Word: sununu
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With that decided, Gephardt placed a phone call to Budget Director Richard Darman, who was still the White House point man in the negotiations, though he and chief of staff John Sununu had both been cast in messenger roles because their aggressive arm bending in support of the budget summit's package had alienated many Republicans and most of the Democrats. Gephardt told Darman that the Democrats would give up the surtax in exchange for a tax-rate increase for the rich and a phaseout of their personal exemptions, along with a 5 cents gas tax hike...
...party's once eloquent concerns for the poor. Now these concerns are seen as promoting tax-and-spend policies grounded in class warfare. Wilder calls for a class-blind election in 1992 and confines his economic proposals to vague utterances about "rooting out waste" and the failure of "Sununu economics...
Close advisers to George Bush are grousing ever louder about John Sununu's bullying style. They complain that the White House chief of staff is unable and unwilling to play the crucial "outside game" of congressional and public persuasion. What's worse, Sununu prevents Bush from hearing frank counsel from savvier advisers on domestic policy, which hampered the White House's ability to handle the budget crisis. The problem isn't access; Bush still sees many domestic advisers. But Sununu has most of them scared to disagree with him. One Sununu tool is aide Ed Rogers, who spends much...
...continued to procrastinate, giving away little, particularly on social programs. The Democratic stall obscured the best-kept dirty secret of the budget talks: House Republicans were no more willing than their opponents to support Darman's proposed cuts in health and retirement benefits and other ( federal entitlements. They bombarded Sununu's office with private pleas to protect special programs. They signed joint letters opposing cuts in pork- barrel programs. At one point, senior White House officials polled House G.O.P. members to see how many votes they could get for cuts of various sizes. "You know how much we raised from...
...Democrats were willing, but only if Bush agreed to eliminate the "bubble," an irregularity in the income tax code that lowers the rate on earnings over $500,000 from 33% to 28%. In fear that Republicans would revolt again, Bush refused to budge on rates. At one point, Sununu discussed adjusting the tax brackets so that the lower rate would apply only to income above $500,000. This time it was Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell who said no. "That would only solve half the problem," he said. "We believe marginal rates are too low." Replied Sununu...