Institute for Liberty and Community from John McClaughry
Dr. George Ross Fisher
829 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Dear George:
Maybe a year ago you sent me a letter asking about some color stories from within the EOB and suggested that we meet somewhere to surround a few beers in connection with your next book. I am embarrassed, George, that I didn’t reply. The reason was that I really had no idea of what kind of EOB stories you might have had in mind, and at the time I had no idea when I might next venture out to what some people laughingly call the civilized world. So I did the logical thing. I set your letter aside.
On the first point, you might want to look at Dave Stockman’s hype up the new book, which doubtless contains numerous EOB stories. Another source of internal expose is Paul Craig Roberts, THE SUPPLY SIDE REVOLUTION: ACCOUNT OF POLICY MAKING IN WASHINGTON (Harvard, 1984), which is Craig’s account of economic policy battles within the Regan administration. It gives a real flavor of the chronic paranoia one must live with: identifying all real and prospective enemies and allies, manipulating the media, covering one’s ass with a paper trail, etc. Depressing stuff, really.
On the second, I rarely emerge these days. I only venture out when somebody pays. I’m on a Presidential Task Force at the moment, but thanks to seeing dimwitted drafting work by its creator, it has no money for paying member’s expensive, so to hell with it. Working for free is one thing, but paying my own way down there to work for free is beyond the pale.
I am tentatively planning to be in Philadelphia on September 20-21, and if nothing goes wrong perhaps we could meet them. Hope the book is going well despite the absence of any help from me.
Yours truly
John McClaughry
Originally published: Thursday, July 06, 2017; most-recently modified: Thursday, May 23, 2019