The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Suskind Ron

Author:Suskind, Ron [Suskind, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2004-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

THE LAUNCH of the administration’s high-powered, carefully vetted Social Security Commission received little attention. O’Neill blamed the scripted nature of the enterprise that tapped only supporters of private accounts. “Imagine if you had both those for and against,” he said to Michele Davis, who hoped that the rollout of an initiative to change Social Security would generate more heat. “Imagine if it were people who believed in the pure wealth generation of private accounts and others who thought we should just hold tight to the old system. That would have drawn real attention, because it would have been a commission that reflected the reality of where people stand on the issue.”

The problem was also timing, and that, O’Neill was certain, revealed much about the White House’s priorities. Social Security was for later. Now was the time for a historic tax cut. Congress, at this point in mid-May, was deep into negotiations on the tax bill. The final figures started to harden. As O’Neill had predicted to Greenspan, the overall tax proposal was shaved down and the rebate held. The final mix: a $1.35 trillion, ten-year tax cut and an $85 billion immediate, across-the-board rebate.

On May 18, Senators Olympia Snowe and Evan Bayh offered an amendment to this tax package that would “trigger a delay in the scheduled cuts and new spending programs if targets for reducing the nation’s $3 trillion in public debt are not met.” Three days later, the amendment lost in a 50-to-49 vote. It was a last major hurdle.

Throughout the rest of May, the White House’s lobbying of senators was fiercer and angrier than many members of Congress had ever experienced. Vermont senator Jim Jeffords, murmuring he’d been “battered and disrespected” by White House officials, defected from the Republican Party — handing the majority in the Senate back to the Democrats.

The morning of May 22, after the Snowe and Bayh triggers were defeated, Greenspan arrived at the Treasury for breakfast with O’Neill. Their secret trigger pact had come up one vote short.

In both foreign and domestic policy, O’Neill was looking each day at policies and legislation that emerged from one-sided “dialogues” inside the White House — from what his military friends often called “incestuous amplification.”

“We did what we could on conditionality,” O’Neill said with momentary resignation, then mentioned to Greenspan that the Social Security Commission was starting its slow deliberations and that the President’s schedule would lighten for the summer. “The first big battle is over, really. I think we fought well, we made our points vigorously.”

Greenspan said that that wasn’t enough. “Without the triggers, that tax cut is irresponsible fiscal policy,” he said in his deepest funereal tone. “Eventually, I think that will be the consensus view.”

On June 7, the bill, at $1.35 trillion and $85 billion, was signed into law by the President. Cheney said it “was close to what the President wanted.”

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