2002: Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill (and former Alcoa head) resigns today. A book on O’Neill by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind, sheds light on today’s resignation. O’Neill was Suskind’s primary source.
In a ‘60 Minutes’ interview Suskind describes a White House meeting discussing yet another round of tax cuts for the wealthy. President Bush, surprisingly, expresses hesitancy. As Suskind describes it, Bush asks: “ ‘Haven’t we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut’s gonna do it again. Didn’t we already, why are we doing it again?’ After a bit Bush comes back to it again, saying ‘Well, shouldn’t we be giving money to the middle...’ “. Suskind continues: “Karl Rove is saying to the president, a kind of mantra. ‘Stick to principle. Stick to principle.’ He says it over and over again. Don’t waver”.
O’Neill’s opposition to more tax cuts for the wealthy gets him in trouble with the VP. Dick Cheney responded to O’Neill’s opposition by saying, “We won the mid-term elections, this is our due”. The tax cuts went through. When O’Neill said that he couldn’t support them in light of the soaring deficit and the expenses of a post-9/11 America, Cheney asked O’Neill to resign.
As for Mr. Cheney’s well-off friends, they got, yet again, what they consider to be their due. America’s kids will get the bill.
“Poverty wants some things; Luxury many things; Avarice all things.” Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1735
Read more at the 2008 Calendar/Day Planner/Stocking Stuffer: http://www.PoorGeorgesAlmanac.com/onThisDate.htm
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