海角大神

I鈥檓 trying to remain optimistic that the President and congressional Democrats will hold their ground over the next month as we approach the so-called 鈥渇iscal cliff.鈥�

But leading those negotiations for the White House is outgoing Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner, whom Monday鈥檚听Wall Street Journal听听as a 鈥減ragmatic deal maker鈥� because of 鈥渉is long relationship with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, for whom balancing the budget was a priority over other Democratic touchstones.鈥�

Geithner is indeed a protege of Bob Rubin, for whom he worked when Rubin was Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration. Rubin then helped arranged for Geithner to become president of the New York Fed, and then pushed for him to become Obama鈥檚 Treasury Secretary.

Both Rubin and Geithner are hardworking and decent. But both see the world through the eyes of Wall Street rather than Main Street.听

I battled Rubin for years in the Clinton administration because of his hawkishness on the budget deficit and his narrow Wall Street view of the world.

During his tenure as Treasury Secretary, Geithner has followed in Rubin鈥檚 path 鈥� engineering a no-strings Wall Street bailout that didn鈥檛 require the Street to help stranded homeowners, didn鈥檛 demand the Street agree to a resurrection of the Glass-Steagall Act, and didn鈥檛 seek to cap the size of the biggest bank, which in the wake of the bailout have become much bigger.听In an听with the听Journal, Geithner repeats the President鈥檚 stated principle that tax rates must rise on the wealthy, but doesn鈥檛 rule out changes to Social Security or Medicare. And he notes that in the president鈥檚 budget (drawn up before the election), spending on non-defense discretionary items 鈥� mostly programs for the poor, and investments in education and infrastructure 鈥� are 鈥渧ery low as a share of the economy relative to Clinton.鈥滻f 鈥減ragmatic deal maker,鈥� as the听Journal听describes Geithner, means someone who believes any deal with Republicans is better than no deal, and deficit reduction is more important than job creation, we could be in for a difficult December.