Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Rear view of Paul Duke & Cokie Roberts casually talking to U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) before interview. Roberts asks if the desk Speaker O'Neill is sitting behind belonged to former U.S. President Grover Cleveland. O'Neill says it is and tells the story of when U.S. President Ronald Reagan was given the room to change on Inauguration Day, and O'Neill told him the fact about the desk. President Reagan replies that he "played him in the movies", and Speaker O'Neill says he didn't, but Reagan states he did. Speaker O'Neill corrected him, saying that he played Grover Cleveland Alexander --- a baseball player and pitcher. Speaker O'Neill and Duke comment that Alexander was quite the character, and "on the sauce"; being drunk on the mound when he struck out Babe Ruth. Adult female (o/s) says they can begin interview.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
POV from behind Paul Duke and Cokie Roberts during interview with U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA). Duke asks why U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Congress have been "fighting every inch of the way" when the term began with calls for bipartisanship. Speaker O'Neill states there was a period of bipartisanship, that call came when the American people saw the Reagan economic program as unfair. Job training and work bills were put together with help of Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Rep. Robert Michel (R-IL) and Majority Leader, Senator Howard Baker (R-TN). Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-NV) was helpful in persuading President Reagan to sign the bills. O'Neill states there were a few bills that were passed in a bipartisan nature, but that seemed to change when President Reagan's poll numbers went up, and he listened to the ultra-conservative faction in his party. Now, there are struggles on how to handle Nicaragua, MX missiles, and military spending.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Paul Duke (o/s) asks U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) if partisan fighting will continue for the rest of the current session of Congress. Speaker O'Neill says there are few things he would like to do in a bipartisan manner, such as the MX missile system. There was no party position and members were told to vote their conscience on that issue, and it happened that many voted against it. President Ronald Reagan could and should have compromised a little, but he is being obstinate because he believes he has a better hand to play with the next election. Speaker O'Neill does not believe that President Reagan will run for re-election, or that he could win due to his age.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Cokie Roberts tells U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) that it sounds like he is trying to talk U.S. President Reagan out of running for re-election. Speaker O'Neill denies he is trying to do that; he simply believes that challengers in the Republican Party would be "tougher than he is". Speaker O'Neill complements President Reagan speaking ability when reading from a piece of paper, calling him "excellent on radio", but criticizes him when it comes to questions and answers. He criticizes the media as well for not posing tough questions, not challenging the President's positions on Social Security, education, and cutting the nutrition program. Speaker O'Neill thinks President Reagan will have to answer to the American people for the unfairness in his programs, even though the economy looks good --- on paper. Speaker O'Neill thinks the economy is never good when unemployment is so high.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Paul Duke (o/s) asks U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) whether he thinks U.S. President Ronald Reagan is "not a good guy", despite the image he has. Rep. O'Neill believes Reagan to be a fine person to sit down, have dinner with, and listen to stories; he's a very interesting person, but almost three years in government, his knowledge of how government is run is appalling and has not "grown in the job at all". O'Neill calls Reagan "a creature of the press". O'Neill contrasts Reagan with former President Jimmy Carter, who he calls the most brilliant President he ever met. The press have never given anyone a honeymoon period as long as they have given Reagan. The press called Reagan's election a mandate for the reversal of the past fifty years of economic policy, but that policy built up America, created its middle class. Only now, a year and half after the Gramm-Latta Bill do the American people see the disaster.