Transition Problems Continued: Query? Are Poorly Vetted Appointees Better Than No Appointees??
Transition Problems Continued: Query? Are Poorly Vetted Appointees Better Than No Appointees??
by
Ken Eliasberg
Process Continued.- In the last two columns I have addressed (barely scatching the surface) confirmation problems with respect to many of Obama’s appointees. A bigger problem may lie in those who have yet to be appointed. That is, what is our biggest problem today? A global economic meltdown more severe than any experienced in my lifetime! What then should be the first cabinet position to be fully — or at least significantly — staffed? The Treasury Department. Setting aside the tax problems of his designee for Secretary of the Treasury (although I assure you that, if we were talking about a Republican president, Geithner’s tax problem would have been ballyhooed around the country, with the failure of his appointment almost guaranteed) a bigger, and more disturbing, problem lies in the fact that the Treasury Department has been left so understaffed. Unless Geithner can walk on water, it is apparent that he cannot solve our current economic problems by himself; he’s going to need a lot of help! Why then has the Treasury Department remained fairly threadbare some 10 weeks into the Obama Administration. Indeed, a member of Great Britain’s Exchequer noted (and not apparently in jest) that when he called what he assumed was his counterpart at Treasury, there was no one there to answer.
And this failure has not gone unnoticed as witnessed by the following column appearing on Telegraph.co.uk (the online component of the Britisih newspaper of the same name), dated March 10th:
“G20 summit” US Treasury department won’t answer their
phones, says top UK civil servant.
The British Government is finding it ‘unbelievably difficult’
to prepare for the G20 summit because no one in the US Treasury
department is answering their calls, Britain’s top civil servant Gus
O’Donnell has said
The continuing handover to President Barack Obama’s adminis-
tration has severely hindered discussions over the meeting in
London next month, according to Sir Gus.
Amid the worst economic crisis in decades, the Cabinet
Secretary said Number 10 was having trouble even getting in
touch with key personnel at the US Treasury.”
What’s the problem? As of the end of March — more than 2 months in to the new Administrataion, the Treasury Department remained seriously understaffed. The Left-leaning, and highly respected, publication, The Economist, on its electronic service had this to say (on March 26th):
“Despite his resounding electoral victory