Before he became Treasury secretary, Jacob Lew in 2010 sought to placate congressional Democrats who were seeking suggestions on ways to trim spending by proposing “symbolic” cuts only, according to a new batch of emails involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
According to emails sent and received on June 1, 2010, Clinton emailed Lew, who was then at the State Department, about the call from Congress to undertake a “cutting exercise.” The goal was to “get our ideas about what can be cut from our budget.”
Lew wrote back that Congress, which was led by Democrats at the time, might be considering cuts across all agencies. But he suggested that State delay replying with suggested cuts.
“I thought it was a bit early to start giving a list of what we would cut if the allocation is very bad, but will have people work on some recommendations for us to review while Congress is away,” he said.
Clinton said she wanted to discuss it further, after which Lew suggested teaming up with other agencies in order to see if a supplemental spending bill might help State avoid cuts.
“I asked both RM and F to get started on that analysis, but I also want to have some conversations at DoD to see if they are likely to need a supp as well, since alone we face much more risk,” he wrote.
Lew also suggested proposing “symbolic” cuts.
“I also think we need to explore a symbolic way to show that we understand the need for belt tightening,” he wrote.
A little more than a month after those emails were sent, Lew was nominated to become President Obama’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. And in February 2013, he became secretary of the Treasury.
