Money & Politics --- Mike (fast)
Portman --- Peter (slow)
hello, i’m michael mckee reporting today from washington. welcome to “money & politics.” president george bush has named a new budget chief and top trade negotiator, the start of what may become a wider reorganization of an administration seeking to repair relations with congress and rebuild public support. current trade representative, rob portman, a former ohio congressman, will move to become director of the white house office of budget management. his deputy, susan schwab, will take over at ustr. peter cook is at the white house with details.
>> mike, the reshuffling at the white house continues as the president looks to regain political momentum less than halfway through his second term. once again, he’s looking within his administration to fill these positions. today he nominated rob portman to take over as director of the office of budget management, replacing joshua bolten who left to become white house chief of staff and he tand portman’s deputy, susan schwab, to replace portman as u.s. trade representative. in portman, he picks a long-time ally. if confirmed, he would lead the administration’s efforts to cut the budget deficit in half by 2009.
>> the american people deserve results for every hard-earned dollar they send to washington. the job of office of budget management director is an important postal and rob portman is the right man to take the post.
>> among the reasons i ran for congress in 1993 was to cut the deficit and make the government work better. the common sense fiscally conservative values of southwest ohio guided me then and they guide me now.
>> as u.s. trade representative, portman has been trying to negotiate a global trade agreement and last week was busy in washington negotiating with the chinese over difficult trade issues. he may find negotiations with congress over spending even more difficult right now. according to a former director of the congressional budget office.
>> i think he has a dual challenge. on the one hand, he’s got to have a policy that will bring fiscal policy into alignment. and on the other hand, he has to sell it. so he needs to be a sales man, not just publicly, but a salesman effectively, door to door, on capitol hill and he has the credentials to do it.
>> schwab started her career nearly 29 years ago. since that time, she’s worked on trade issues in a variety of capacities. she was assistant secretary of commerce under the first president bush and worked for motorola. if confirmed, she said one of her top priorities will be to complete the doha round of global trade talks. the president suggesting that the changes at the white house may not be over just yet. one person he does not want to see go, secretary of defense donald rumsfeld, who received a resounding vote of confidence from the president today.
>> rob portman’s appointment raises a couple of questions. he said he ran for congress to cut the federal deficit. will he? and what effect will that have on reaching a global trade agreement? joining me to talk about the issues is stan collender, managing director at the washington consulting firm, coveris communications. let’s start with the budget. the fiscal values he talked about from southwestern ohio, will we bring those to bear on the federal budget?
>> i think he’ll be frustrated as almost every other o.m.b. director has been. the budget director cannot impose policies but congress has to pass them and this congress hasn’t done much to reduce the budget deficit. in addition, i don’t see a lot of change just because he’s at o.m.b. in the president’s policies in reducing the deficit. my guess is you’ll see steady state deficit being around $4 billion and he will express dissatisfaction with that but probably not have a lot of impact from time to time portman’s history, is he a real deficit-cutter?
>> the answer is yes, he would prefer the deficit to go down in all circumstances. but he’s not there to be his own person, he’s there to be the president’s person. o.m.b.’s basic job in life is to do the president’s bidding on the budget. and this is a president who has shown that the deficit is less important than continuing to cut taxes and he’s not willing to cut spending unless it’s a political problem so my suspicion is he won’t change policy here.
>> there are not a lot of areas they can cut.
>> that’s exactly right, with social security and medicaid, medicare out of bounds, defense going up, not down, there’s really not a lot left to be looked at and much of what’s left to be looked at is politically difficult. if it survived this long, chances are it’s got a lot of champions on the hill so unless there’s a big increase in economic growth bringing in a rush of tax revenues, i’m not sure how the deficit will get down much from where it currently is.
>> this white house is famous for holding decisions to a tight circle of advisers. can portman break into that group?
>> we don’t know yet. it’s possible that one of the conditions under which he took the job is he went to the white house, went to joshua bolten and said i will take this but only if i’m a player with a chance to impact policy making. about we know this is a white house that makes all the policy within the white house itself. the agency heads, including o.m.b., have had very little input. my guess is he will be a cheerleader and sales person, not necessarily someone who formulates policy.
>> this job switch comes two weeks before the end of negotiations that are suppose to end on the doha round for a trade agreement. here’s what e.u. trade minister peter mandelson said about the job switch today. “we will, of course, manage without mr. portman, but at this stage in the round, it would have been easier to manage with him.” so, stan, does this suggest that the president and perhaps rob portman in this job move are signaling what they think the prospects are for any kind of doha agreement?
>> i don’t think so. the fact that his deputy is taking over, the fact that she’s been there almost three decades, the fact that she knows a lot of these issues and in fact was integrally involved with the negotiations up till now, means that substantively they won’t be missing a beat. i think the comments you just read were more designed toward the personal relationships that have not yet been forged so they’re going to be playing it by ear but everyone’s curious about what will happen with the doha round. it was never a slam dunk to begin with.
>> what do we know about susan schwab?
