unless lew has another .com bubble in his back pocket, he's screwed. he didn't solve the deficit problem, the economy taking off solved the deficit. and government had nothing to do with the circumstances surrounding the .com explosion (although the obamites would probably call it "a broken system" and immediately call for "comprehensive .com reform").
although this is an infinitely preferable alternate to, say, laura tyson, who thinks that the whole problem is that the central government hasn't spent enough to get out of the recession. I am sure the liberals are pretty p*ssed off right now.
Back to the Future: Lew Returns as Budget OfficerPresident Obama announced on Tuesday that he has chosen Deputy Secretary of State Jacob J. Lew as his new White House budget director, settling on someone who knows the job intimately since he did it once before under President Bill Clinton.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Lew will replace Peter R. Orszag, who is leaving as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Obama, who planned to make a statement on the announcement at noon, has not disclosed who would replace Mr. Lew at the State Department.
“As the budget director who left the next administration a $237 billion surplus when he worked for President Clinton, I have no doubt that Jack has proven himself equal to this extraordinary task,” Mr. Obama said in a written statement.
Mr. Lew served as Mr. Clinton’s budget director from 1998 to 2001 and presided over three years of budget surpluses after a generation of deficit spending. He returns to the job at a time when the Treasury is in far worse shape, with red-ink spending at or near record levels and deep structural problems that will challenge the president in keeping his promise to bring the deficit down to more manageable levels.
The federal government incurred a deficit of $1 trillion for the first nine months of the fiscal year, according to a report issued by the Congressional Budget Office last year, some $81 billion less than during the same period a year earlier but still far greater than the historical average since the end of World War II.
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