I just picked up O'Neill's book, The Price of Loyalty

I have ony just atarted reading it, and am doing some fact checking. I find that I am fact checking the Treasury Secretary to be fun and novel - no pun intended.

What makes it especially tasty is this quote from an anonymous White House administration aide: "The president "is not a fact-checker"'. This was uttered in an attempt to explain away how the Niger yellowcake ended up in his SOTU address of 2003.

Here I am, a nobody, writing in a weblog checking my material before I post it. The irony is delicious.

O'Neill makes an accusation that Bush used mis-leading financial information in a speech to a joint session of Congress.

I don't know if Bush actually knew this, but O'neill claims that has did. As I went through the address to Congress, virtually every item that touches on fiscal policy was known to be garbage according to O'Neill.

The reason I picked up the book was because of this post by NYT's Op-Ed columnist, Nicholas Kristof.

Kristof dug into the speech of 27, February 2001 and noted the following errors that O'Neill illustrates in the book:

• My budget has funded a responsible increase in our ongoing operations. It has funded our nation's important priorities. It has protected Social Security and Medicare. And our surpluses are big enough that there is still money left over.



• Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national debt. I listened, and I agree. (Applause.) We owe it to our children and grandchildren to act now, and I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. (Applause.) At the end of those 10 years, we will have paid down all the debt that is available to retire. (Applause.) That is more debt, repaid more quickly than has ever been repaid by any nation at any time in history. (Applause.)



• We should also prepare for the unexpected, for the uncertainties of the future. We should approach our nation's budget as any prudent family would, with a contingency fund for emergencies or additional spending needs. For example, after a strategic review, we may need to increase defense spending. We may need to increase spending for our farmers or additional money to reform Medicare. And so, my budget sets aside almost a trillion dollars over 10 years for additional needs. That is one trillion additional reasons you can feel comfortable supporting this budget. (Applause.)



• We have increased our budget at a responsible 4 percent. We have funded our priorities. We paid down all the available debt. We have prepared for contingencies. And we still have money left over.

It all checks out. I found the transcript here.

I have already found many other 'inconsistencies' between Bush's fiscal rhetoric and reality. I need to give the book a thorough read or two. I'll follow this up with a much more complete picture in the near future. Kristof just touched the surface here.

If you're a Bush loyalist, I strongly recommend that you read the book. It hasn't struck me a shrill attempt at retribution whatever. It seems a good, solid read. If you're a Bush detractor, it will only serve to reinforce that belief.