Notable Quotables - 10/29/1990
Budget Balderdash
"Well, House
Republicans are the big problem because they've been trying to count, and they
really are a minority of a minority and they're inconsequential. So they are
now being ripped apart....They are just really torn apart between wanting
chaos, wanting to destroy everything and not have an agreement, sort of a
scorched-earth, Newt Gingrich-led policy, and wanting to be conciliatory and
come up with a solution....The Democratic plan is really a genius of a plan
because it does everything that most people, 81 percent of Americans, would
want: It raises taxes on the rich."
- NBC Capitol Hill reporter Andrea Mitchell on Sunday Today, October
14.
"The American
people have failed to realize that they have a responsibility in all of this.
But one of the reasons is that for ten years, Republicans in the White House,
first Ronald Reagan and then George Bush, have been telling them they don't
have to pay for what they get."
- Andrea Mitchell, Oct. 12 Nightly News.
"We wanted
everything but the pain of paying for it. It began with a promise from a new
President....In a decade [the] deficit more than tripled. How? Ronald Reagan
ran for President promising Americans more while asking for less: the Reagan
Revolution."
- Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News, October 5.
"I wonder if you
think, though, that you're paying the price now in asking the American people
for sacrifice and having them rebuff it the way it happened, paying the price
for all those years in the Reagan-Bush Administration that you sold
supply-side economics?"
- Question from CBS White House reporter Wyatt Andrews to President Bush at a
October 9 press conference.
"Can we clarify
something that we talked about earlier? Many of the lawmakers say that the
repudiation of the budget package reflects the fact that people feel that
economic policy in this country over the last ten years was fundamentally
unfair, that it redistributed income too much to the wealthy and too little to
the poor. Do you think that was part of the reason your budget was
rejected?"
- Later question from Wall Street Journal White House reporter
Michel McQueen.
Bryant Blames It On Gingrich & Reagan
Bob Squier, Democratic
Strategist: "I think that it was a game of chicken. I think what you had
was Gingrich, who is supposed to be part of the leadership, leading people
literally out of the deal."
Bryant Gumbel:
"Acting irresponsibly."
Gumbel: "....Is
this the legacy of Ronald Reagan politics, I mean, feel-good politics of the
'80s, no-responsibility politics of the '80s?"
Roger Ailes, Republican
Strategist: "I think that's a misnomer..."
Gumbel: "But
weren't the '80s about spending what we didn't have? And that was Ronald
Reagan."
- Exchanges on Today, October 5.
Soak the Rich
"For a long time
they [taxpayers] accepted the conventional wisdom that if you cut taxes for
the rich the benefits would trickle down to everybody. But all the latest
polls now show that most taxpayers have finally come to suspect
otherwise....So if and when they do sort out that deficit mess it's likely the
rich are going to get soaked, at least a little, to make up for the soaking
they avoided in the '80s."
- Reporter Richard Threlkeld, October 16 CBS Evening News.
"From 1981 to 1987
the income taxes actually paid by the top one percent of taxpayers rose by 49
percent in real terms....while the bottom 50 percent paid 15 percent
less."
- Economics columnist Warren Brookes, October 12.
Gorby's Nobel
"Like Winston
Churchill at the end of World War II, Gorbachev now is in danger of losing the
support of his countrymen despite the enormity of the gift he has given them.
That gift includes the freedom to say what they think; the opportunity to know
the true history of their country; the chance to live someday in a 'normal'
country, to use an adjective much favored by Russians in these exciting
times."
- Washington Post Deputy Managing Editor Robert Kaiser in a
front-page "news analysis," October 16.
"Beginning with his
withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, Gorbachev did indeed change the
world. With President Reagan, he ended the Cold War. Missiles began to be
destroyed. Then, barnstorming Europe, Gorbachev preached that cooperation
should replace confrontation. He became a folk hero...Gorbachev brought troops
home from Eastern Europe, saying no country should use force to change the
policies of another."
- Bob Abernethy on the NBC Nightly News, October 15.
Sam's Economic Wisdom
"The price of gas
today in the United States has gone up - $1.40, $1.50, maybe even $1.60 some
places, but around the world the price is $3 and $4 a gallon, and people pay
it gladly. Senator Lieberman, do you think we have some God-given right to low
prices?"
- Sam Donaldson on Nightline, October 17.
Abysmal Failure to Spend More
"Time and again,
Washington has failed to address the needs of working parents - most recently
in June, when President Bush vetoed the family-leave bill on the ground it was
too burdensome for business. The bill would have allowed a worker to take up
to 12 weeks a year of unpaid leave to care for a newborn, an adopted child, or
a sick family member. That is abysmal compared to what other industrialized
nations allowed."
- Time Associate Editor Nancy Gibbs, October 8.
Liberal Center
"On issues and
political philosophy, the candidates are at the center of the spectrum. Both
are pro-choice on abortion. Each sees the need for more state support for
public education, including a first-time-ever sales tax and local property tax
reform."
- Christian Science Monitor reporter Brad Knickerbocker on Oregon
gubernatorial candidates, October 15.
Defining Civil Rights
"Having worked hard
to convince civil rights leaders that he is sympathetic to their causes, the
President today will campaign on behalf of Sen. Jesse Helms, who has arguably
the worst civil rights record in the Senate."
- Boston Globe reporter Stephen Kurkjian in an October 10 "news
analysis."
"Are you not also
in danger of people looking at the Republican Party after this whole
experience, and saying, 'Oh, now we do know what they stand for that's
different. They stand for helping the rich and at the same time, the
President's talking about vetoing the civil rights bill, so helping the rich
and white guys?"
- Cokie Roberts to Richard Darman, October 21 This Week with David
Brinkley.
"Civil rights
leaders say Bush's veto will play well with whites who support former Klansman
David Duke but not with black voters."
- NBC White House reporter John Cochran, October 17 Nightly News.
Jesse's Sensitive Realities
"From there on in,
however, [The Jesse Jackson Show] was all strength - particularly
the last half-hour, when Jackson and a distinguished panel...dealt with
sensitive realities, including the fact that...the seemingly innocent naming
of sports teams after 'redskins' or 'chiefs' represents a dangerous time
bomb."
- Hollywood Reporter TV reviewer Laurence Vittes, October 2.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Callista Gould, Jim Heiser, Marian Kelley, Gerard Scimeca; Media Analysts
- Jennifer Hardebeck; Administrative Assistant
