in early 1977, new House Speaker O’Neill anticipates and concedes to President Carter on water projects ? ?

[Dancing Fool]

Yes, those goddamn water projects ! ? !

And supposedly this was the thing which poisoned Carter’s relations with Congress. I’m sure there were other things, but this was the big one.

Let’s suppose Tip O’Neill decides, Hey, President Jimmy Carter is the person who was elected on a national mandate, not me. President Carter ran as both a southern fiscal conservative and his own brand of populist. I’m going to help him succeed at both.

What happens then?

Your ideas please.

 

[Ramontxo]

Errrr, just for all of us in the further provinces of the Empire, what were the President Carter Water Projects?

 

[Dancing Fool]

what were the President Carter Water Projects?

Not President Carter's.

It was pork barrel projects Congress wanted. I'm guessing mainly to benefit committee chairs and other long-serving members.

 

[Dancing Fool]

page 2, toward end of 2nd paragraph --

“ . . In a last-minute deal between Carter and Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-MA), Carter agreed to continue funding for half of the projects, and O'Neill agreed to drop funding for the other half . . ”

-------------------

But then a year later, Congress is back trying to fund the other half ! ! !

That one is on Congress.

 

[Dancing Fool]

On January 20, 1977, during the Inauguration Parade from the Capitol to the White House,

newly sworn-in President Carter, First Lady Rosalyn Carter, and 9-year-old daughter Amy got out of the limousine and walked for more than a mile.

 

[Dancing Fool]

On April 1, 1977, President Carter announced he was selling the Presidential yacht Sequoia to save on maintenance and staffing costs.

 

[Dancing Fool]

And FDR did this. He cut government salaries within days of taking the Oath of Office on March 4, 1933. It shows seriousness of purpose.

It also signals to your supporters and colleagues in Congress that you’re not going to just throw money around.

 

[Dancing Fool]

Slip slidin’ away—the disappearing practice of overtime pay | MR Online

Slip slidin’ away—that is what tends to happen to pro-worker reforms in our economic system. Things are structured so that without constant vigilance and struggle on our part, gains are gradually undone. A case in point: overtime pay.

mronline.org

“The overtime threshold has only been changed two times since 1975. That year it was set at $155 a week or $8060 a year. President Jimmy Carter talked about boosting the threshold but, fearful of worsening inflationary pressures, never did.”

———————————————

This is an example of something President Carter could have done.

I’ve also heard this called the salary threshold. It says that even if someone is legit salary, they still need to be paid at least threshold or else they’re eligible for time-and-a-half for overtime.

It encourages companies to spread out available jobs.

* I think this is usually a better reform than raising minimum wage

 

[Dancing Fool]

Thomas “Tip” O’Neill is a big beefy fellow who looks like a politician.

I don’t think this photo shows President Carter being intimidated. For example, he’s not leaning backwards.

 

[GDIS Pathe]

The Water Projects were symptoms of a problem not the cause of them, Jimmy Carter was a holier-then-hou outsider who thought he could walk all over an elected body of 435 Representatives and 100 Senators. He was wrong.

 

[Dancing Fool]

Jimmy Carter was a holier-then-hou outsider

This is a fair description.

Carter believed he was both smarter than the average bear, and more moral. And it didn’t help that he was probably right on both counts ! ? !

* in business I’ve heard this called the “Ted Williams” problem.

All the same, Speaker O’Neill should have yielded on something as glaring as the water projects.

Plus—

O’Neill could have picked big aspects of Carter’s energy policy which were likely to receive majority support from both the public and his colleagues. This may have in fact happened.

But it was such a muddled mess that Carter didn’t get credit. In addition, you lost the feedback mechanism of clear policy, seeing how it works and how the public feels about it? . . . tweaking the policy, seeing how it works . . . rinse and repeat.

 

[GDIS Pathe]

All the same, Speaker O’Neill should have yielded on something as glaring as the water projects.

