Rubin, Summers, Geithner, Lew, and Yellen Contribute to NYT Op-ed
"The Core of the Rule of Law Is Respecting Congressional Budget Authority"
"Suspending Congressional Budgets Is Ultimately a Default"
Hassett Dismisses, "Musk Does Not Control the Treasury"
Five former Treasury Secretaries from the administrations of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden have warned that actions taken by the Donald Trump administration and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), against the Treasury Department are undermining the United States' fiscal credibility.
On the 10th (local time), former Secretaries Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew, and Janet Yellen stated in a joint op-ed for the New York Times (NYT), "We write this because we are concerned about the risks of arbitrary and capricious political control over federal payments."
The former Treasury Secretaries expressed concern over the recent access of the Department of Government Efficiency to the Treasury Department's payment system, saying, "The government payment system has been operated by a very small number of bipartisan career civil servants," and "Recently, that norm has been overturned, and the role of bipartisan civil servants has been undermined by so-called political actors from the Department of Government Efficiency."
They added, "They lack the training and experience to handle private and personal data such as Social Security numbers and bank account information," and warned, "Their power potentially exposes the payment system and the highly sensitive data within it to our adversaries." They also noted, "This is why a federal judge temporarily blocked these individuals from the Treasury payment system last weekend." Earlier, on the 8th, Judge Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an emergency temporary order suspending the Department of Government Efficiency's access to the Treasury payment system.
The former Treasury Secretaries pointed out that "constitutional issues are likely to raise even greater alarm," criticizing the executive branch, including the Department of Government Efficiency, for cutting budgets appropriated by Congress.
They emphasized, "A core element of the rule of law is the executive branch's willingness to respect Congress's power of the purse," and "Even the President does not have unilateral authority to refuse to spend funds." They continued, "No Treasury Secretary should be placed in a position early in their term where they must reassure the nation and the world about the reliability of the budget system and the commitment to fulfilling federal financial obligations," adding, "Secretary Scott Bessent should have done so."
They also warned, "Selective suspension of budgets approved by Congress is a breach of trust and will ultimately be a form of default," and "Once lost, credibility is difficult to restore."
On the same day, Kevin Hassett, the top economic advisor to President Trump and Chairman of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), stated in an interview with CNBC, "Let me be clear that Secretary Bessent is in charge of the Treasury," and "We could not tolerate the previous (Biden) administration's spending controls. They sent money without knowing where it was going," drawing a clear line.
He added, "The idea that there is a puppet master telling the Treasury Secretary what to do, and therefore the Treasury Secretary should be vigilant, is nonsense from the left-wing media," emphasizing, "CEO Musk is in the office next to mine. He has no control over the Treasury."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
