New chief of staff a low-key, long-time insider

[boston bean]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jack Lew is the model Washington insider — a savvy and cool policy technocrat with roots in Congress and a long and impressive administration resume. He is as low key as Rahm Emanuel, one of his predecessors as White House chief of staff, was high octane.

In choosing Lew to run his White House, President Barack Obama on Monday completed an arc of chiefs-of-staff, from the fiery Emanuel and his grasp of legislative intrigue, to William Daley and his ties to the business community to, now, Lew, a budget specialist with expertise on the inner workings of the executive branch.

Intensely private, Lew is often defined as a "pragmatic liberal," one who embraces core progressive notions about the role of government but understands the need to find bipartisan solutions to control deficits and reduce the national debt.

Those who know him say Lew is slow to get frustrated, a particularly useful trait at a time of high partisanship.



Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/New-chief-of-staff-a-low-key-long-time-insider-2451500.php#ixzz1j3UomCLK

[zipplewrath]

1. Another guy not listening to Krugman

"Intensely private, Lew is often defined as a "pragmatic liberal," one who embraces core progressive notions about the role of government but understands the need to find bipartisan solutions to control deficits and reduce the national debt."

The debt is way down the list of priorities about right now. And the primary method of getting revenues up, will be increased taxes in the short run, and an expanding economy in the long run, with possibly some slight, long term, inflation.

But no one in the White House is listening to Krugman so we'll probably get more right leaning fiscal policies. More tax cuts, more spending cuts, less stimulus.