Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : A Jackass, his PAL(indrome), and GOLD -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (147)	1/14/2003 12:21:10 PM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1210

Ex-Treasury Chief Questions Bush Plan Mon Jan 13,12:13 PM ET Add Politics - AP to My Yahoo! PITTSBURGH - Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said the president's plan to eliminate taxes on corporate dividends will do little or nothing to improve the nation's economy. "I would not have done it," he said. Speaking out for the first time since being forced from his post, O'Neill said some of the money from the president's $674 billion tax-cut plan would be better spent to shore up Social Security (news - web sites). But O'Neill credited Bush for fighting terrorism effectively and said the president hasn't gotten enough credit for highlighting education issues. Bush has defended the tax-cut plan against Democratic charges that it favors the rich. Besides eliminating taxes on stock dividends, the 10-year plan would speed up tax rate reductions, increase the child tax credit and accelerate deductions planned for business equipment. O'Neill made his remarks during and after Friday's taping of a public affairs program co-produced by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. The paper reported on O'Neill's remarks in Sunday's edition. O'Neill was ousted last month after angering Bush with public remarks that reflected his lukewarm views toward White House tax-cut policies. Both he and White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey, who also was ousted, were accused by the president's political advisers of failing to communicate the administration's economic policies. The firings were seen as part of a shake-up designed to control political damage from the ailing economy. When asked about his departure Friday, O'Neill said, "I was never angry with the president. I was happy to leave." O'Neill criticized the political and media environment in Washington, which he felt stifled honest discussions about the nation's problems. "It's all about sound bites, deluding the people, pandering to the lowest common denominator," he said. "I didn't adjust (in Washington) and I'm not going to start now." While businesses shed more than 100,000 jobs in December, O'Neill said replacing employment takes time. "The notion that government can actually do something about that in the short term is ridiculous," he said. O'Neill said the current 6 percent unemployment rate is "not bad" because businesses are learning to do more with fewer workers and the nation has to account for the influx of immigrants into the work force. Since returning to Pittsburgh, the former chairman of Alcoa has been working with an alliance of insurers and hospitals trying to make the region's health care system more efficient.