The answer of course is No. That's probably Chuck Schumer, who was for Obamacaer before he was against it.
But Liz certainly is a contender with this move, as the geniuses at the WSJ explain:
You can forgive Antonio Weiss for wondering where he went wrong as a good Democrat. He supports higher taxes—more than $1 trillion in new revenue over 10 years for starters. He favors higher tax rates on capital gains and dividends, and he thinks personal tax rates on the wealthy can rise substantially with little damage to the economy. He also supports the Dodd-Frank law, including the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau it created.
Despite adhering to such liberal Democratic orthodoxy, Mr. Weiss now finds himself the target of a campaign by Senator Elizabeth Warren to block his nomination to become President Obama ’s Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance. We doubt this is what Mr. Weiss anticipated when he was using his status and riches on Wall Street to bundle campaign cash for Mr. Obama.
The Massachusetts progressive has framed her war on Mr. Weiss as resistance to Wall Street influence in Democratic policy making. The 48-year-old spent more than 20 years at Lazard, a firm that includes or has included such Democratic luminaries as Felix Rohatyn, Vernon Jordan and Steven Rattner . Now it’s apparently a Scarlet L.
In one sense this is curious since as recently as 2013 Ms. Warren voted to confirm Jack Lew to be Treasury Secretary. Mr. Lew’s job in 2008 was presiding over mortgage disasters at Citigroup , which needed one of the largest federal bailouts. Mr. Weiss succeeded on Wall Street as an investment banker, and Lazard didn’t need a bailout. Is financial competence now disqualifying in Democratic administrations?
The question is worth asking given the current lineup at Treasury. Apart from his brief and unfortunate banking career, Mr. Lew’s experience is in academia and politics. There’s no one at a senior Treasury position with any financial heft.
Mary Miller used to hold the domestic finance job, which is Treasury’s No. 3 post and is supposed to manage federal debt in addition to watching out for financial instability. Ms. Miller at least had run bond funds at T. Rowe Price , but she left Treasury in the autumn.
Ms. Warren’s Wall Street veto is also odd given that she is one of the many Democrats who now consider the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to be the equivalent of holy writ. That law is based on the premise that all-knowing regulators will be able to identify and manage threats to the financial system. To have a chance of working, this model presumably requires regulators who know something about the markets they are supposed to oversee. We think such faith in regulators is misbegotten, but it’s bizarre if financial ignorance is a policy prerequisite.
It wasn’t long ago that Wall Street experience was considered an advantage for Democrats at Treasury—evidence that the party of labor had some connection to the wealth producers of America. JFK tapped Douglas Dillon (Dillon, Read & Co.), while Bill Clinton chose Robert Rubin ( Goldman Sachs ) and the relatively moderate Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen. But the Warren Democrats seem increasingly to want to separate themselves from the private economy.
more at WSJ
But Liz certainly is a contender with this move, as the geniuses at the WSJ explain:
You can forgive Antonio Weiss for wondering where he went wrong as a good Democrat. He supports higher taxes—more than $1 trillion in new revenue over 10 years for starters. He favors higher tax rates on capital gains and dividends, and he thinks personal tax rates on the wealthy can rise substantially with little damage to the economy. He also supports the Dodd-Frank law, including the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau it created.
Despite adhering to such liberal Democratic orthodoxy, Mr. Weiss now finds himself the target of a campaign by Senator Elizabeth Warren to block his nomination to become President Obama ’s Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance. We doubt this is what Mr. Weiss anticipated when he was using his status and riches on Wall Street to bundle campaign cash for Mr. Obama.
The Massachusetts progressive has framed her war on Mr. Weiss as resistance to Wall Street influence in Democratic policy making. The 48-year-old spent more than 20 years at Lazard, a firm that includes or has included such Democratic luminaries as Felix Rohatyn, Vernon Jordan and Steven Rattner . Now it’s apparently a Scarlet L.
In one sense this is curious since as recently as 2013 Ms. Warren voted to confirm Jack Lew to be Treasury Secretary. Mr. Lew’s job in 2008 was presiding over mortgage disasters at Citigroup , which needed one of the largest federal bailouts. Mr. Weiss succeeded on Wall Street as an investment banker, and Lazard didn’t need a bailout. Is financial competence now disqualifying in Democratic administrations?
The question is worth asking given the current lineup at Treasury. Apart from his brief and unfortunate banking career, Mr. Lew’s experience is in academia and politics. There’s no one at a senior Treasury position with any financial heft.
Mary Miller used to hold the domestic finance job, which is Treasury’s No. 3 post and is supposed to manage federal debt in addition to watching out for financial instability. Ms. Miller at least had run bond funds at T. Rowe Price , but she left Treasury in the autumn.
Ms. Warren’s Wall Street veto is also odd given that she is one of the many Democrats who now consider the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to be the equivalent of holy writ. That law is based on the premise that all-knowing regulators will be able to identify and manage threats to the financial system. To have a chance of working, this model presumably requires regulators who know something about the markets they are supposed to oversee. We think such faith in regulators is misbegotten, but it’s bizarre if financial ignorance is a policy prerequisite.
It wasn’t long ago that Wall Street experience was considered an advantage for Democrats at Treasury—evidence that the party of labor had some connection to the wealth producers of America. JFK tapped Douglas Dillon (Dillon, Read & Co.), while Bill Clinton chose Robert Rubin ( Goldman Sachs ) and the relatively moderate Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen. But the Warren Democrats seem increasingly to want to separate themselves from the private economy.
more at WSJ
