O'Neill Says Bush Was Set on Cutting Taxes, Too

[Khephra]

IF there is a phrase that summarizes Paul H. O'Neill's view of the White House during his two years as President Bush's first Treasury secretary, it is his apparent remark that cabinet debates were exercises in "incestuous amplification."

The comment is made in "The Price of Loyalty,'' a new book by Ron Suskind about Mr. O'Neill's tumultuous tenure before being fired in December 2002. Rather than encouraging policy debates, Mr. O'Neill contended that big decisions were made with almost no discussion and even less debate.

Mr. O'Neill has provoked a political firestorm with his contention that President Bush tilted toward war with Iraq almost as soon as he took office; the administration has vigorously denied that. But the former Treasury secretary described a similar pattern in Mr. Bush's push to cut taxes by at least $1.7 trillion over 10 years.

Mr. O'Neill was openly skeptical about the need for big tax cuts and expressed concern about frittering away what were then huge budget surpluses.

more.........

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/18/business/yourmoney/18view.html

[rusty charly]

1. but the PNAC people had been waiting for 8 years

to enact their devious plots. there was nothing to discuss because it had been all decided.

[RUexperienced]

2. * campaigned on a tax cut.

What am I missing here?

It's like saying, "Gore wanted to protect drinking water from day one!"

So what's the big surprise?

[salin]

4. I believe it is clarification from the tone left

from another comment from this book - where Bush allegedly asks why he is going after another tax cut (didn't we already give rich people a tax cut?) - and Rove allegedly keeps staying a mantra in his ear "stick to principle... stick to principle"

This report - based on the same book - appears to be clarifying that bush wasn't really suggesting that he was second guessing a second (and later, third) round of tax cuts...

Then again - we already knew that.

What is interesting is the question - who is pushing the clarification story because the tone of the first leak (that has been circulated innumerous times in different stories in the past week) made look appear.. well.. rational (or compassionate?!). Is it from conservatives who don't want the appearance of waivering? Is it from liberals who want to emphasize that this was always what bush was about?

[LoneStarLiberal]

3. That's What Republicans Do...Cut Taxes And Starve Govn.

While I could see there being some level of surprise in Bush's being so immediately gung-ho to get Saddam so soon after an election that featured many paens to the joys of nonintervention and anti-nation building, I can't say this one is any big shock.

That a Republican President would want to cut taxes is about as big a restatement of the obvious as saying summer in Texas is hot.

Now the degree to which he cut them...

[Cocoa]

5. this book has legs

what awful timing for Bush. No one's going to believe a word in his SOTU, everyone is going to be imagine all his words coming straight from Rove, wondering if Bush even understands them.

[fshrink]

6. As I said before

the individual made a priority of pushing all the aspects on which his father had been criticized. Read my lips ---> taxcuts. We're not going to Baghdad ----> We're going to Baghdad. Etc... No matter what, how or why. This is, as usual with this family of plunderers, a simple matter of personal vendetta. In fact, the whole country has become personal property. Which represents the achievement of the American dream.

[Guaranteed]

7. Well just rip away that small amount of respect I had

for Bush after hearing that he had said that!

[cthrumatrix]

8. read the book - it's not about the first ax cut -- it's the 2nd cut when

there was concern for plugging the holes in soc sec...and the future deficit with the proposed 2nd tax cut .

with shrub it about politics and gettign re-elected...adn he basically screws our country with massive deficits that WE will pay for...O'Neill was the repsonsible one.

Shrub looks extremely bad with this book -- read it --you will see.

[young_at_heart]

9. Robert Novak calls O'Neill a "loose cannon"

Our paper had his column yesterdday and after reading it, I thought.....this is what they are going to use as an "excuse". He's a loose cannon, or he's crazy so don't bother to read a thing O'Neill has to say. I hope people will not read Novak!

[ignatius]

10. He has a lot of nerve calling anyone a loose cannon after outing

a CIA operative. Nothing will ever convince me that he didn't know Plame was an operative, his "performance" on Meet the Press was sickening..you could tell he was lying..he is this administration's biggest media whore and if he had any kind of conscience at all, would be ashamed to show his miserable face in public.

Hi Kef, hope all is well with you and that this New Year brings a change to our nation and the world from hate and destruction to peace and understanding.

[leesa]

11. Well, thank goodness Novak has never been a "loose cannon"

and outed an undercover agent or anything like that! Imagine the outrage by conservatives if Novak had ever done anything like that!

[cthrumatrix]

12. I would call him a cannon of "truth"....be afraid Novak