Current Events
Paul O'Neill decided to lie in order to cover up. Hence the claim in the document above that the "non-retireable" debt was $1.2 trillion. And then O'Neill hunkered down. When questioned by senators why the Bush administration was saying $1.2 trillion when Gary Gensler said $500 billion, "O'Neill demurred that 'honest people can disagree on the total'.... He hated to do it, he recalled, 'but I decided that contradicting the President on this one was a battle I couldn't afford to fight'."
