When President Barack Obama came into office, his assumption was that because of the state of the nation Republicans would feel obligated to work with him in an effort to dig the country out of the hole they’d helped dig. That hole, the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, saw housing prices drop 30 percent and the unemployment rate rise from 5 percent in December 2007 to 10 percent by December 2010.
But like so much else during the next eight years, Republicans in the Senate and the House cut off those efforts even before they began. In a wide-ranging interview with New York magazine, Obama talks about that day and four others that shaped his administration.
Probably the moment in which I realized that the Republican leadership intended to take a different tack was actually as we were shaping the stimulus bill, and I vividly remember having prepared a basic proposal that had a variety of components. We had tax cuts; we had funding for the states so that teachers wouldn’t be laid off and firefighters and so forth; we had an infrastructure component. We felt, I think, that as an opening proposal, it was ambitious but needed and that we would begin negotiations with the Republicans and they would show us things that they thought also needed to happen.
On the drive up to Capitol Hill to meet with the House Republican Caucus, John Boehner released a press statement saying that they were opposed to the stimulus. At that point we didn’t even actually have a stimulus bill drawn up, and we hadn’t meant to talk about it.
(The other events that he believes will prove historically significant in his administration include the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the administration’s handling of the BP oil spill, opening relations with Cuba, and the use of drones in the war against terror.)
Obama says It became clear, then, that regardless of the policy he proposed or the action he took, Republicans in Congress would not cooperate with him unless it was entirely on their terms.
And I think we realized at that point what proved to be the case in that first year and that second year was a calculation based on what turned out to be pretty smart politics but really bad for the country: If they cooperated with me, then that would validate our efforts. If they were able to maintain uniform opposition to whatever I proposed, that would send a signal to the public of gridlock, dysfunction, and that would help them win seats in the midterms.
...there were times that I would meet with Mitch McConnell and he would say to me very bluntly, “Look, I’m doing you a favor if I do any deal with you, so it should be entirely on my terms because it hurts me just being seen photographed with you.” During the health-care debate, you know, there was a point in time where, after having had multiple negotiations with [Iowa senator Chuck] Grassley, who was the ranking member alongside my current Chinese ambassador, [Max] Baucus, in exasperation I finally just said to Grassley, “Is there any form of health-care reform that you can support?” and he shrugged and looked a little sheepish and said, “Probably not.”
Obama also talks about his handshake with Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela’s funeral; not planned, but helpful: “For me not to shake his hand, I think would have been inappropriate,” as well as his surprise when people don’t believe what he says.
“Here’s one thing that I am always surprised by: the degree to which people don’t just take me at my word.”