2030_ The Real Story of What Happens to America - Albert Brooks [74]
Susanna thought, and the President agreed, that there should be a high-level meeting as soon as possible to discuss further lending. Susanna said there was no reason to borrow all of it. A few trillion would jump-start a real plan to rebuild, and when that was spent they could ask for more.
So the new secretary planned to go to Beijing to meet her counterpart and suggest a three-trillion-dollar emergency loan, specifically for Los Angeles. She would use all of her charm and everything else she could muster to try to get the most favorable terms possible. She would be accompanied by a slew of undersecretaries, but she would be the most senior cabinet member on the trip.
When the meeting was over and people were filing out, the President asked to talk to her alone. “Do you feel confident in this? Is it too soon?”
“No,” she said. “I expected this when I took the job. I have been preparing.”
“Have you used the Nextron before?”
“Yes. I love it. I was going to invest in it as a startup.”
“Great. This will be hugely important. Obviously the better the terms you can negotiate, the more it will help us down the line, since we’ll be coming back to this trough often.”
“I know. I believe I will have success there.”
Then the President, for some reason he didn’t fully understand, blurted out a question that had no relevance to the topic. “Are either of your parents alive?” Susanna took a moment to change gears, but answered as if it were part of the discussion.
“My mother died at ninety but my father is still living. He’s ninety- eight.”
“That’s wonderful. How is he?”
“He’s well. He had some problems with digestion, went on a feeding tube for a while, but it’s out now and he walks every day and still communicates his thoughts through a talk blog. He’s got a lot of opinions.”
The President smiled. “Does he have a DNR?”
Susanna looked at him for a second without answering. The President thought she didn’t know what the initials stood for so he started to tell her. “A do-not—”
“No, sir, I know what it is. The fact is, I don’t know the answer. I know his wishes are for no excessive intervention. He certainly feels that if he is unconscious for any length of time he doesn’t want to be machined, that’s for sure.”
“Trust me, Susanna, you should make sure it’s written down. Do it before you go to China. It’s quite something how people avoid putting that in writing. It’s as if they don’t do it, it will never happen.”
Susanna knew exactly what was on the President’s mind. “Your mother has nothing like that?”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“When I get back from China, Mr. President, maybe you would take me to see her.”
“You want to see her? Why?”
“I would like to see what you’re dealing with. I know it’s on your mind.”
Bernstein stood there. Look at this woman. Look at my new employee. A mother, a shrink, and hopefully the best Treasury secretary the country has ever seen. And even if she wasn’t, the first two were enough.
* * *
The next meeting of the—well, they really hadn’t given it a name yet—was going to be held at Kathy Bernard’s house. The house her father left her. The house still had a mortgage of half a million and that, plus the medical loan, put Kathy in the red for almost a million dollars. And she had no job. Her father did have a little money squirreled away, but all it would do was assist her in paying off the debts for a few months longer. Max wanted to help her. “I have the money,” he said. “Let me at least pay off some of the medical.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“I’m in love with you, you know that, but it’s too soon to feel indebted.”
“You wouldn’t be indebted. I have the money; it’s what I want to do with it.”
“Let me just take the offer to heart and feel good about that. I don’t want you to do this right now. Maybe