(ABCnews.com published the following Reuters article by Glenn Somerville on January 26.)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawmakers will get their chance to put U.S. Treasury nominee John Snow on the hot seat on Tuesday as President Bush seeks to rebuild his economic team in preparation for a tax-cut battle.
The wealthy rail executive is assured a courteous, but not placid, question-and-answer session before the Senate Finance Committee, which must confirm Bush’s treasury chief choice before he can take up his post.
“Mr. Snow will receive a fair hearing, but not a rubber stamp,” promises Max Baucus of Montana, ranking Democrat on the committee.
Snow, 63, was named by Bush in December as his choice to replace dismissed former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who was followed out the door the same day by Lawrence Lindsey, head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers.
The council chairman, Glenn Hubbard, said last week he too will be departing at some point, which would make a clean sweep of Bush’s top economic ranks at a time of rising public disaffection.
DISAFFECTION SPREADS
A New York Times/CBS poll published on Friday showed nearly 50 percent of Americans disapproved of Bush’s handling of the economy and 41 percent were unhappy with his management of foreign policy — the highest disapproval ratings since he became president two years ago.
Against that sobering backdrop, Snow will face close questioning on the Bush administration’s $674 billion, 10-year tax-cutting program that he is expected to sell to lawmakers.
O’Neill’s caution about maintaining fiscal discipline was widely seen as one reason he ran into trouble with the Bush White House, which estimates the stimulus proposals could drive budget deficits up by $359 billion from 2003 to 2007.
Snow was a deficit hawk himself in the past — one of a group of top executives who took out an advertisement in major U.S. newspapers in December 1995 urging Democratic President Bill Clinton to balance the budget.
Some committee members want to know how he can endorse a stimulus plan that, by cutting tax revenues, must push deficits higher. That ultimately is more important than some personal issues such as a 2-decade-old arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol and a child-custody dispute.
“I think a DUI arrest 20 years ago is not material,” Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said. “A much greater concern for me is whether somebody who was concerned about deficits in the past no longer is.”
Seeking to more sharply define their differences with the Bush administration, opposition Democrats on Friday unveiled an alternative stimulus program offering immediate tax relief to individuals in working families as opposed to the centerpiece ending of taxes on dividends in the Bush plan.
DIGGING A DITCH
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said it would be aimed at poorer Americans and less likely to dig a “deficit ditch” than the Bush administration’s offer, which he claimed would push interest rates higher — something the White House contends will not occur but that Snow likely will be questioned about.
Snow, who pledged to give up his chairmanship of regional freight transportation giant CSX Corp. if made treasury secretary, was preparing the ground last week for his hearing. He made the rounds of senators’ offices and has been briefed extensively by White House and treasury officials on the Bush administration’s economic agenda.
One of the most sensitive issues with which a treasury chief must deal, currency policy, has grown in profile as the U.S. dollar’s value has weakened on worries about the impact from possible war with Iraq. The greenback has slumped nearly 10 percent since early December.
Snow is expected to make a statement on the dollar — likely a brief one — but it would be surprising if he departed far from the administration’s longstanding support for a strong dollar, a position the White House repeated twice in the past month remained its policy.
Indications on Friday were that Snow would face a grilling on his corporate leadership at CSX, but not likely on his personal past. The 1982 charges for driving under the influence were dismissed and his child-support case was settled.
“I think that senators are going to be very interested in exploring Mr. Snow’s record as a corporate CEO (chief executive officer) and other professional capacities over the course of his professional career,” Daschle told reporters.
“There certainly is no agenda for democrats other than that — to determine to the extent of our ability his qualifications, to clarify his past experiences, to get a better judgment from him about his intentions as secretary of Treasury,” Daschle said, adding the state of the economy and “his thoughts about some of the presidents proposals” also will be on the agenda.