[DNC Banner]
Although I’ve made no attempt at hiding my political views, in a case of pre-debate jitters, I report an article that appeared in the electronic version of The New Republic. I think it says it all.
Hero Worship
by Noam Scheiber
Post date: 09.30.04
Issue date: 10.11.04
Paul O’Neill probably knew what to expect when he showed up for a White House meeting about tax cuts in November 2002. Nearly two years as Treasury secretary should have taught him that the Bush administration never misses an opportunity to cut taxes for the wealthy. And, in case they hadn’t, Vice President Dick Cheney clarified the White House’s intentions at a meeting earlier in the month. When O’Neill politely suggested to Cheney that a cut in dividend taxes wasn’t necessary, as Ron Suskind reports in The Price of Loyalty, Cheney coldly informed him, “We won the midterms. This is our due.”
Still, not long into the meeting, O’Neill got the impression the president was open to debate on the matter, much to the discomfort of the usual tax-cut proponents, such as Karl Rove, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Lindsey, and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Glenn Hubbard. George W. Bush asked Lindsey, “Won’t the top-rate people benefit the most from eliminating the double taxation of dividends? Didn’t we already give them a break at the top?” To Hubbard’s reply that action was necessary on the supply side of the economy, Bush snapped, “This is about demand. …
read more here