The package of tax proposals, led by the 50 percent cut in the individual tax on dividends, had been all but buried before the midterm elections; it came up infrequently and always in the past tenseùwhat George W. Bush wanted to do but couldn't afford.
But after the Republicans won the midterms, O'Neill could sense a change in the White House, a smugness, a sureness. Now Cheney brought up the tax proposals again, how they would provide stimulus....
OÆNeill jumped in, arguing sharply how the government was ""moving toward a fiscal crisis"" and ""what rising deficits would mean to our economic soundness.""
Cheney cut him off.
ôReagan proved deficits donÆt matter,ö Cheney said.
OÆNeill shook his head, hardly believing that Cheneyùwhom he and Greenspan had known since Dick was a kidùcould say such a thing.
He was speechless. Cheney moved to fill the void. ôWe won the midterms,ö he said. ôThis is our due.ö
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