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Rear view of Paul Duke & Cokie Roberts interviewing U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA). Duke points out that many Democrats also voted for the Gramm-Latta Bill and helped get U.S. President Ronald Reagan's economic program through Congress in 1981. Speaker O'Neill argues that when Democrats had a larger majority in the House of Representatives, there were factions within the party, Conservative Democrats, that could not be controlled, but there was a sufficient majority to overcome them. Now, the majority has lessened to the point where Conservative Democrats will vote along with Republicans, and it matters; legislation is able to be called bipartisan. In addition, the discipline under Reagan has been absolute, so there has been a loss of moderate and liberal Republicans. There has been another slight shift since the Gramm-Latta bill and Reagan hasn't had any legislative wins in the House, with the exception of the MX missile program.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
POV from behind Cokie Roberts, she brings up criticism that the U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) was "out of touch" with the mainstream on the Democratic Party. She asks if there is any satisfaction now seeing that come full-circle. Speaker O'Neill sees himself as the conscience of the Democratic Party, speaking about issues that made the party great in the first place. He was accused of having no new ideas, but O'Neill contends Republicans have no new ideas either. New ideas are very rare in politics. Republicans simply repackaged old ideas, taken from the Herbert Hoover era, to make them seem new, except that the result was about the same.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Cokie Roberts (o/s) suggests that legislators don't remember the Hoover years, which U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) acknowledges. O'Neill goes on to lament the lack of discipline, at least within his party. If a caucus voted overwhelmingly to support an issue, every Democrat would vote for it. Today, O'Neill estimates more than sixty percent of Congress has no prior legislative experience on a local or state level, so there is no party discipline. And there are no party organizations on the Democratic side. However, today's legislators are more able, talented, highly educated, and well-informed in comparison to when he first entered office, relied on personal staff, those in the Library of Congress for help and information, and followed the leadership of the party committee. Roberts asks if the change is for the better or worse; O'Neill sees it for the better, the structure is less dictatorial.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Rear view of Paul Duke & Cokie Roberts interviewing U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA). Duke asks if he relates current U.S. policy in Central America with the Vietnam War. To O'Neill, they are related. Speaker O'Neill talks about a past bipartisan foreign policy where the legislative branch took direction from the executive branch. That changed in 1974 when incoming members of Congress, well-educated and informed, broke from tradition, formed their own foreign policy views. Speaker O'Neill thinks the Reagan administration's Central America policy is wrong and recalls how unhappy former President Lyndon Johnson was with him over his position on Vietnam. That made life difficult for him, but after consulting intelligence, military, and State Department officials, he could not support the Vietnam policy. Speaker O'Neill states that President Reagan is the only one in the Western Hemisphere that believes in the current policy for Central America.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) talks over Cokie Roberts (o/s) advocating for diplomacy in Central America; citing examples of American foreign diplomacy successes in the Marshall Plan, saving Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Speaker O'Neill believes whenever U.S. foreign policy has advocated going in with military might, it has been a failure; Vietnam and Angola as just a couple of examples. Roberts asks if his constituents feel the same way, and Speaker O'Neill says "almost four to one" they don't want this to become another Vietnam. POV from behind Paul Duke and Roberts, Speaker O'Neill states that it is perfectly possible to send forty thousand soldiers to blow-up Nicaragua, but "is that the right thing to do? How did we get where we are, to be perfectly truthful?"
