Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill Calls George W. Bush a Liar on Bloomberg

I haven’t seen a lot of press on these statements by Paul O’Neill on Bloomberg but they are significant. In essence, O’Neill said that he told George W. Bush not to cut taxes in 2001. Bush went ahead and cut taxes anyway – twice. And he added an unfunded Medicare prescription giveaway while overseeing two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now Bush is acting like O’Neill never said anything about the tax cuts. In Bush’s book "Decision Points", he claims never to have spoken to O’Neill about the matter. These are not the only problems with Bush’s book. O’Neil was fired, leaving the Administration at the end of 2002.

As for the present deficits and debt, O’Neill believes the day of reckoning is coming. See his comments in the video below. Note that while O’Neill compares the U.S. to Greece, Greece does not have a sovereign monetary policy which makes it vulnerable to liquidity crises in a way the U.S. is not.