>> she’s committed to the job and has been following the white house lead on these issues. she won’t go her own way or from a different direction from policy under portman.
>> both have been easily confirmed by the senate in the past. you don’t see a problem there?
>> no and my guess is that’s one of the reasons they’ve been selected. they’ve already been confirmed and neither will have a problem being confirmed again. most importantly, portman doesn’t have to talk about the budget when he gets confirmed because he wasn’t there when it was done before.
>> thank you very much. taking questions from reporters after his personnel announcement, president bush was asked whether he would consider a nuclear strike against iran in dealing with that country’s atomic program.
>> all options are on the table. we want to solve this issue diplomatically and are working hard to do so. the best way to do so is for there to be a united effort with countries who recognize the danger of iran having a nuclear weapon. >> the president says he’ll discuss the issue with chinese president hu jintao in their meeting tomorrow. china’s resisted using the u.n. to apply greater pressure on iran to stop its nuclear program. the question of how soon iran could build a nuclear weapon gained new urgency last week when president mahmoud ahmadinejad said his country had enriched uranium sufficiently to produce nuclear fuel. the president also meeting with the prime minister of lebanon today. in an interview with bloomberg news later in the day, fouad siniora said the mideast is less stable today because of the war in iraq and that there must be resolution to the palestinian situation before the region can move forward. he also said he doesn’t want any of his neighbors to possess weapons of mass destruction, including iran, but urged the bush administration to continue its diplomatic push, not resort to war.
>> this diplomatic offensive is very important in order to achieve the results because the region does not really―or cannot take an additional war at the present time.
>> later in the program, more from our interview with the lebanese prime minister. we’ll find out about the country’s relationship with syria more than a year after the assasination of a former prime minister that may have been ordered by the syrian government. china’s president is in the u.s., now. hu jintao arriving in washington state today. the first stop on his four-day trip to the united states. hu’s plane touched down in everett, washington, earlier today, the beginning of a trip that takes him to the white house tomorrow and to yale university on friday. his schedule calls for a visit to microsoft’s headquarters in redmond, washington, followed by a dinner at at the home of bill gates. tomorrow, hu will tour a boeing plant before getting back on the plane to go to washington. later, i’ll talk to a member of congress about china’s relationship with microsoft and other high-tech companies. also today, minutes of the federal reserve’s march 28 policy meeting show members feel they were almost done raising rates at the time. we’ll hear from former fed governor, lyle gramley. next on “money & politics,” more on the changes at the white house. brookings political analyst thomas man on whether they’ll help solve the president’s political problems and whether a more extensive reshuffling is still ahead.
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Listen Interview: Brookings Institute Political Analyst---Thomas Mann
o. after another ringing endorsement from president bush today, defense secretary donald rumsfeld told reporters at the pentagon he hasn’t offered to resign even in the face of calls from former military comaernds that he be replaced. “the president knows i serve at his pleasure and that’s that,” rumsfeld said. president bush suggested there are more changes in his administration to come. when and who? earlier i put those questions to brookings institute political analyst, thomas mann.
>> i don’t know how dramatic the changes are. i doubt if that includes replacing the secretary of defense. listen, the move on o.m.b. was necessary because of josh bolten’s taking on the chief of staff duties. portman is someone who is easily confirmable, he’s well regarded, very able and i suppose it was kind of natural that he was selected for this. by all indications, there will be other moves in congressional liaison and in public affairs, the perennial treasury position will be open once again. but i don’t know how dramatic any of these personnel shuffles really are.
>> do they solve any of his problems, either with the polls or with members of his own party?
>> i don’t think they solve either problem. the president’s low public standing is driven by a very unpopular war in iraq, by high energy prices, by a widespread perception that the country’s seriously off track, as is the administration. and i don’t think personnel changes can make much of a difference. as far as the hill is concerned, the difficulties the president’s having, now, are as a consequence of the policies he’s pursuing and the conditions he faces. there are real divisions among republicans on the efficacy of various domestic spending cuts and the wisdom of extending tax cuts and changing faces at o.m.b. or in congressional liaison will not deal with those problems.
>> the president did give a ringing endorsement to donald rumsfeld today. he has not done that for john snow. a lot of speculation about his future. anyone else at the cabinet level who might go soon?
>> it’s always possible, but not for the major positions. and, frankly, other changes won’t be noticed except by very small numbers of people who deal with those departments. as for treasury, that secretaryship has been so downgraded that, frankly, it really isn’t very important. if snow stays or goes and is replaced by someone else.
>> is the president, then, somewhat of a lame duck if none of these moves will help much?
>> well, all presidents retain enormous discretionary authority to act unilaterally and in foreign policy, military actions, certainly issuing executive orders and the like. so certainly the president can also execute his first veto and then some. so he can be consequently but if it means can he get his own agenda enacted, the answer is no, he can’t, and these personnel changes won’t make much of a difference.
>> the brookings institute’s thomas mann. when we return, big news from washington for wall street today. fed officials say they’re almost done raising interest rates. what that means with former fed governor lyle gramley when “money & politics” continues.
