Uh-oh! Stephen Freidman leaves the White House

[TrogL]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=693&e=1&u=/ap/20041123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_friedman

Friedman, who served as the behind-the-scenes coordinator for the administration's economic policies, is to leave by the end of the year. There is no imminent announcement on his replacement, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

...

Friedman's selection by Bush initially sparked a revolt among conservative "supply siders," who questioned his commitment to further tax cuts because of his membership in the Concord Coalition, an anti-deficit group.


Friedman, however, allayed the concerns of conservatives and became an enthusiastic booster of the third round of tax cuts which passed Congress in the summer of 2003.

He was their last gasp of sanity is a world of supply-siders.

http://www.nationalreview.com/moore/moore121102.asp

Friedman's co-chairmanship and big-dollar donations to the Concord Coalition — an organization dedicated to blocking supply-side tax cuts — is problematic. In this case, his partnership in this group is highly suggestive that his economic beliefs are wrong-headed in the extreme. The Concord Coalition represents the Chicken Little deficit reduction myopia that was once the rage in the Republican party before someone by the name of Ronald Reagan came along and thankfully converted the GOP into a tax cutting
party.

Throughout the 1980s the Concord Coalition types (the organization was not formally created until 1992 when the late Democrat Senator Paul Tsongas got together with Sen. Warren Rudman to create the entity dedicated to deficit hysteria) whined about the Reagan budget deficits and agitated for higher taxes on a daily basis. To his great credit, the Gipper never listened. They said that deficits would cause higher interest rates, and Reagan said his tax cuts and his inflation-slaying policies would cause interest rates to fall. Lo and behold, the economist from Eureka College was right and the Ivy League trained Wall Street know-it-alls were dead wrong.

Looking a little further, his replacement, Tim Adams, may not be too bad.

http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_46/b3908403.htm

The leading candidate to succeed him is Tim Adams, Bush's campaign policy director and a former top Treasury aide. Adams, a pragmatist rather than an ideologue, is said to favor tax reform and deficit reduction to boost the savings rate.

[Metatron]

1. I have always been a stronger supporter of the Concord Coalition

Freidman's leaving is just more bad news for our economy.

[bain_sidhe]

2. Wonder if he knew he was leaving before the "leak"

It's interesting how several of these "departures" have been "leaked" rather than letting the person actually leaving make the announcement. Reminds me of how Wesley Clark "retired" by having his departure "announced" before he had gotten the chance to speak to President Clinton.