Yesterday morning, Mike Allen of the Washington Post reported that George W. Bush is considering keeping Democrat Lawrence H. Summers on as Treasury Secretary in his administration. Says Mr. Allen, "Republicans close to the campaign say Bush is considering inviting Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, who was nominated by President Clinton in May 1999, to remain in his post."
This is not what I wanted to wake up and read the morning after Al Gore finally conceded the election. Of all the people in the Clinton Administration to consider keeping on in a Bush Administration, next to Janet Reno Larry Summers has to be the last one any sane Republican would think of. Not only has he not been a particularly outstanding secretary, but he is among the most partisan Democrats ever to hold that position. Remember that he was 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis's chief economic adviser. And during the current campaign, he made no secret of his disdain for much of Mr.Bush's agenda, especially tax cuts and Social Security privatization.
My first reaction to this news is that it is a joke, being played by someone with a sick sense of humor on a gullible reporter. Sadly, my sources say that senior Bush advisers are indeed talking seriously about keeping Summers on the job.
The most benign possible explanation is that Mr. Bush fears, perhaps rightly, that he will not have time to get his true Treasury choice confirmed and on the job by January 20. Hence, it may be reasonable to have Mr. Summers stay on temporarily, just in case some international financial crisis breaks. But if that is the case, it would be far better to let Deputy Secretary Stu Eizenstat or Timothy Geithner, Under Secretary for International Affairs, keep the chair warm. Keeping on Larry Summers, even for a day, is a poke in the eye to every Republican who voted for Mr. Bush, especially those primarily concerned about economic issues.
What is particularly puzzling about the Summers story is that Mr. Bush's chief economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, knows better. He and Summers were at Harvard together and often debated each other during the 1988 campaign, when Lindsey was an adviser to George W. Bush's father. How he could have allowed this idea to gain currency is a mystery.
If we were in the midst of a financial crisis, it might make sense to keep on someone of stature at Treasury, such as former Secretary Bob Rubin. But we are not in a crisis situation and to paraphrase former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, Larry Summers ain't no Bob Rubin. And it isn't as if the Republican bench is thin in the area of potential Treasury secretaries. People such as former Federal Reserve Governor Wayne Angell and retiring Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, among others, are ready and available.
Let us hope that the Post report is wrong. If it truly represents Mr. Bush's thinking, it is going to be a very long four years ahead for those of us who voted for him primarily to get tax cuts and Social Security privatization.
December 16, 2000
Bruce Bartlett is a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. He was deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy in the first Bush Administration.
