“One minute,” the producer said. Andrea Price, as always, was in the room, standing by the door to the secretaries’ space, and the door behind Cathy was open to the corridor. Jeff Raman was there. He was another odd duck, Cathy thought, but the problem with the White House was that everyone treated you like you were Julius Caesar or something. It was so hard just being friendly with people. It seemed that there was always something in the way. Fundamentally, neither Jack nor Cathy was used to having servants. Employees, yes, but not servants. She was popular with her nurses and technicians at Hopkins because she treated them all like the professionals they were, and she was trying to do the same thing here, but for some reason it didn’t work quite the same way, and that was bothersome in a distant way.
“Fifteen seconds.”
“Are we having fun yet?” Jack whispered.
Why couldn’t you just have stayed at Merrill Lynch? Cathy almost said aloud. He would have been a senior VP
677
by now–but, no. He would never have been happy. Jack was as driven to do his work as she was to fix people’s eyes. In that they were the same.
“Good evening,” Donner said to the camera behind the Ryans. “We’re here in the Oval Office to speak with President Jack Ryan and the First Lady. As I said on NEC Nightly News, a technical glitch damaged the taping we did earlier today. The President has graciously allowed us to come back and talk live.” His head turned. “And for that, sir, we thank you.”
“Glad to see you again, Tom,” the President said, comfortably. He was getting better at concealing his thoughts.
“Also joining us is Mrs. Ryan–”
“Please,” Cathy said, with a smile of her own. “It’s Dr. Ryan. I worked pretty hard for that.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Donner said with a charm that made Cathy think about a bad trauma case rolling off on Monument Street at lunchtime. “You’re both doctors, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Mr. Donner, Jack in history, and me in ophthalmology.”
“And you’re a distinguished eye surgeon with the Lasker Public Service Award,” he observed, applying his anchorman’s charm.
“Well, I’ve been working in medical research for over fifteen years. At Johns Hopkins we’re all clinicians and researchers, too. I work with a wonderful group of people, and, really, the Lasker Prize is more a tribute to them than it is to me. Back fifteen years ago, Professor Bernard Katz encouraged me to look into how we could use lasers to correct various eye problems. I found it interesting, and I’ve been working in that area ever since, in addition to my normal surgical practice.”
“Do you really make more money than your husband?” Donner asked with a grin for the cameras.
“Lots,” she confirmed with a chuckle.
“I always said that Cathy was the brains of the outfit,” Jack went on, patting his wife’s hand. “She’s too modest to say that she’s just about the best in the world at what she does.”
678
“So, how do you like being First Lady?”
“Do I have to answer?” A charming smile. Then she turned serious. “The way we got here–well, it’s not something anyone would wish for, but I guess it’s like what I do at the hospital. Sometimes a trauma case comes in, and that person didn’t choose to be injured, and we try our best to fix what’s wrong. Jack’s never turned away from a problem or a challenge in his life.”
Then it was time for business. “Mr. President, how do you like your job?”
“Well, the hours are pretty long. As much time as I have spent in government service, I don’t think I ever really understood how difficult this job is. I am blessed with a very fine staff, and our government has thousands of dedicated workers doing the public’s business. That helps a lot.”
“As you see it, sir, what is your job?” John Plumber asked.
“The oath says to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Ryan replied. “We’re working to restore the government. We now have the Senate fully in place, and as the several states get on with their elections, we’ll soon have a new House of Representatives. I’ve got most of the Cabinet posts filled–for HHS and Education, we still have the sitting Deputy Secretaries doing a fine job.”
“We spoke this morning about events in the Persian Gulf. What are the problems there as you see them?” It was Plumber again. Ryan was handling himself well, much more relaxed, and Plumber noted the look in his wife’s eyes. She was smart.
“The United States wants nothing more than peace and stability in that region. We have every wish to establish friendly relations with the new United Islamic Republic. There’s been enough strife there and elsewhere in the world. I’d like to think that we’ve turned the corner on that. We’ve made peace–a real peace, not just the absence of war–with the Russians, after generations of turmoil. I want us to build on that. Maybe the world’s never been fully at peace, but that is no reason why we can’t do it. John, we’ve come a very long way in the past twenty
679
years. There’s a lot more for us to do, but we have a lot of good work to build on.”
“We’ll be back after this break,” Donner told the cameras. He could see that Ryan was pretty pleased with himself. Excellent.
A staffer came in from the back door with water glasses. Everyone had a sip while they waited for the two commercials to run. “You really hate all this, don’t you?” he asked Cathy.
“As long as I can do my work, I can live with almost anything, but I do worry about the kids. After this is over, they have to go back to being normal children, and we didn’t raise them for all this hoopla.” Then everyone was quiet for the rest of the commercial time.
“We’re back on the Oval Office with the President and First Lady. Mr. President,” Donner asked, “what about the changes you are making?”
“Mainly my job isn’t to ‘change,’ Tom, it’s to ‘restore.’ Along the way we will try to do a few things. I’ve tried to select my new Cabinet members with an eye toward making the government function more efficiently. As you know, I’ve been in government service for quite a while, and along the way I’ve seen numerous examples of inefficiency. The citizens out there pay a lot of money in taxes, and we owe it to them to see that the money is spent wisely–and efficiently. So I’ve told my Cabinet officers to examine all of the executive departments with an eye to doing the same work for less cost.”
“A lot of presidents have said that.”
“This one means it,” Ryan said seriously.
“But your first major policy act has been to attack the tax system,” Donner observed.
“Not ‘attack,’ Tom. ‘Change.’ George Winston has my full support. The tax code we have now is totally unfair–and I mean unfair in many ways. People can’t understand it, for one. That means that they have to hire people to explain the tax system to them, and it’s hard to see how it makes sense for people to pay good money for people to explain how the law takes more of their money away–especially when the government writes the laws. Why make
680
laws that the people can’t understand? Why make laws that are so complicated?” Ryan asked.
“But along the way, your administration’s goal is to make the tax system regressive, not progressive.”
“We’ve been over that,” the President replied, and Donner knew he had him then. It was one of Ryan’s more obvious weaknesses that he didn’t like repeating himself. He really was not a politician. They loved to repeat themselves. “Charging everyone the same amount is just as fair as anything can be. Doing so in a way that everyone can understand will actually save money for people. Our proposed tax changes will be revenue-neutral. Nobody’s getting any special breaks.”
“But the tax rates for the rich will fall dramatically.”
“That’s true, but we’ll also eliminate all the breaks that their lobbyists have written into the system. They’ll actually end up paying the same, or more probably, a little more than they already do. Secretary Winston has studied that very carefully, and I concur in his judgment.”
“Sir, it’s hard to see how a thirty percent rate reduction will make them pay more. That’s fourth-grade arithmetic.”
“Ask your accountant.” Ryan smiled. “Or for that matter, look at your own tax returns, if you can figure them out. You know, Tom, I used to be an accountant–I passed the exam before I went into the Marine Corps– and / can’t even figure the darned things out. The government does not serve the public interest by doing things that the people can’t understand. There’s been too much of that. I’m going to try to dial it back a bit.”