The Wall Street Journal has some advice for congressional Republicans.
In an opinion piece published Sunday, the Journal suggested the GOP support President Obama’s nominee for the Treasury Department in order to gain leverage in future negotiations.
Antonio Weiss, Obama’s nominee for Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance, has been strongly opposed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as a few other Democrats like Sens. Dick Durban of Illinois and Al Franken of Minnesota, for being too close to Wall Street.
“If Republicans do believe that a President should get appointees he wants, they might want to ask for something in return for confirming Mr. Weiss — say, a conservative judicial nominee, or a point more off the corporate tax rate as part of reform,” the opinion piece suggested.
Before Obama left for vacation in Hawaii last month, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest expressed confidence the Senate would approve his nomination.
“Mr. Weiss has a lot of experience, has knowledge that would be critically important to the successful conduct of the responsibilities of somebody who’s going to serve as the undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic finance. That’s why we’re counting on the Congress to take quick action and confirm him in bipartisan fashion,” Earnest said.
Weiss, head of investment banking for independent financial and asset management firm Lazard, was nominated by Obama on Nov. 12, 2014.
“The overrepresentation of Wall Street banks in senior government positions sends a bad message. It tells people that one — and only one — point of view will dominate economic policymaking,” Warren wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed after Weiss’ nomination.