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) continues questioning the wisdom of U.S. foreign policy in Central American, particularly Nicaragua, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Honduras. Referencing United Fruit Company, Speaker O'Neill says: "We made the families wealthy and put the nation in servitude. We're responsible for a great of this to be perfectly truthful." Speaker O'Neill believes the revolutions are being started by sons of wealthy families who come to the U.S. for an education, and come back to say the country is "run wrong" and they're ones now helping the peasants and starting the revolution. As Speaker of the House, it amazes him how many dignitaries from foreign countries come by to visit, and not one of them is in agreement with current American policy in Central America. Speaker O'Neill believes everyone needs to sit down at a conference table and come to an agreement. Lastly, Speaker O'Neill bemoans the lack of White House briefings regarding Central America.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Paul Duke (o/s) asks U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) if forming U.S. foreign policy with 535 members of Congress trying to get in their opinion is too difficult a task to accomplish. Speaker O'Neill acknowledges the difficulty, but simply does not care for the attitude U.S. President Ronald Reagan portrays. Speaker O'Neill: "I think he played in too many movies, to be perfectly truthful. This is serious business." Speaker O'Neill doesn't see the need to flex military might down in Central America, where those countries are well aware of the power in the U.S. military. He references Reagan's saying that "America is a great tree, but when one of the roots goes bad, it needs to be cut". However, before cutting out the bad root, Speaker O'Neill advocates for treating it first.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Cokie Roberts (o/s) comments on the theme of "moral force" regarding U.S. domestic and foreign policy, and asks U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) if that is because he doesn't see a moral force right now. Speaker O'Neill thinks it is coming back after the disaster of the Gramm-Latta Bill, which cut senior citizen income, education programs, programs for handicap/disables children, and welfare. And the attitude behinds those cuts in welfare programs was that cheats and frauds were the targets. But now, the attitude is changing and the proof is in the most recent election where 27 Republicans lost their seats.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Cokie Roberts (o/s) asks about the make-up of Congress, if it is as nice as it used to be. U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) acknowledges Congress has changed, that there will never be someone to rule its halls with power like Sam Rayburn. However, Congress is more social than ever, noting there's always a cocktail party. New members of Congress also use the gym more than ever, forming basketball teams. Youth gravitates to youth, and Congress was much older several years ago, but there is much more comradery now. There are still caustic debates, but after hours everyone is pretty friendly with one another.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Paul Duke comments that U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) is indicating the Conservative wave in America is beginning to ebb, asks if he thinks Americans are looking to government for solutions to their problems. O'Neill believes there will be change in the '80s, cites the '30s when near 50% of Americans were impoverished, and even up to 1964 (25%). When President Ronald Reagan came to power, 10% of America was impoverished. O'Neill believes government went too far on some entitlement programs and regulations. O'Neill explains what the '80s would look like if former President Jimmy Carter were re-elected-- lower, balanced budget, no military build-up, no tax cuts, but entitlement and program cuts, to a lesser extent.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) continues to speak on current changes, and what government under former President Jimmy Carter would have looked like. O'Neill recalls when business leaders complained during the Carter admin about a $25 billion deficit. He believes government was moving toward moderation bc party goals were being accomplished; creating and developing the middle-class, providing senior citizens with healthcare, helping more Americans attend college, G.I. Bill of Rights, and the Social Security Bill. It came time to cut back, but O'Neill believes President Reagan cut too severely. There will be no new programs, but there is still "care and concern" in the party. O'Neill remarks that it was actually President Nixon who was responsible for food stamps and the cost-of-living increase in Social Security.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Paul Duke (o/s) returns to belief of House Speaker Tip O’Neill that President Ronald Reagan can be beaten in 1984, asks who his candidate to run against President Reagan would be. Speaker O'Neill says his candidate announcement will come at the appropriate time when the caucus and delegates meet. Cokie Roberts (o/s) asks whether Congressional delegates are a change for the better in the Democratic Party. O'Neill thinks it is, recalls how previous delegates were named by Congressional and state committees, with changes occurring in 1972. He believes he can be an important voice, but only one voice in the hundreds of other professionals who will help the platform. Roberts asks if the "professionals" will know how to pick a nominee who can win. O'Neill is confident the delegates are professionals, who can be rough and tough, but they like to win.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
POV from behind Paul Duke and Cokie Roberts as Duke notes the optimism that U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill has for the Democratic Party going forward-- but "what about the future of Tip O'Neill?" There are times when he feels guilty for being in the position he's in, going on eight years. O'Neill pays compliments to House Majority Leader Jim Wright, as well. He has been endorsed by fellow Congressmen and even potential Presidential candidates who want him to stay on as Speaker through the 1984 election. O'Neill believes there will be a time "to draw the shade, and to do it with grace" but that time hasn't come yet. Duke (o/s) asks if the next term may be his last, but O'Neill states he can't put himself in a position to answer a question like that because there is no way he will be considered a "lame duck."
