Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Henry M. [tag]Paulson[/tag] Jr., the chairman of [tag]Goldman Sachs[/tag], did not want to become [tag]Treasury Secretary[/tag] because they saw how [tag]John Snow[/tag] and [tag]Paul O’Neill[/tag] had no “substantial role in shaping economic policy.”
I guess they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
President Bush nominated Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO [tag]Henry Paulson[/tag] to be the next U.S. [tag]Treasury[/tag] [tag]Secretary[/tag] Tuesday.
President Bush made the announcement at a White House ceremony, flanked by Paulson and current Treasury Secretary John Snow.
Paulson is not new to politics. Earlier in his career, he worked at the White House and the Pentagon. More importantly, in Bush’s first term, Paulson was an elite [tag]Bush[/tag] [tag]fundraiser[/tag], generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions for the 2004 campaign. Indeed, Paulson was recruited by Gov. George Pataki to collect cash from the Wall Street firms to finance the Republican National Convention — and gathered more than $5 million.
The more important question, I suppose, is whether Bush will actually let the guy do anything.
Paulson was right to leak word that he was worried about a substantial role in the administration. The Bush gang has made little secret of the fact that they don’t want someone with policy experience; they want a cheerleader at Treasury. The office of the Treasury Secretary used to be a very big deal, but under Bush, it, like the rest of his cabinet, serves no apparent purpose at all.
So, what’s so new about Bush’s neglect of the Cabinet? Perhaps that it jumped the firewall that historically protected the “big four” positions — State, Defense, Treasury, and Justice — from marginality. Throughout Bush’s first term, many of these traditional power centers, notably Powell at State and Paul O’Neill and John Snow at Treasury, lost their customary influence to the White House, in particular to Vice President Dick Cheney. In the past, individual secretaries of state or treasury occasionally found themselves on the outs, but no other administration made tax cuts and war its signature issues while relying so little on those key officers. And even John Ashcroft at Justice, though he maintained a high profile, never insinuated himself into Bush’s inner councils. Of the big four, only Donald Rumsfeld proved to be an influential policymaker alongside Cheney.
Bush keeps power in the [tag]West Wing[/tag], where [tag]Cheney [/tag]and [tag]Rove [/tag]can keep control. The Treasury Secretary has only slightly more influence on fiscal and budgetary matters than I do. One need only ask John Snow and Paul O’Neill about their policy roles, which were non-existent.
It’s only a matter of time before Paulson asks, “I gave up my job at Goldman Sachs for this?”