The challenge of keeping political promises
Scott describes "the way politics often works": politicians make promises, then have to find a way to pay for them. He briefly reflects on the kinds of obstacles that might prevent a politician from meeting their commitments.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Robert W. (Bob) Scott, February 4, 1998. Interview C-0336-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACK FLEER:
-
When you talk about those issues having come into some prominence when
you were talking with educators, or when you were talking with highway
contractors, did you at that time, in a sense, commit yourself to
proposing those taxes, or were they just options that you raised,
or—?
- ROBERT W. (BOB) SCOTT:
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We didn't talk about how we were going to pay for it. That
came later, and that's the way politics often works: you make
a commitment, and you have to figure out how you're going to
meet it. I have a theory about that, about government in general, and I
have a little talk I make occasionally, about misconceptions about the
office of governor and the powers of the governor. One is that
candidates get out and campaign on issues, and in the heat of the
campaign they say, "I'm going to do this",
"I'm going to do that", and so forth, and
then if they get elected, all of a sudden they got to deliver, and they
haven't really thought about where's the money
going to come from to do that. And they are, sometimes, I think, in
their first term at least, they are surprised by
the limitations, the obstacles the governor has. There are legal
limitations, of course; there are limitations of tradition; there are
limitations of public opinion, some things you just don't do,
and so on.
So, no—all I was thinking about, what would be a good program,
and what would be some popular issues that people would want? I
didn't worry about paying for it. I didn't even
think about it. But the money's going to have to come from
somewhere. You would think that a person who'd served as
lieutenant governor would know and appreciate those factors. But again,
as Governor Moore said, there's no training ground for
governor. And though I knew the process, there was an awful lot about it
that I didn't know, and I would suggest that's
true today.