President Joe Biden is not showing the kind of leadership we need: Fmr. Time Warner CEO Parsons

Well, a couple of things happened. Number one, Afghanistan. I think that the president took a hit on that. My own view was that he did the right thing but in a terribly unthoughtful way, and that played out across the country. People who had been in the service, people who had relatives in the service, people who had any exposure to any of that, or who thought about the place of the United States in the world from the point of view of being a solid partner, were all disappointed in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan because it just wasn't thoughtful. So I think that he took a hit there. And then secondly, while you said it, he's not showing leadership. I didn't quite say that. I don't think he's showing the kind of leadership that we need and hope for. He's a very nice guy. I think he's headed in the right direction, but I think that he's letting some of these parts of his program be carried by Nancy Pelosi, for example, who is showing some leadership, and others, and not really getting in there and punching it up with the guys and getting done what he said he wanted to get done.

Well, as I said, I think people... well, first of all, clearly there's a divide in the country in terms of which direction we should be moving in. And he is moving in the direction that he articulated when he ran for office and took office, of trying to do something to create a broader safety net, a stronger safety net. The way I look at it is to do something about the growing divide between have and have-not, between income inequality. I think that's all good. But the force with which we're moving in that direction is not, I don't think, what it needs to be coming from the White House. And I think that the elections we just had were a result of, to some extent, those who are sort of not in the president's camp being more forceful and more compelling in terms of their arguments than the forces that are supporting it.

I don't know that Kevin McCarthy is... well, certainly both. Kevin is obviously to the right of Joe, but I don't know that he's shown that he's a particularly deft leader either. I mean, he's more lots of noise. I mentioned Manchin's in a very interesting position, I must say. I think politicians live for this moment. And who's got a collar on him? Who's sort of helping him come back into the fold and sort of working through in politics? And I think, to put it bluntly, I think our leadership needs a little bit of injection of LBJ. You know, how do you get things done? How do you work with people who want to stake out a position and leverage their own standing in a way that frustrates getting things done? This is a tough game, and I don't know that we have... this is where the B-minus comes in. I don't know we have the toughest players out there trying to help the president or the president helping himself.

You know, this is a tough one for me. There is no such thing as perfect legislation. I think that certainly the infrastructure bill, we talked about it last time, and frankly, most sensible people who've looked at this for a while think it's a good thing. The infrastructure bill you're talking about? Yes, so that's the first trillion-dollar thing we had to deal with within the last several weeks. And I actually think, even though the Congressional Budget Office says that it's going to result in, let's call it, a quarter of a trillion to 300 billion deficit over 10 years, I think that might prove to be unfounded because I think doing something about the crumbling infrastructure in this country is actually going to lead to more productivity than people think. And so that's a good thing. Now, this next bill, the Build Back Better, you know, pared-down bill, it's a lot of money, a trillion, 700 billion. It will result over time in an increase in the deficit. That's a bad thing in my judgment. On the other hand, if you look at the big picture, I am for initiatives that shift more money into the pockets and hands of those who are on the bottom part of the pyramid right now. I think that the biggest threat to this country ultimately... well, I think the biggest threat to this country is going to be the continuing erosion of trust in our government. We've got to get that back so the government can govern. Behind that is income inequality. I mean, we're on a path that's not sustainable. We're on a path where the bounty of our society is being split between haves and have-nots in a way that you can't sustain over time. And so, since the Build Back Better bill, as it's now constructed, shifts more of the money to the have-nots, I think it's moving in the right direction. Obviously, there's some pork in there. There always is, things that I couldn't defend if you asked me to, but in general, I think it's a good move.