Paul O'Neill
Encyclopedia
Paul Henry O'Neill served as the 72nd United States Secretary of the Treasury
for part of President
George W. Bush's
first term. He was fired in December 2002 for his public disagreement with the administration and became a harsh critic. Prior to his term as Secretary of the Treasury, O'Neill was chairman
and CEO of Pittsburgh-based industrial giant Alcoa
and chairman of the RAND Corporation.
, although his "hometown" and current residence is Pittsburgh
. He met his wife at Anchorage High School in Anchorage, Alaska
, from which they both graduated in 1954. He lived on the military base there with his parents. He received a bachelor's degree
in Economics
from California State University, Fresno
, a degree in economics from Claremont Graduate University
in 1961, and a Master of Public Administration
from Indiana University. O'Neill and his wife Nancy have four children, 12 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren.
He began his public service as a computer systems analyst with the Veterans Administration
, where he served from 1961 to 1966. He joined the United States Office of Management and Budget
in 1967, and was deputy director of OMB from 1974 to 1977.
lost the 1976 election, O'Neill took an executive job at International Paper
in New York City
. He was vice president of the company from 1977 to 1985 and president from 1985 to 1987.
In 1988, he was approached by President George H. W. Bush
to be Secretary of Defense
. O'Neill declined, but recommended Dick Cheney
for the position. Bush then pursued O'Neill to chair an advisory group on education that included Lamar Alexander
, Bill Brock
, and Richard Riley
. Under O'Neill's leadership, the group recommended national standards and unified testing standards.
O'Neill was chairman and CEO of the Pittsburgh industrial giant Alcoa
from 1987 to 1999, and retired as chairman at the end of 2000. His reign was extremely successful, as the company's revenues increased from $1.5 billion in 1987 to $23 billion in 2000 and O'Neill's personal fortune grew to $60 million.
In 1995, O'Neill was made chairman of the RAND Corporation.
O'Neill was also pegged by Mayor Tom Murphy
as a co-leader of Pittsburgh's Riverlife Task Force
, along with the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
at the time, John G. Craig Jr.
In 2005, O'Neill entered closed-door meetings with the Pittsburgh Gambling Task Force to help them reach a "no-endorsement" stance on what casino to recommend. (News from June 1, 2006)
O'Neill is also a member of Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College's Dean's Advisory Council.
Since 2008 he has been a member of the Advisory Board of the W. Edwards Deming Center for Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School
. Within the center he was named co-chair of The Deming Cup
initiative, an excellence award to recognize world leaders who have made outstanding contributions in the area of operational excellence and have fostered the culture of continuous improvement in an organization.
O'Neill was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by George W. Bush
. O'Neill was an outspoken member of the administration, often saying things to the press that went against the administration's party line, and doing unusual things like taking a tour of Africa with singer Bono
.
A report commissioned in 2002 by O'Neill, while he was Treasury Secretary, suggested the United States faced future federal budget deficits of more than US$
500 billion. The report also suggested that sharp tax
increases, massive spending cuts, or both would be unavoidable if the United States were to meet benefit promises to its future generations. The study estimated that closing the budget gap would require the equivalent of an immediate and permanent 66 percent across-the-board income tax
increase. The Bush administration left the findings out of the 2004 annual budget report published in February 2003.
O'Neill's private feuds with Bush's tax cut policies and his push to further investigate alleged al-Qaeda
funding from some American-allied countries, as well as his objection to the invasion of Iraq in the name of the war on terror
— that he considered as nothing but a simple excuse for a war decided long before by neoconservative elements of the first Bush Administration — led to him being fired in 2002 and replaced with John W. Snow
.
The Price of Loyalty
Ron Suskind
interviewed O'Neill extensively about his tenure in the Bush Administration. He was also given access to a large amount of documentation. In 2004 he produced the book The Price of Loyalty, detailing O'Neill's tenure in the Bush Administration. The book describes many of the conflicts that O'Neill had with the Bush administration. For example, O'Neill was a great arguer and discusser of ideas; however when he approached Mr Cheney and attempted to engage in dialog, the Vice President would simply nod his head, and thank him for his ideas. The book also details O'Neills criticisms of some of Bush's economic policies. Bush appears somewhat unquestioning and uncurious, and the war in Iraq was planned from the first National Security Council
meeting, soon after the administration took office, even though Bush had promised not to engage in nation building
during his campaign.
article, he shared a comment on the theory of an inevitable financial "contagion" in global financial markets and the theory that investors at the time would retreat from emerging markets because of their worries that the financial crises in Argentina
and Turkey
may spread to Brazil
and elsewhere. Mr. O'Neill said that this view was a "fashion
" and that "we need to retire that fashion like the hula hoop
." "With a magnifying glass, you couldn't find a connection between Turkey and Argentina, except maybe in people's minds", and that in a well-managed global system, investors would not pull back from loans in emerging markets simply because of such isolated troubles.
