Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Perseus
(4,341 posts)When Lew was picked by President Obama to lead the Treasury Department in January 2013, he was like the Forrest Gump of Democratic wonks in the neoliberal era. In 1983, as a staffer to then-House Speaker Tip O'Neill, Lew helped hash out legislation that cut social security benefits by raising the retirement age.
A decade later, in the 1990s, Lew joined the Clinton White House, where he was a dutiful and competent foot soldier during the welfare-cutting years, climbing the ranks to lead the Office of Management and Budget by the end of Clinton's second term. Lew received the key position, liaising between the White House and Congress, just in time to sign off on the bipartisan push to let Wall Street do whatever it wanted.
After George W. Bush was elected, Lew received a high-paying administrative position at NYU, where he is, perhaps, best remembered for leading efforts to bust the graduate students' union. At the height of the housing bubble, Lew then took a job at Citigroup, one of the banks he helped make "too big to fail" as a Clintonite bureaucrat.
The presidential election and financial crash in 2008 oriented Lew back to the public sector. In 2009, the day before Citigroup took a massive public bailout, he left the bank to take a job with the Obama administrationwith a $944,578 bonus for accepting a "high level position with the United States government or regulatory body."
"As someone who has worked to elect Barack Obama on two occasions, I remain extremely concerned that virtually all of his key economic advisers have come from Wall Street," Sanders said. "And Jack Lew is no exception to that."
There is more at the link:
[link:https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/09/08/jack-lew-problem|
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Cha
(298,074 posts)have worked with VP Biden and know what he's capable of.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Gothmog
(145,965 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden