Paul O’neill, 84: Ex-treasury secretary was controversial
Paul O’neill, a former Treasury secretary who broke with George W. Bush over tax policy and then produced a book critical of the administration, died Saturday. He was 84.
O’neill’s son, Paul O’neill Jr. confirmed that his father died at his home in Pittsburgh after battling lung cancer for the last couple of years. After a few surgeries and chemotherapy, he decided against any further intervention four or five months ago, he said.
“There was some family here and he died peacefully,” the son said. “Based on his situation, it was a good exit.”
A former head of aluminum giant Alcoa, O’neill served as Treasury secretary from 2001 to late 2002. He was forced to resign after he objected to a second round of tax cuts because of their impact on deficits.
O’neill’s blunt speaking style more than once got him in trouble as Treasury secretary. He sent the dollar into a tailspin briefly in his early days at Treasury when his comments about foreign exchange rates surprised markets. In the spring of 2001,
O’neill jolted markets again when during Wall Street’s worst week in 11 years, he blandly declared “markets go up and markets go down.”
He was more focused on the traditional Treasury secretary’s job of instilling confidence during times of turbulence later that year when he helped get Wall Street reopened after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. O’neill was also instrumental following the attacks in beefing up the government’s programs to disrupt financing to terrorist groups.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday on Twitter, “Saddened to hear of the passing of the former 72nd Treasury Secretary, Paul O’neill. He served @Ustreasury and America with distinction during challenging times. My condolences to his family.”
Tony Fratto, who served as O’neill’s Treasury spokesman, described O’neill as a “working class guy” who “cared about how things impacted real people.”
Fratto, currently a partner with Hamilton Place Strategies in Washington, said that one of O’neill’s passions was workplace safety, and that he would tour the Treasury building looking for safety issues that needed to be fixed.
After leaving the administration, O’neill worked with author Ron Suskind on an explosive book covering his two years in the administration. O’neill contended that the administration began planning the overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein right after Bush took office, eight months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
O’neill depicted Bush as a disengaged president who didn’t encourage debate either at Cabinet meetings or in oneon-one discussions with Cabinet members. He said the lack of discussion in Cabinet meetings gave him the feeling that Bush “was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people.”
He said major decisions were often made by Bush’s political team and Vice President Dick Cheney. O’neill had been recruited to join the Cabinet by Cheney, his old friend from the Gerald Ford administration.
But it was Cheney who told O’neill that the president wanted his resignation. It was part of a move by Bush to shake up his economic team and find a better salesman for a new round of tax cuts the president hoped would stimulate a sluggish economy.