In an October 16, 2007 Op Ed published in the New York Times, he wrote of the reluctance among politicians to address comprehensive reform in the U.S. health care system. In the opinion, he suggested, among other things, requiring doctors and hospitals to report medical errors within 24 hours, as well as moving malpractice suits out of the civil courts and into a new, independent body. Health care reform, he argues, cannot continue to progress in a piecemeal fashion. Instead, it must take all aspects of the problem—insurance coverage, medical costs, quality of care and information technology—into simultaneous consideration. In O'Neill's Book, The Price of Loyalty, by Ron Suskind, O'Neill relates discussions with Bush and Cheney regarding Social Security, which Bush wanted to Privatize. O'Neill says that he and Alan Greenspan had agreed to invest $3.6 Trillion of the Clinton $5.9 Trillion surplus into Social Security.That idea was subsequently rejected. http://books.simonandschuster.com/Price-of-Loyalty/Ron-Suskind/9780743255462r
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
for part of President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush's
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
first term. He was fired in December 2002 for his public disagreement with the administration and became a harsh critic. Prior to his term as Secretary of the Treasury, O'Neill was chairman
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
and CEO of Pittsburgh-based industrial giant Alcoa
Alcoa
Alcoa Inc. is the world's third largest producer of aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal. From its operational headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alcoa conducts operations in 31 countries...
and chairman of the RAND Corporation.
Early history
O'Neill was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, although his "hometown" and current residence is Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. He met his wife at Anchorage High School in Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, from which they both graduated in 1954. He lived on the military base there with his parents. He received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
from California State University, Fresno
California State University, Fresno
California State University, Fresno, often referred to as Fresno State University and synonymously known in athletics as Fresno State , is one of the leading campuses of the California State University system, located at the northeast edge of Fresno, California, USA.The campus sits at the foot of...
, a degree in economics from Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
in 1961, and a Master of Public Administration
Master of Public Administration
The Master of Public Administration is a professional post-graduate degree in Public Administration. The MPA program prepares individuals to serve as managers in the executive arm of local, state/provincial, and federal/national government, and increasingly in nongovernmental organization and...
from Indiana University. O'Neill and his wife Nancy have four children, 12 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren.
He began his public service as a computer systems analyst with the Veterans Administration
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...
, where he served from 1961 to 1966. He joined the United States Office of Management and Budget
United States Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget is a Cabinet-level office, and is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States .The current OMB Director is Jacob Lew.-History:...
in 1967, and was deputy director of OMB from 1974 to 1977.
Private sector
After President Gerald FordGerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
lost the 1976 election, O'Neill took an executive job at International Paper
International Paper
International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 59,500 employees, and it is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.-History:...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He was vice president of the company from 1977 to 1985 and president from 1985 to 1987.
In 1988, he was approached by President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
to be Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
. O'Neill declined, but recommended Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
for the position. Bush then pursued O'Neill to chair an advisory group on education that included Lamar Alexander
Lamar Alexander
Andrew Lamar Alexander is the senior United States Senator from Tennessee and Conference Chair of the Republican Party. He was previously the 45th Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987, United States Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993 under President George H. W...
, Bill Brock
Bill Brock
William Emerson "Bill" Brock III is a former Republican United States senator from Tennessee, having served from 1971 to 1977. He is the grandson of William Emerson Brock I, who was a Democratic U.S. senator from Tennessee from 1929 to 1931.-Early life and career:Brock was a native of Chattanooga,...
, and Richard Riley
Richard Riley
Richard Wilson Riley , American politician, was United States Secretary of Education under President Bill Clinton and the 111th Governor of South Carolina. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
. Under O'Neill's leadership, the group recommended national standards and unified testing standards.
O'Neill was chairman and CEO of the Pittsburgh industrial giant Alcoa
Alcoa
Alcoa Inc. is the world's third largest producer of aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal. From its operational headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alcoa conducts operations in 31 countries...
from 1987 to 1999, and retired as chairman at the end of 2000. His reign was extremely successful, as the company's revenues increased from $1.5 billion in 1987 to $23 billion in 2000 and O'Neill's personal fortune grew to $60 million.
In 1995, O'Neill was made chairman of the RAND Corporation.
Community service career
In December 1997, O'Neill together with Karen Wolk Feinstein, President of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, founded the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI). They assembled a wide-ranging coalition of healthcare interests to begin to address the problems of healthcare, as a region. PRHI adapted the principles of the Toyota Production System into the "Perfecting Patient Care" system. Mr. O'Neill became a leader locally and nationally in addressing issues of patient safety and quality in healthcare.O'Neill was also pegged by Mayor Tom Murphy
Tom Murphy (mayor)
Thomas J. "Tom" Murphy, Jr. is a Democratic politician from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From January 1994 until January 2006 he served as mayor of Pittsburgh...
as a co-leader of Pittsburgh's Riverlife Task Force
Riverlife Task Force
Riverlife is a nonprofit public-private partnership established in 2000 to guide and advocate for the redevelopment of the riverfronts of the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the largest riverfront regeneration project in the United States...
, along with the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
at the time, John G. Craig Jr.
