PBS Newshour 9/3/2010
(from transcript)
DAVID BROOKS (New York Times columnist): But the danger you get with financial crises is, people do try to do something short-term, and they end up creating so much debt or so much other problems or so much inefficiency, they end up making things worse. And you get these -- the debacles, these debt debacles.
Now, the administration is talking about some, I think, responsible things they will probably unveil next week, maybe a payroll tax holiday, maybe some business tax cuts, maybe some infrastructure spending, a lot of little things. But we shouldn't expect that is going to have a huge impact, certainly not this year. Maybe not next year. I think we just have to -- I have just lost a little faith that we have the -- we have the expertise or the capacity to fine-tune an economy in this shape, which we don't really understand.
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MARK SHIELDS (syndicated columnist): And, you know, Ronald Reagan was about as formidable an adversary as anybody on the Democratic side would ever want to run into, as principled, conservative. But, at 5:00, he could sit down and have a drink with Tip O'Neill. Under the rules and under the mores of these folks, any cooperation, any civility toward the other side is a sign of collaboration and collusion. And I -- boy, I think that doesn't augur well for our politics, nor this city.
DAVID BROOKS: Well, I mean, my whole life was based on what Mark just said, but I have said we should wait and see. In Massachusetts and other places, we have had people who are pretty partisan, but surprise you and sometimes can be nice. And Reagan was plenty tough. But he was nice. Mark's right. And maybe they will be tough and not -- but I -- personally, you know, the Republican Party is not headed in the direction I want to see.
I do think you have to collaborate. And that has become a dirty word. There is no question about that.
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