Czar Geithner Should Apologize
posted by Lawrence Cunningham
Power is going to Secretary Treasury Tim Geithner’s head in ways reminiscent of Secretary of State Al Haig’s infamous declaration that he, not the Vice President, was “in control of the White House” after an attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981, or Dick Cheney’s alleged usurpation of extensive authority during the previous administration. Geithner is acting like a czar, must stop quashing dissent, and should apologize for having tried to do so.
On Friday, Geithner reprimanded the heads of independent federal agencies, the SEC (Mary Schapiro), FDIC (Sheila Bair) and CFTC (Gary Gensler), for offering different policy views than Geithner’s on financial regulation reform. Today’s Journal reports that Geithner, in “an expletive-laced” diatribe, rebuked the officials for disagreeing with him, saying “enough is enough.”
At stake is power over future regulation and the path of policy formulation. The SEC and FDIC want to preserve their roles, by creating a council of oversight regulators, not cede power to the Federal Reserve; in turn, the Fed and Comptroller of the Currency want to preserve or expand their roles, resisting ceding authority to a new consumer finance agency. Geithner wants to concentrate power in the Federal Reserve, his erstwhile employer, for whom he apparently has considerable affection. He is convinced that his way is the only way and is telling others they have to agree with him.
Geithner apparently thinks the officials were allowed to dissent a little, as a formal matter, but are not allowed to actually influence policy. The Journal quotes a Treasury deputy secretary as saying Geithner told regulators they can express their views but ultimately must agree to achieving the goals Geithner has laid out. They cannot “question the wisdom” of Geithner’s plan to expand Fed powers.
Geithner appears to be upset that competing views have actually resonated with some in Congress, whose leadership (including Democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and Republicans Richard Shelby and Spencer Bachus) seems actually to be thinking about the alternative proposals.
It seems Geithner is against that kind of thinking. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel seems to share worry that discussion of regulatory reform is causing people to think, rather than react abruptly with regulatory revolution, according to a quote in the same Journal story.
Power goes to one’s head in Washington, and media talk of installing various czars around town, including inside the Treasury Department, does not help. Geithner owes an apology to all in the room on Friday, and to all in the country, who value discussion, analysis and disagreement, not assertions of czar-like power.
August 4, 2009 at 6:29 am
Posted in: Current Events
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Responses (4)
JT - August 4, 2009 at 8:26 am
This story was unbelievable. That he wasn’t allowing others to have a dialogue is simply wrong. These are people running our government, fighting a free discourse.
mahtso - August 4, 2009 at 11:54 am
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t Mr. Haig state that he was in control pending the vice-president’s return to the White House?
Brett Bellmore - August 4, 2009 at 3:03 pm
And wasn’t Cheny actually delegated power by the actual President, rather than “usurping” it?
Lawrence Cunningham - August 4, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Thanks for the comments. Regarding 2 and 3, I’ll defer to the suggested counterpoints that Haig and Cheney were not not abusing power, which strengthens that Geithner should apologize and back down.
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