cheney to o'neill: 'deficits don't matter'

[zimv20]

link (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040111/us_nm/people_oneill_dc&cid=1896&ncid=1480)


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 U.S. 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.


O'Neill also 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.

[IJ Reilly]

Anybody remember David Stockman?

[pseudobrit]

This is an administration of denial. Nothing seems to matter that doesn't involve winning more power over the nation and the world.

Facts don't matter. Pollution doesn't matter. Mad cow doesn't matter. Deficits don't matter. Troop casualties don't matter. Debt doesn't matter. Osama doesn't matter. Unemployment doesn't matter. Trade imbalance doesn't matter. France doesn't matter. Europe doesn't matter. Weak dollar doesn't matter. Corporate scandals don't matter. No WMD in Iraq is immaterial. Before we caught Saddam, he didn't matter either.

What does? Repeated lopsided tax cuts, easing of corporate controls and orange alerts. And a few token right wing core issues like stem cells. And a few odd curveballs like the hydrogen powered car, AIDS in Africa and Martian landings to keep the plebes on their toes.

Reminds me somehow of The Holy Grail.

"I've cut off your arm"

"It's just a scratch!"

"You've ruined the country!"

"It doesn't matter. It'll be okay."

[wwworry]

pseudobrit, it's weird isn't it. I think the public does not care either. I think somehow people have become fearful enough that any questioning of the status quo is just too much to handle. There are even debates on energy conservation. How could anyone be against so beniegn an idea as energy conservation?

"These are good men doing a good job protecting our way of life." HA!

[Desertrat]

Pardon my cynicism, but it seems to me that for both parties, winning the power has become more important than the overall "good health" of the nation.

Once in power, they then run around like a group of the proverbial "Little Dutch Boys", sticking fingers in holes in the dikes.

Damfino. I don't have an answer...

'Rat

[wwworry]

In congress, encumbents are re-elected at a 96% rate. They should give out free tv air-time to people who get enough signatures so as to lessen the effect of mis-leading useless 30 sec. campaign spots. Our government is being sold out to pay for worse than useless tv ads. The tv stations are on airwaves owned by the people. We sell out our government to pay for ads on airwaves we already own.

[McToast]

Wasn't it Mussolini who described Facism as the coming together of the Goverment with Corporate power?

[zimv20]

Originally posted by McToast
Wasn't it Mussolini who described Facism as the coming together of the Goverment with Corporate power?

yes, but he also made the trains run on time