The Presidency

By Hugh Sidey

This time it was different. The majesty of the White House, the Marine sentries, the presidential panoply--none of it overwhelmed the audience as it had only a couple of years before. These were a dozen of the nation's top businessmen, and they were worried as they pulled up chairs in the Roosevelt Room with Ronald Reagan, incoming Chief of Staff Donald Regan and their inner circle.

Robert Beck, chairman of both the Prudential Insurance Co. of America and the Business Roundtable, was polite but very plainspoken. Businessmen were frightened by the deficits. They had all concluded there was no chance the U.S. was going to grow its way out of those huge shortfalls. Their priorities for this year, from one through ten, were all the same: do something about the deficits.

Beck looked to his left down the polished table at an attentive Reagan and made the most impassioned plea he has ever made in any of his White House trips. "You are such a great communicator, Mr. President," he said. "If you put together a package that is fair to everybody, the American people will buy it. Your leadership is demanded." Reagan nodded silently, neither yes nor no. His audience filed out.

They left the White House, however, determined to carry on the campaign. Reagan, they feel, must agree to defense cuts and take the lead in restraining the huge increases in Social Security and health-care costs. Otherwise, little if anything will get done. The Roundtable has launched a million-dollar effort to rally public support. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce exhorted its members last week to keep the pressure on the Government to cut spending. And when the Republican Senate leadership went to the White House last Friday, the Senators added their weight to the growing pressure for help from the Oval Office.

Does Reagan feel it? Maybe, but maybe not. His style of passive leadership perplexes corporate heads and scholars who fancy the way Teddy Roosevelt bounded and blustered his way to success. Reagan waits. He sets the premise, lets the arguments rage, the crisis rise. Often, extraneous issues do get brushed aside, consensus develops, and Reagan steps in to finish the job--and take credit. The technique has worked on tax cuts, NATO missiles and arms control, and may with the MX. Indeed, Reagan fervently believes that his budget as proposed is a package that should be acceptable to Congress.

But can Reagan sweat his way to success this time? Even the best of leaders may try his magic once too often. A lot of people in Washington think Reagan must make another move on the deficits soon or risk a political gridlock of serious proportions. Lobbyist Charls Walker casts his practiced eyes out over the country and sees "increasing economic pain" in autos, steel, textiles, agriculture, chemicals and oil. "This thing could turn quickly," Walker counsels his clients. "Economic euphoria could vanish. This is not an issue that will wait for a solution. This needs presidential leadership."

Some of Reagan's own Cabinet officers have quietly urged business acquaintances to turn up the heat on the President. Reagan friends have suggested a Camp David summit on the deficits, with Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole and House Speaker Tip O'Neill. The President smiles and waits.

In fact, he has gained a little ground. Word is spreading that some of the perennial complainers, like farmers and retired people, are willing to take their lumps if groups such as corporations and universities take theirs. But they also want Reagan to cut defense and get a bit more revenue out of the wealthy. The contenders creep a little closer together.

Reagan's momentary reaction to all this may have come when a Senate Republican leader asked how Reagan stayed so vigorous. The President told the story of two psychiatrists. "How do you look so young year in year out listening to your patients' depressing problems?" the younger wanted to know. "Listen?" asked the older. "You mean we're supposed to listen?"