exaggerated proportions that are inimical to a democratic society. As currently defined, team playing does more than merely quash originality. It vouch safes us a generation of faceless robots to whom individual responsibility is equated with treason. In the extreme analysis...
...this mess. It seems that King Ronald on horseback proclaimed, "For the stopping of Christmas, I'll never be blamed. From those bad man in PATCO I'll lift my injunction, By gee and by golly--this Xmas will function." So he told David Stockman (on his Trojan steed), "Quick, print up the extra cash that we'll need." Happy that Yuletide by fortune was kissed, We began the long task of preparing our list...
...final flaw is that Reagan tends to assume his advisers will agree on most major issues; when they differ seriously, the White House machinery simply seizes up. Stockman last summer demanded deep cuts in defense spending and Weinberger resisted any reductions at all. Reagan, who basically thought the dispute was a technical question rather than a matter of principle, let things drift for six weeks in the hope that Meese could get the two to agree on a figure. Deaver finally intervened to get both to present their arguments directly to Reagan, and the President decided in favor of minimal...
Regan, something of a slow starter, was overshadowed at first by Budget Director David Stockman. That prompted Citicorp Chairman Walter Wriston, a longtime friend, to observe: "One day Don Regan is going to wake up and eat David Stockman for breakfast." Regan has not done that, but he has become increasingly dominant. When Stockman began urging new taxes for 1982 to reduce the deficit, Regan dissuaded the President. He has managed to keep a diverse group of monetarists, pragmatists and supply-siders in harness at Treasury...
Schweiker backed into a buzz saw when he and Stockman jointly proposed a plan to reform Social Security by reducing benefits. Regardless of the degree to which the plan had merit, and elements of it had a lot, it was met with bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill. Reagan had to disclaim it. For a man who served two terms in the Senate, Schweiker showed himself surprisingly inept in dealing with Congress. He earns a middling C, but only because he does not deserve blame for all of what has happened in his realm...