Will Erskine Bowles be our next Treasury Secretary?

[xchrom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/10/will-erskine-bowles-be-our-next-treasury-secretary/



One of Washington’s favorite guessing games — behind Mitt Romney’s veepstakes, but way ahead of who will run the Commerce Department — is who will replace Timothy Franz Geithner as Treasury Secretary. And as of today, I’m ready to name a frontrunner, at least if Barack Obama is re-elected: Erskine Bowles.

This wouldn’t be the first time Bowles got a call from the White House. The Obama administration tapped Bowles to co-chair the National Commission of Fiscal Responsibility and Reform — better known as the Simpson-Bowles Commission. Word on the street is that this wouldn’t even be the second time Bowles got a call from the White House. They’ve felt him out about joining the administration in a more formal capacity before. But he wasn’t interested.

Bowles, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, had built up a huge storehouse of bipartisan credibility as co-chair of the Simpson-Bowles Commission. He didn’t want to join the administration in 2011, when joining the administration meant trench warfare with the Republicans. And as Bowles assiduously worked to show off how bipartisan he was — lavishly complimenting Rep. Paul Ryan, for instance — the administration cooled on him in return.

But next year is different. Next year is the year the fiscal deal has to be made. And if Bowles is Treasury Secretary, he’ll be the guy making the deal. That’s way better than leading a commission. It’s even better than being well-liked by both sides. That’s legacy material.

[JDPriestly]

1. Bowles supports cuts to Social Security and Medicare -- as Geithner

most probably did.

Bowles would be a horrible choice for that reason. A very, very controversial choice.

Obama gives lip service to preserving Social Security, and I presume, Medicare, but if he appoints Bowles, we will know that Obama's assurances about how he stands on those programs are dirty lies.

So, Obama had better not appoint Bowles.