This Friday’s presidential debate is about foreign policy, but it is almost certain that economic policy will also be discussed. Were I moderator Jim Lehrer, I’d ask the following question first: Who would be three of your top three choices for Treasury Secretary, and why?
Hank Paulson fought hard for his plan yesterday, and passage of anything similar would easily make him the nation’s most consequential financial figure. More an economic czar than a Treasury secretary. He’d almost certainly be around to spend/invest the $700 billion, but it’s unlikely that he’d be able to unload much of it before the next administration takes hold. That job would fall to someone else, and his/her identity, therefore, arguably becomes more important to our collective economic security than is the political football of short-term tax policy.
So Senators, who do you want? Obama suggested on 60 Minutes that he might be open to keeping Paulson on board, but wasn’t pressed for a rationale. McCain, to my knowledge, has not commented on it (although he did suggest Andrew Cuomo should replace Chris Cox as SEC chair). I know picking cabinet candidates typically comes post-election, but this is an extraordinary post in an extraordinary time. It’s a question that should be asked and answered now, not later.