In 2005, O'Neill entered closed-door meetings with the Pittsburgh Gambling Task Force to help them reach a "no-endorsement" stance on what casino to recommend. (News from June 1, 2006)
O'Neill is also a member of Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College's Dean's Advisory Council.
Since 2008 he has been a member of the Advisory Board of the W. Edwards Deming Center for Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...
. Within the center he was named co-chair of The Deming Cup
The Deming Cup
The Deming Cup is an annual prize presented by The W. Edwards Deming Center for Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School....
initiative, an excellence award to recognize world leaders who have made outstanding contributions in the area of operational excellence and have fostered the culture of continuous improvement in an organization.
Bush Administration
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. O'Neill was an outspoken member of the administration, often saying things to the press that went against the administration's party line, and doing unusual things like taking a tour of Africa with singer Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
.
A report commissioned in 2002 by O'Neill, while he was Treasury Secretary, suggested the United States faced future federal budget deficits of more than US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
500 billion. The report also suggested that sharp tax
Taxation in the United States
The United States is a federal republic with autonomous state and local governments. Taxes are imposed in the United States at each of these levels. These include taxes on income, property, sales, imports, payroll, estates and gifts, as well as various fees.Taxes are imposed on net income of...
increases, massive spending cuts, or both would be unavoidable if the United States were to meet benefit promises to its future generations. The study estimated that closing the budget gap would require the equivalent of an immediate and permanent 66 percent across-the-board income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
increase. The Bush administration left the findings out of the 2004 annual budget report published in February 2003.
O'Neill's private feuds with Bush's tax cut policies and his push to further investigate alleged al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
funding from some American-allied countries, as well as his objection to the invasion of Iraq in the name of the war on terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
— that he considered as nothing but a simple excuse for a war decided long before by neoconservative elements of the first Bush Administration — led to him being fired in 2002 and replaced with John W. Snow
John W. Snow
| image=John W. Snow.jpg|imagesize = 250px| order=73rd| title=United States Secretary of the Treasury| term_start=February 3, 2003| term_end=June 28, 2006| predecessor=Paul O'Neill| successor=Henry Paulson| birth_date=| birth_place=Toledo, Ohio...
.
The Price of Loyalty
The Price of Loyalty
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill, is a 2004 book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind. The book was the first to provide critical insight into the events that led up to the Iraq War...
Ron Suskind
Ron Suskind
Ron Suskind is a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and best-selling author. He was the senior national affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000 and has published the books A Hope in the Unseen, The Price of Loyalty, The One Percent Doctrine, The Way of the World and...
interviewed O'Neill extensively about his tenure in the Bush Administration. He was also given access to a large amount of documentation. In 2004 he produced the book The Price of Loyalty, detailing O'Neill's tenure in the Bush Administration. The book describes many of the conflicts that O'Neill had with the Bush administration. For example, O'Neill was a great arguer and discusser of ideas; however when he approached Mr Cheney and attempted to engage in dialog, the Vice President would simply nod his head, and thank him for his ideas. The book also details O'Neills criticisms of some of Bush's economic policies. Bush appears somewhat unquestioning and uncurious, and the war in Iraq was planned from the first National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
meeting, soon after the administration took office, even though Bush had promised not to engage in nation building
Nation-building
For nation-building in the sense of enhancing the capacity of state institutions, building state-society relations, and also external interventions see State-building....
during his campaign.
Comments and views
In a July 25, 2001 International Herald TribuneInternational Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
article, he shared a comment on the theory of an inevitable financial "contagion" in global financial markets and the theory that investors at the time would retreat from emerging markets because of their worries that the financial crises in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
may spread to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and elsewhere. Mr. O'Neill said that this view was a "fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
" and that "we need to retire that fashion like the hula hoop
Hula hoop
A hula hoop is a toy hoop that is twirled around the waist, limbs or neck.Although the exact origins of hula hoops are unknown, children and adults around the world have played with hoops, twirling, rolling and throwing them throughout history...
." "With a magnifying glass, you couldn't find a connection between Turkey and Argentina, except maybe in people's minds", and that in a well-managed global system, investors would not pull back from loans in emerging markets simply because of such isolated troubles.
In an October 16, 2007 Op Ed published in the New York Times, he wrote of the reluctance among politicians to address comprehensive reform in the U.S. health care system. In the opinion, he suggested, among other things, requiring doctors and hospitals to report medical errors within 24 hours, as well as moving malpractice suits out of the civil courts and into a new, independent body. Health care reform, he argues, cannot continue to progress in a piecemeal fashion. Instead, it must take all aspects of the problem—insurance coverage, medical costs, quality of care and information technology—into simultaneous consideration. In O'Neill's Book, The Price of Loyalty, by Ron Suskind, O'Neill relates discussions with Bush and Cheney regarding Social Security, which Bush wanted to Privatize. O'Neill says that he and Alan Greenspan had agreed to invest $3.6 Trillion of the Clinton $5.9 Trillion surplus into Social Security.That idea was subsequently rejected. http://books.simonandschuster.com/Price-of-Loyalty/Ron-Suskind/9780743255462r