OK, One question at a time. No I don't believe everything that I read. Karl Rove had a tremendous amount of influence in the Bush White House. O'Neil's words ring true.

Paul O'Neil was Bush's first Secretary of the Treasury. He was CEO of Alcoa, and turned that company around. I think that he was CEO of Scott paper for a while. Paul O'Neil and Alan Greenspan recommended putting triggers into the "Tax Cut for the Rich". These triggers would protect the budget surplus from getting frittered away. They were ignored. This was corroborated in Greenspan's book "Age of Turbulence". O'Neil's book was "The Price of Loyalty".

It really is worth a read.