Would Jon Corzine be as Treasury Secretary be satisfactory for progressives?

[Hippo_Tron]

I know his governorship is somewhat controversial but in the Senate he had a very liberal voting record.

Also he has something that almost nobody else does. On-record criticism of the DLC...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010416/corzine

[elleng]

1. OK with me;

successful in business. How 'controversial?'

[Hippo_Tron]

2. His new taxes to balance the budget haven't exactly been popular

Some on the left have called them regressive and some on the right (well actually all on the right) just plain hate new taxes. I personally think it's indicative of the fact that people want a balanced budget but don't realize that means that you have to actually pay for what you spend.

[elleng]

3. Thats surely true;

balance budget > spend less + tax more = NOBODY likes those! But thats life in the big city, kiddos!

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. Wasn't he another ex Goddamn-Sachs CEO?

I don't think replacing one of their former execs with another sends the right message given the current state of the economy. That's not to say Corzine is or would be as bad as Paulson, but maybe it's time we put in someone who realizes that unregulated predatory capitalism is not the answer.

Why not Robert Reich?

[Hippo_Tron]

5. Reich worked in the Clinton Administration, people seem to be looking for those who did not

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. Yeah, but I don't think he agreed with a lot of their economic agenda

Probably why they put him at Secretary of Labor.

[Doityourself]

7. He's my gov...and he sucks! Now saying he needs to revisit union contracts to ask for givebacks

from employees. My people work for every dime...is he asking for money back from people in his cabinet or his buddies that he gave jobs too? No.

[fujiyama]

8. I don't know anything about his performance as governor of NJ

but he had a good record as a senator.

The problem really is that he was also an ex-CEO of Goldman. I personally would rather get away with those so closely tied to investment banks. Too much conflict of interest with the bailout, I think. It was one thing that made me very uncomfortable about Paulsen's own connection to GS.

Isn't there one viable Treasury Sec that wasn't closely tied to an investment bank? Any professional economists? Maybe even some academics? I'd be very disappointed if Obama appoints another IBanker for Treasury Sec. This position will require true independence.

[tabbycat31]

12. I personally don't have a problem with him

but he faces a very tough re-election campaign in NJ. I haven't lived here for all of his term, but NJ is in a lot of trouble financially. Not sure of his promises either since I lived in NY when he was elected.

He inherited a huge financial mess. He's tried to propose things, but NJ has rejected a lot of it. He did raise the state sales tax by 1%, and he proposed toll hikes on the Turnpike, Parkway, and AC expressway, but I'm not sure where they stand on them now. I know in my region that is not very popular since the Parkway is about the only road you can take to leave the region.

So far, most of his donations for re-election have come from out of state.

[Thrill]

9. Go read some of the articles from the NJ writers about him. They think he would be a horrible choice

[Honeycombe8]

10. Article I read (forget which one) said it doesn't matter...they're all the same.

The article said they all have a common background and worked under or with Summers, and they all have similar philosophies, etc., etc., so it didn't really matter which one got the appointment. The article wasn't saying that was a bad thing. It was just pointing out that there is no significant difference among any of them.

[Alter Ego]

11. As long as he (ahem) remembers to buckle his seatbelt.

[This One]

13. Krugman would be my choice