"Deficits don't matter". You know who said this during the Bush

[goodnews]

years?

It was Dick Cheney when then Sect of Treasury Paul O'Neil confronted him with the likely costs of the Iraq War. O'Neill of course was later "retired". This is in a book by O'Neill called "The Price of Loyalty".

It might make a good chant at a protest against the Repukees deficit hawkishness.

"Deficits didn't matter then, why do they matter now?" repeat

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I like how you think!

Welcome to DU and all the discussions!

:hi:

[goodnews]

4. Thank you. I've enjoyed your take on things too.

:toast:

[cascadiance]

2. I was trying to find a nice short youtube or audio clip of this the other day...

Is there one out there, or have the kochsters scrubbed that off the web too?

[goodnews]

8. If you find one please post it. I'd like to fire it off to Cenk or Maddow

or someone else with an interest.

[goodnews]

3. Wow! I just dug around some and found there is more to it!

Cheney to Treasury: "Deficits don't matter"
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was told "deficits don't matter" when he warned of a looming fiscal crisis.
O'Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush's economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from "the corporate crowd," a key constituency.

O'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: "We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due." A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.

The vice president's office had no immediate comment, but John Snow, who replaced O'Neill, insisted that deficits "do matter" to the administration.

Source: Adam Entous, Reuters, on AOL News Jan 11, 2004

[notesdev]

5. So we're Cheneyites now?

I mean, the war support around here is disgusting enough, now we're looking to Cheney for guidance?

Did I click a wrong link and end up at fascism.com?

[goodnews]

6. You can't be serious.

[notesdev]

9. I really am starting to wonder

Maybe I'm just suffering from Libya whiplash?

At this point I just don't know what to expect anymore, except the predictable bandwagon-following.

[spanone]

7. the republicans act like they've never heard of cheney when it comes to that statement

[malaise]

19. We should have Rachel ask Paul Ryan why he remained

silent after Cheney's comment

:hi:

[goodnews]

20. That could be done on this and so many other questions where

the Republicans are silent or evasive. These pukees are like kids who were never held to account for their actions.

[goodnews]

10. The repukes really don't believe deficits matter or raising the

debt ceiling is a big deal. Below was posted here at DU recently. The Bold print is the title of the post. The repukes need to be confronted with this on the floor of Congress and everywhere they start their fearmongering on the issue.

During Bush Presidency, Current GOP Leaders Voted 19 Times To Increase Debt Limit By $4 Trillion
Source: Think Progress

After pushing the government to brink of shutdown last week, Republican Congressional leaders are now preparing to push America to the edge of default by refusing to increase the nation’s debt limit without first getting Democrats to concede to large spending cuts.

But while the four Republicans in Congressional leadership positions are attempting to hold the increase hostage now, they combined to vote for a debt limit increase 19 times during the presidency of George W. Bush. In doing so, they increased the debt limit by nearly $4 trillion.

At the beginning of the Bush presidency, the United States debt limit was $5.95 trillion. Despite promises that he would pay off the debt in 10 years, Bush increased the debt to $9.815 trillion by the end of his term, with plenty of help from the four Republicans currently holding Congressional leadership positions: Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl. ThinkProgress compiled a breakdown of the five debt limit increases that took place during the Bush presidency and how the four Republican leaders voted:


June 2002: Congress approves a $450 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $6.4 trillion. McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor vote “yea”, Kyl votes “nay.”

May 2003: Congress approves a $900 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $7.384 trillion. All four approve.

November 2004: Congress approves an $800 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.1 trillion. All four approve.

March 2006: Congress approves a $781 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.965 trillion. All four approve.

September 2007: Congress approves an $850 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $9.815 trillion. All four approve.


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/14/republican-leaders-... /


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And Ryan says Obama is too partisan.

[progressoid]

11. What he meant was that deficits don't matter for a Republican President.

[JackRiddler]

12. As soon as they're back in power and starting the next big war they will say it again.

And remember, it they return to power it will be because, first under Clinton and then again under Obama, very nearly the same mobster crew was allowed to walk away and prosper, rewarded for their crimes of war and plunder, to prepare for a return.

[goodnews]

17. I hear you on that. Sometimes I think politics in the US is just

a big extortion racket. Remember during the election 08 campaign when Obama's plane had a mid-air "glitch" that forced it to land? It just happens to much to democrats.

[underpants]

13. Great book."Hey Andy go fetch us some cheeseburgers or something"

[goodnews]

18. Was that Andy Card? I vaguely remember this.

:hi:

[underpants]

21. Yes Paul O'Neill's first meeting with W and Dick in a darkened hotel conference room

In a Northern Virginia hotel the Bush transition team was set up. O'Neill is invited for the first meeting knowing that he would be asked to take a cabinet position probably Treasury. He enters the room and as his eyes adjust to the darkness (curtains were shut) he sees Dick Cheney and then detects something else in the room, it is W basically hiding behind Dick only popping his head up from time to time over Dick's shoulder.

They sit down at a table and W starts acting like himself. He summons Andy Card and says "Hey Andy go fetch us some cheeseburgers or something". Card basically bows out of the room and scurries off like a minion.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. kick.. I remember when repubs were saying the deficit wasn't a big deal.

[crickets]

15. K&R

[mmonk]

16. Yep. Posted that quote a day or two ago.

No response. Shows that all we are going through is ideology, not fiscal concerns.