Golden Oldie - #121

#121 DAVID STOCKMAN
FORMER OMB DIRECTOR IN REAGAN ADMINISTRATION; EX-CHAIRMAN OF EX AUTO PARTS SUPPLIER; FORMER GOP COCKSUCKER CONGRESSMAN FROM MICHIGAN

Here's a Golden Oldie from the administration of the Gipper himself.

Remember David Stockman? He was the Reagan administration's flashpoint man, crafting the first of the obsidian-hearted budgets that GOP cocksuckers would point proudly to as a model of how things needed to be cut in Washington and how their dream of supply-side economics was going to solve everything. Stockman's budget was full of 'harsh truth' and none of that sentimental codswallop that fuels liberals, they said.

Then remember how all that was bullshit? Stockman used two techniques that stage magicians presumably learn at their mama's knees. The first was 'rosy scenario.' This should be familiar to anyone whose read 'Candide' or 'Heidi.' RS involved making impossibly optimistic assumptions about future growth, inflation, interest rates and so on. "Everything would be fine."

The second technique was called 'the magic asterisk.' MA was the use of phony budget cuts in the fine print to make it look like the Reagan administration was cutting the snot out of the deficit, which Dear Dead Ron had vowed to slash. The deficit was $185.3 billion by the end of 1983. That sounds like peanuts today since the Drunken Frat boy has a deficit going that's up to $400 billion or so, but that was a LOT in 1983.

Anyway, if Stockman's budget was on a blackboard it would look like this:

"First, a miracle occurs."

[lots and lots of equations]

"Then ANOTHER miracle occurs."

[more equations]

Balanced Budget

That's it.

Stockman loved to mock legislators, convinced they didn't know as much as he did about the budget, and he was right. But he could have been nice about it. Instead, Stockman ground it in their faces; he made it obvious he really enjoyed it, too. Then came the mistake. He sat down with journalist William Grieder and was horrfied to see, when the article came out, that Greider had penned a portrait of a kid too big for his britches.

Stockman then found he did not have a lot of friends around who would help him out. In fact, they were actually enjoying his discomforture with the same relish Stockman had taken in showing they didn't know as much about the budget as he did. Stockman got the message. He quietly quit OMB.

Fast forward about oh, 25 years. Stockman is 60 and is chairman at an auto parts supplier in Michigan. Stockman gets indicted for: Conspiracy To Commit Securities Fraud, Making False Statements In Annual and Quarterly Reports, Making False Entries In Books And Records, Lying To Auditors, Bank Fraud, Wire Fraud, and Obstruction of An Agency Proceeding.

Stockman. Hiding lies. Boy does THIS ever look familiar. Eight people were charged in this scheme. Four pled guilty.

Stockman quits the auto parts supplier, which promptly falls apart. The latest on the case is that Stockman is going to be standing trial May 4 with three of the executives from the firm after the case has been stalled for 1½ years. Some of them are already whining that the insurance money to cover their legal costs is running out.

[UPDATE: Stockman managed to successfully hold his enemies at bay for so long that they simply quit. He was never tried.]

Courtesy of TPM Muckraker

S. Olson