| The bitter truth was that Ronald Reagan faced an excruciating testof presidential decision-making. After an exhausting and prolongedpolitical struggle, he had emerged in July triumphant, having enacteda generous tax cut for all Americans. Only three months later, he hadto admit that the triumph had been an illusion, when we couldn t winsupport for the spending cuts needed to balance the equation. Even worse, it had not been his fault. He had been misled by a crewof overzealous-and ultimately incompetent-advisers. The originalbudget plan I had devised for him had been fatally flawed. It is evenharder to eat crow when you haven t cooked it yourself. The President could run, but he couldn t hide. ~nclo would helphim? Not the Democrats, who were sullen and revengeful; not theRepublicans, who were hunkered down in their separate camps,frantic and confused. Reagan had one real option: to retreat and giveback part of the huge tax cut we couldn t afford. But he wouldn t. Ronald Reagan chose not to be a leader but apolitician, and in so doing showed why passion and imperfection,not reason and doctrine, rule the world. His obstinacy was destinedto keep America s economy hostage to the errors of his advisers fora long, long time. |
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