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Conservatives: New team should press tax cutsDemocrats say focus should be policies, not players
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As President Bush assembles a new economic team, some conservatives are praising the move as a way for the administration to more effectively deliver its message of tax cuts, while Democrats say the changes point to a problem with the White House's policies. "I think there is reason to be cautiously optimistic," said Lawrence Whitman, an economics scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. Whitman saluted outgoing Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill as a "good man" who played a key role in the tax cut that was signed into law last year, but said O'Neill was not an "ardent and effective advocate for cutting tax rates." "It will be important for him to have a team in place that shares his point of view," Whitman said of the president. Bush Tuesday named William Donaldson, a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, to replace Harvey Pitt, as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. On Monday, the president tapped named John Snow, a top railroad executive, to lead the Treasury Department. He has yet to announce his choice to replace White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, but sources say Stephen Friedman, a former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, is the leading choice. Senior White House officials told CNN Tuesday that complaints from conservative groups about Friedman would not dissuade Bush from tapping the veteran Wall Street executive for the top economic post on the White House staff. Some conservatives believe Friedman would not be aggressive enough in promoting further tax cuts. For their part, Democrats have been cool to Bush's announcements. Several lawmakers have praised the men as intelligent and well-qualified, but said they're being asked to sell a flawed economic strategy. "John Snow and Stephen Friedman appear to be well-qualified, capable individuals, but the real issue here is not about personalities," Rep. Steny Hoyer, the incoming House Democratic whip, said in a statement. "The fact is, they're going to be asked to sell the same old economic snake oil that the Bush administration has been pushing for more than three years." Sen. Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate, called it "encouraging" that the president was "reaching out to people of experience." "But it isn't the names, but the plan that is of concern to us," Daschle told reporters Monday. He said the White House must do more than "rearrange the chairs" if it was serious about turning the economy around. From the Republican side of the aisle, Sen. Chuck Grassley, incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, suggested in a statement that Snow has his work cut out for him. "We need a Treasury secretary who understands job creation," Grassley, R-Iowa, said. "Another is his earlier comments about cleaning up corporate wrongdoing. I agree that restoring confidence in corporations is a key part of rejuvenating economic growth." Snow's nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. Grassley said he hopes the nomination process would unfold "as quickly as possible." Senior White House Correspondent John King and Capitol Hill Producer Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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