Digging on databases and going back on November 2009, we find evidence that the reasons of Peter Orszag’s resignation from being the White House’s budget chief, may not have been what he stated when he left the office. The reason may as well have been his failure to pass stricter policies to fight deficits. His statements from that period clearly show how he viewed his job. Here are some quotations from the Bloomberg article:
- “The government needs to reduce the federal budget deficit to a “sustainable” level of about 3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product within six years.”
- “In the medium term out in 2015, 2016, 2017, we need to get to something around 3 percent of the economy so that debt is no longer rising as a share of the economy,” Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said.
- “Frankly I feel like my credibility is on the line in the document that we put out” in early February,” Orszag said.
In light of these statement and given that up to the time Mr. Orszag left office, the White House had not taken action in curbing the threatening debt, we may understand how Mr. Orszag may have been feeling.
This is the first time, during this presidency, a close ally of Mr. Obama leaves office. This case is more alarming, given that the decision of leaving the office is totally Mr. Orszag’s. It is not normal for people in the highest positions to leave them for no good reason.