Why? Tip O'Neil answers to the voters of his Congressional District and the 292 Democratic members of Congress who elected him Speaker, not Jimmy Carter. It is not O'Neil's fault that Jimmy Carter decided, with no prior warning, to attempt to cancel 19 water projects which had already authorized, funded, and began construction, and it's certainly not his fault that he went to bat for his members.

O’Neill could have picked big aspects of Carter’s energy policy which were likely to receive majority support from both the public and his colleagues. This may have in fact happened.

But it was such a muddled mess that Carter didn’t get credit. In addition, you lost the feedback mechanism of clear policy, seeing how it works and how the public feels about it? . . . tweaking the policy, seeing how it works . . . rinse and repeat.

O'Neill passed Carter's energy bill virtually wholly intact, it was cut apart in the Senate because the Administration failed to take the proper steps to gather the support to ensure it's passage. You can blame that on the Senate but the Senate has been around for long before Jimmy Carter became President and the fact his Administration seemingly failed to realize the nature of the upper-chamber before passing their bill... is solely the fault of the Carter Administration.

 

[Dancing Fool]

It is not O'Neil's fault that Jimmy Carter decided, with no prior warning, to attempt to cancel 19 water projects which had already authorized, funded, and began construction,

Well then, screw it.

We’ll just embrace a system in which the sole goal of an elected member of Congress is to rise to a position of seniority and to bring home as much money as position to “my district” even if half that money is wasted.

 

[GDIS Pathe]

Well then, screw it.

We’ll just embrace a system in which the sole goal of an elected member of Congress is to rise to a position of seniority and to bring home as much money as position to “my district” even if half that money is wasted.

It turns about the co-equal branch of government does not like being tread upon by the Executive. I don't understand the point being made, if you just spent weeks and months hammering out a budget and then send it to the President who suddenly decides to start trying to kill projects you've just approved, you'd be pretty pissed off.

 

[Godot]

Managing Congress is a necessary part of being a successful President. Carter couldn't handle Congressional intrigues and thus failed

 

[Dancing Fool]

I don't understand the point being made,

I largely agree with you on President Carter. I just think you’re letting Congress way off the hook.

 

[Dancing Fool]

Managing Congress is a necessary part of being a successful President. Carter couldn't handle Congressional intrigues and thus failed

Let me ask you a loaded question—

Are you saying Jimmy Carter needs to be a great benefactor of humanity + a master strategist,

whereas Congress gets to be the equivalent of a demanding, short-sighted teenager ? ?

Feel free to honest Yes, No, or anywhere in-between. And welcome to the conversation!

 

[Godot]

Let me ask you a loaded question—

Are you saying Jimmy Carter needs to be a great benefactor of humanity + a master strategist,

whereas Congress gets to be the equivalent of a demanding, short-sighted teenager ? ?

Feel free to honest Yes, No, or anywhere in-between. And welcome to the conversation!

Yeah. Congress is made up of like 500 individuals who squabble and that can lend a schizophrenic attitude to the thing as opposed to the single individual executive. Carter was a moron who thought he could use the Washington-outsider charm technique on an entire institution of insiders and needlessly shot himself in the foot.

 

[Dancing Fool]

And thank goodness Carter was concerned about inflation because we were going to get another dose of it in 1979 when the Iranian Revolution disrupted world oil.

The oil shock caused the economy’s Aggregate Supply to move inward. And the astute reader will see that we ended up at a place of both lower _______
and higher _______ .

 

[Dancing Fool]

Carter was a moron who thought he could use the Washington-outsider charm technique on an entire institution of insiders

But during a time of stagflation in 1980, Gov. Reagan ran promising both a tax cut and a military build-up. And he was able to get most of his program through Congress, with votes from Republicans and southern Democrats (the so-called “Dixiecrats”).

Okay, maybe the point was that Reagan was willing to compromise,

and Carter remained a control nut.