Yesterday, I posted over on my Substack on an extended interview that my late Hoover Establishment colleague Martin Anderson did about his time with Richard Nixon. In it he revealed how shortly Nixon got here to Marty’s place towards the army draft in 1967, comparatively shortly after assembly Marty.
There’s tons extra that’s fascinating in that interview. Marty talks at size about Ronald Reagan, who was very totally different from Nixon. Right here’s one on Reagan’s intelligence and data.
I as soon as described him as warmly ruthless. He had this look of being pleasant and jovial and good, by no means argued with anybody, by no means complained. However when you shook your head and considered it a bit of bit, he at all times did it his approach. It was like there was a metal bar proper down the center of him and all the pieces you touched was comfortable and fuzzy besides the metal bar within the center. He at all times did it his approach. Irrespective of how many individuals talked to him, it doesn’t matter what occurred, he at all times did it his approach. For those who have been in the way in which, you have been gone, you have been fired. He by no means took any pleasure out of it, simply gone.
I believe when you actually need to take a look at Reagan, one of many issues we present with this new ebook we have now, is one thing that I knew from coping with him. He was extremely sensible. I do know this doesn’t sound affordable, however he was extremely sensible. I’ve handled professors at Columbia and professors at Stanford, however he may take a look at one thing and perceive it and grasp it and switch it round and work with it and play with it. He was extremely fast. I’d say he had a mind that was similar to—and I’d speak to Milton Friedman or Ed Teller and Arthur [Burns], all these guys, he may stick with them.
Now, he hid that. He simply backed off. He by no means argued with workers. You possibly can have ten totally different individuals inform him the identical factor and he’d simply pay attention. He by no means stated to them, Look, you dumb bunny, ten years in the past I wrote an article on this, an extended article. He’d simply say, That’s an fascinating concept. So most of the coverage points that have been proposed to Reagan over time, by totally different individuals, he listened, That’s very fascinating. Then when he did it, despite the fact that it was one thing he’d determined many, a few years beforehand he would do, all these individuals have been delighted. He was doing what they’d informed him. He was proud of that, he didn’t care.
He used to say privately, There’s no restrict to what an individual can get accomplished when you don’t care who will get the credit score. And he was simply very sensible. The second factor is, there was this sense that he was lazy, that he took naps. Nicely, I traveled with him for nearly 4 years. He by no means took a nap. It was complete nonsense. In reality, he labored on a regular basis. We’ve got uncovered proof with this ebook by way of the handwritten paperwork and so forth, he was writing on a regular basis. He was finding out, he was writing, he was working on a regular basis, in non-public. As quickly as he got here out in public, placed on the general public persona, he was pleasant and jovial and speaking.
For some purpose, I’m discovering myself occupied with Reagan as we speak. I by no means voted for him. I couldn’t vote till 1986, shortly after turning into a U.S. citizen.
Though I loved working for Martin Feldstein for 2 years, whereas he was the chairman of the Council of Financial Advisers and I used to be a senior economist, I assumed Marty [Feldstein, not Anderson] was one of many many intellectuals who offered Reagan quick. A narrative right here is related.
Marty and I have been engaged on a proposal, together with individuals within the Workplace of Administration and Price range, the U.S. Treasury, the Division of Well being and Human Companies, and a coverage store within the White Home, to make employer contributions to staff’ medical health insurance above about $1,500 a yr taxable earnings. That doesn’t sound like so much, however $1,500 in 1983, adjusted for inflation, could be over $4,700 as we speak. The concept, which many well being economists and plenty of economists basically shared, was that employers and staff would face the correct marginal incentives in order that there would little or no bias in favor of medical health insurance over taxable wages and salaries. ($1,500 a yr was under the median employer contribution and, if the $1,500 weren’t listed for inflation, over time the bias would change into smaller and smaller.) However Marty wished to go additional and demand that for employers to have the ability to deduct from their taxable earnings their contributions to staff’ medical health insurance, they must purchase insurance coverage that had not less than a ten% coinsurance price and a minimal deductible. (I’ve forgotten the quantity of the deductible.) I argued with him. I stated that the proposal with out these necessities gave employers the correct incentives and that he was saying that one way or the other he knew higher than them. He didn’t have an excellent argument however insisted that I symbolize his place precisely at interagency conferences. I did. After I was about to say one thing Marty thought however I didn’t, I’d say, “The chairman believes that …”
Curiously and amusingly, well being economists across the nation heard what Marty was advocating and would write me asking me to speak him out of it. (Within the late Sixties to early Nineteen Seventies, Marty had been arguably the premier well being economist on the planet, earlier than he went on to different points similar to Social Safety and company taxation.) So I’d go to Marty and say issues like, “Joe Newhouse stated to say hello and likewise requested me to inform you that he thinks dictating phrases of employer-provided medical health insurance is a nasty concept. Marty would acknowledge the “hello” half. Concerning the third time I did this, in response to the third letter from a well being economist, Marty stated, “Okay, David, I get it. Lower it out.” So I did.
Anyway, again to the story. There was a Cupboard Council assembly at which Marty offered the proposal. Within the regular course of issues, he would have introduced me and I’d have been a kind of individuals you see within the footage sitting with my again towards the wall and never on the desk. He didn’t invite me, and I came upon in regards to the assembly solely after it was over. I came upon from a colleague in one other White Home store, and this colleague had been requested to the assembly by his boss.
I believe Marty had figured me out. I used to be the type of one that, if I noticed one thing I disagreed with, would communicate up. The concept Reagan and an entire lot of Cupboard secretaries have been there didn’t intimidate me in any respect. So I believe Marty feared, considerably moderately, that I’d communicate up. If I had recognized beforehand about this assembly and recognized that Marty wasn’t going to take me there, I’d have stated, “Okay, I get it. You may say the earth is flat, and I received’t say a factor.” Oh, effectively.
I preserve getting sidetracked, so right here goes the half about Marty and Reagan. As soon as I heard, after the assembly, from the colleague in one other White Home store, I went to Marty to ask the way it went. He stated, “It went effectively. Even the President understood.” Even then, having adopted Reagan’s pondering for about 6 or 7 years, I assumed Marty Feldstein underestimated Ronald Reagan.
