Who Snatched Paul O'Neill?
I've read a few accounts of W's risible "forum" on Reaganomics, and I find William�Saletan's to be the best of the bunch. Two highlights from it:

1. "Two of the participants who spoke onstage at the plenary session declared that they were "real people" and "regular folks." Both were heads of companies."
2. "Like plantation owners, the employers on hand spoke for their employees. "They are so happy to have jobs," one CEO told Bush."

Another good account comes from the Wash. Post in which Jonathan Weisman
notes that when Clinton held his forum in 1992, Paul O'Neill had some different comments.

• O'Neill 1992: "I think if these kinds of things are done again, it would be good to structure some sharp elbows, so that there's more heat of battle and conflict."
• O'Neill 2002: "We heard a lot of really challenging ideas today[.] We had several people in my session tell us that not only should we make the tax cuts permanent, but we ought to accelerate the ones that are delayed."

You'd think O'Neill was being paid by companies to say this. I mean, being paid more than he used to be. Yet, as CEO (holding far more money and prestige than he does now) of Alcoa, he "stood up at a presidential economic forum to challenge his leaders to raise gas taxes, be bold, even risk reelection on a new economic vision." (Quoting from Post article.) My suspicion is that someone in the administration told O'Neill to be a nice boy this time or Rumsfeld was going to send in the special ops to rough him up a bit.


- posted by levinson @ 8/14/2002 10:22:00 AM