Bush Junior’s administration looked like a corporate interest and defense contractor All-Star team!
First of all, his running mate, Dick Cheney was Bush Senior’s defense secretary who, after that presidency, moved on to become the CEO of Halliburton a defense contractor, and who’s wife was on the board of Lockheed Martin, another defense contractor.
Since Cheney’s acquisition of the vice president job, Halliburton has become the world’s LARGEST defense contractor. Coincidence? Probably not.
Then there’s Donald Rumsfeld, Bush’s pick for Secretary of Defense. Not only was he the White House counsel for Richard Nixon, defense secretary for Gerald Ford, and Reagan’s special envoy to the middle east, he’s the guy who worked out a deal with Saddam Hussein to supply him with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons to fight against Iran.
The Secretary of the Treasury job was awarded to Paul O’Neill. O’Neill was the CEO of Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminum manufacturer was also the biggest polluter in Texas (emitting 60,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per year), he believed that corporations shouldn’t be taxed, and there was no need for Social Security and Medicare.
Anne Veneman, Bush’s Secretary of Agriculture had experience in agriculture policy in California, where thanks to her policies, corporate farms were able to take business from, and shut down small family owned farms. Because of policies like these, 80 percent of beef production in the US is produced by four companies.
Former CEO of Tom Brown, Inc., (a $1.2 billion oil and gas
company at the time), Don Evans, became Secretary of Commerce.
Spencer Abraham, former senator and long time “anti-environmentalist” took up the Secretary of Energy helm.
The Department of Health and Human Services was given to Tommy Thompson, a friend, and large stockholder of Philip Morris tobacco company (in charge of peoples health?!?).
Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton started her career as an anti-environmental, pro-corporation lobbyist for a conservative think tank called Mountain States Legal Foundation. MSLF declared the Endangered Species Act unconstitutional, and lobbied against the National Environmental Protection Act. She also defended lead companies
against suits brought on by children who had lead poisoning.
Finally, let’s talk about Condoleezza Rice. Before being named National Security advisor, she sat on Chevron’s board and had an oil tanker named after her. The pieces were in play for the greatest corporate and defense industry takeover in world history.