Epstein Secrets

administration already girded for combat. How depressing to look back on those days and see not just the obvious -- Douglas Feith, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice; those who promised America would be "greeted as liberators" (Cheney), and who threatened nuclear "mushroom clouds" (Rice) if acti

not just the obvious -- Douglas Feith, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice; those who promised America would be "greeted as liberators" (Cheney), and who threatened nuclear "mushroom clouds" (Rice) if action didn't come imminently. But there also were still-popular and prominent figures who

because taxes are too low. US corporate taxes is the lowest in the industrialized world — corporate taxes are expected to raise just 1.3 percent of G.D.P. this year, about a third of what it was in the 1950s. American taxes (all levels) are 26.9% of the country's GDP in comparison to Canada 32.2%, Ger

hite House away from the radicalism of the first four years. During the 2004 campaign, Bush came close to jettisoning the two people—Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld—most associated with extreme views of how to handle post-9/11 foreign affairs. After the election, Cheney sa

ck Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld—most associated with extreme views of how to handle post-9/11 foreign affairs. After the election, Cheney saw the influence of his principal ideological opponents—Stephen Hadley, the new national-security adviser, and Condoleezza Rice, the new Secretary

precipitate drop in government spending would equal an economic contraction of more than five hundred billion dollars, more than three per cent of G.D.P. The impact could send a fragile economy back into a recession. "It's two to three times bigger in negative terms than even the biggest year of the

that deficits didn't matter, and during the Bush/Cheney Administration there was almost universal silenc

nding we'll turn into Greece any day now. After all, haven't economists proved that economic growth collapses once public debt exceeds 90 percent of G.D.P.? Well, the famous red line on debt, it turns out, was an artifact of dubious statistics, reinforced by bad arithmetic. And America isn't and can't

if you are not going to use it.' Smart diplomacy will always win over stupid wars.... Obviously, Mitt Romney doesn't understand this.... As the Bush/Cheney gun-boat diplomacy was an unmitigated failure. But to counter the negatives of the "two war" strategy his campaign argues: "If we are engaged in a m

.75 percent in 2050, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. By comparison, spending in this category has exceeded 8 percent of G.D.P. in every year since World War II. Spending for defense alone has not been lower than 3 percent of G.D.P. in any year during that period. Applying t