Fred Barnes suggests to Weekly Standard readers that President Obama’s choice for his next U.S. Treasury Secretary sends a clear political signal.
By choosing White House chief of staff Jacob Lew as his new treasury secretary, President Obama is bracing himself to battle congressional Republicans in 2013, not seeking bipartisan compromises with them. If confirmed, Lew would succeed Tim Geithner in the treasury job.
The Lew decision is only the latest indication of Obama’s eagerness to crush Republican opposition on Capitol Hill. Conspicuously absent since his reelection has been any talk of amicably bringing the sides together in Washington. Even while private discussions on averting the fiscal cliff were going on last November and December, Obama was attacking Republicans publicly and threatening them privately.
There will be plenty of opportunity for partisan clashes this year. Obama wants to raise the debt limit, fully implement his health care law, and defeat Republican efforts to cut spending and reform entitlements.
Republicans who’ve dealt with Lew in negotiations on taxes and spending regard him as the most partisan, ideological, and uncompromising of Obama’s aides. In talks, he has brushed aside their proposals for trimming the deficit and controlling the national debt.
From the moment last year when Lew was mentioned as a possible treasury secretary, his nomination was viewed as an indicator of Obama’s plans for his second term. Would he pursue serious negotiations on deficit reduction and other issues with Republicans or try to impose his own liberal policies? Now we know.
