O'Neill: Bush Doesn't Get Financial Crisis, 'It Shows'

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: ABC News

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said today that our nation's leaders -- especially President Bush -- are "in a panic" and haven't thought through the $700 billion bailout plan in a rush to pass it by the end of the week.

"I don't think he understands or knows much about any of this and it shows," O'Neill said, adding that current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "knows a lot of about this, and it's good that he's there."

O'Neill, who served as Bush's first treasury secretary until being fired over diverging views with the president about tax cuts and other issues, didn't have favorable things to say about the economic policies of either presidential candidate, Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain.

"I think most of what has been said by both campaigns about economic stuff is ill-informed and ill-advised," he said. Asked for specific problems, O'Neill said: "Everything."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5887486

[maxsolomon]

1. you know what?

STFU, O'Neill. this is in your lap, too.

[ribrepin]

2. Uh, they canned O'Neill because he wasn't sufficiently on board

with the tax cuts. O'Neill was one of the first casualties of the Bush administration.

[Kolesar]

4. O'Neill was pissed because liar bush reversed on climate protection also...eom

[Stuckinthebush]

8. Actually, I believe that he told them to f-off

and that's why he went away. I think O'Neill has some good points in this article and I'm glad Obama asked his advice.

[Kolesar]

3. Former Treasury Secretary Critical Of Bailout Plan - KDKA news

Former Treasury Secretary Critical Of Bailout Plan
NORTH SHORE (KDKA) ― Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has been phoning his friends in Washington from his office on the North Shore.

His message to them: Stay out of the mortgage business.

"I think the administration is in such a panic, that they have a closed mind, they're not entertaining new ideas. They're just hellbent to get their's enacted," he said.

O'Neill says the government should just guarantee the bad mortgages, not buy them. Instead, he says, taxpayers will end up owning $700 billion in homes.

O'Neill says Pittsburghers should be worried about the bailout because he fears in the long run, everyone will pay a steep price for the deal.

"I really worry a lot about having to tell people in 10 years or so, 'Sorry, but we can't pay the benefits you thought you were going to get under Social Security or Medicare,'" he said.

O'Neill was highly critical of President Bush, the man he once served as treasury secretary. And he says the two presidential candidates have failed to take a stand on the bailout proposal.

He says Barack Obama and John McCain are too worried about offending voters.

http://kdka.com/politics/Treasury.secretary.bailout.2.825927.html

[wordpix]

5. see? Even O'Neill gets it that BushCo couldn't care less about Soc. Sec. & Medicare being ruined

In fact, the repukes have made it known for many years they don't like these "entitlements" that we working people have paid for for years. Good way to get rid of them---put US taxpayers in a bigger hole while the richies run off to their tropical islands after the bailout.

[Javaman]

6. My dad had an expression, "a mechanic is only good as his tools".

moron* has really bad tools.

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. I think the same applies to McCain, and it shows