National Journal reports that Obama has tapped Peter Orszag to run the important behind-the-scenes Office of Management and Budget. Orszag is the current head of the nonpartisan and widely respected Congressional Budget Office. NJ says:
Orszag, who will turn 40 on Dec. 16, has been praised by lawmakers from both parties as an objective analyst with deep knowledge of the most pressing fiscal issues of the day, including health care policy, Social Security, pensions, and global climate change. He is the unusual economist who blends an understanding of politics, policy and communications in ways that wrap zesty quotes around complex ideas.
Orszag is also something of a moderate. although in my experience he has played a middle role in the long-running feud between the Democratic Party's economic theorists of the center and the left. Anyway, he's a complete expert, a very serious policy person.
And this is the point. In 2001 Bush gave this job to Mitch Daniels, whose background theretofore was in Republican politics and at a major pharmaceutical company. Daniels isn't considered to have done much of a job at OMB (he's now the governor of Indiana). He is most famous for estimating that the Iraq war would cost maybe $60 billion. It's now close to ten times that.
This is the difference. People who actually care about how well government performs tend to appoint people who are, you know, expert and capable.
