Reaction Of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
To Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s Resignation
At The Prompting Of The White House
Fri., Dec. 6, 2002

“Secretary O’Neill is not the problem, the Administration’s policies are.  In fact he has often been a constructive influence.  Delaying this step until after the elections is cynical enough, but it will be worse if the White House tries to cast him as the emblem of what’s wrong with the economy.  If they do that, they will be misleading the American people and ignoring the things that really are holding the economy back.

“The White House’s economic agenda has been a policy of squander.  They have squandered the surpluses and turned them into deficits.  They have squandered the public’s trust in corporate accountability and in the markets, and they have squandered the opportunities to use the surpluses to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security and homeland defense.”

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