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Cokie Roberts (o/s) asks U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill to imagine life after the House of Representatives. Speaker O'Neill talks about owning a couple of properties in Massachusetts with his wife, Millie, a house in Cape Cod and an apartment in Cambridge where his roots are. "I'd rather be a lamppost in North Cambridge than the King of the Universe." He likes spending time in Florida, but he's a "city boy at heart." O'Neill talks about his wife, and how much she enjoys D.C. and all it has to offer as she remains active through her foundations and social circle of Congressional wives. He jokes everyone knows the day will end at 5:30pm because Tip has to be home for supper. O'Neill states he may teach in college after his time in Congress, just to keep his mind sharp.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Cokie Roberts states retirement will provide House Speaker Tip O’Neill the opportunity to tell stories. Speaker O'Neill says there is nothing like reminiscing, although perhaps it's also a sign of old age. Roberts wants to reminisce about "the oldest living freshman in Congress," asks O'Neill to regale them with the tale of Rep. James Bowler, which he does. Paul Duke (o/s) asks if O'Neill could do it all over again, would he? O'Neill states his ambition was to be the mayor of Cambridge, and never thought he would have been in public life for over 40 years. He had started an insurance business, and entered Massachusetts legislature as a challenge, since it had been Republican for a hundred years. O'Neill had a conversation with Representative John William McCormack (D-MA) about coming to turn the House Democratic.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) continues talking about his political history and rise to his current position as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He discuss the period of time where he and his administrative assistant, Tommy Mullen, looked over the political landscape of Massachusetts and saw an opportunity to flip the state to Democrats if they could find the right candidates; one of them being a popular retired police officer who saved the life of three children by diving in front of a truck. Speaker O'Neill marvels at the costs of financing a campaign then, about a hundred dollars, to now, where the amount is in the thousands, if not millions. In the end, O'Neill became Speaker of the Massachusetts legislature. From there, Speaker O'Neill got a tip from a possible rival that he would not run for House of Representatives, giving him an early advantage.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) continues talking about his political history and rise to Speaker of the House of Representatives. Speaker O'Neill talks about the difficult decision to leave his home and family to go to Washington; his wife, Millie, was unhappy. Speaker O'Neill thought he would go to Washington for a couple years, come back and run for Governor of Massachusetts. He won his hard fought race, as did John F. Kennedy for Senate. Speaker O'Neill remembers the friendly nature of Rep. John William McCormack (D-MA) who placed him on the Rules Committee in the House. He got "the ol' Potomac fever" and lost interest in running for Governor, and believed he could become Speaker of the House. Paul Duke (o/s): "So it's been a good life?" Speaker O'Neill says it has been and he's met all sorts of heads of state, and has been fortunate to travel all over the country --- like farms in South Dakota and cotton fields in the South --- and all over the world.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) talks about his travel overseas, specifically to Australia. (He names the wrong Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister of New Zealand.) Speaker O'Neill recalls Muldoon saying that Australians follow closely what happens in the United States, but the U.S. knows nothing about Australia. He recalls the Prime Minister saying the Mediterranean is the ocean of the past, the Atlantic is the ocean of today, but the Pacific is the ocean of the future. When resources run out in America eyes will turn to Australia and their untapped soils. New nations are developing and Australians are protecting them from the Soviets, who are trying to gain a foothold. Australia is an ally of the U.S. through three wars. Speaker O'Neill notes that after he went, it started an avalanche of American officials visiting Australia, opening up better relations, and he has seen the same effect after his trip to China.
Interview with Rep. Tip O'Neill
Paul Duke and Cokie Roberts (o/s) thank U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) for his time. Speaker O'Neill shares that he enjoyed his time with them. Speaker O'Neill asks Roberts some questions, but she can't talk for technical filming reasons, so he chats with Duke about internal politics and money issues with The Lawmakers on PBS.