Nominations Still Facing Delays.

Hillary Clinton put it best when asked by A.I.D.S workers why they were still without a chief, "The clearance and vetting process is a nightmare.” Matt Yglesias pointed out today that another appointee has been held up from senate confirmation due to tax issues. Lael Brainard was nominated to be The Under Secretary for International Affairs in March, seven months later her appointment has stalled due to a discrepancy with her Home-Office tax deduction.

Her role in the Treasury Department entails advising the Treasury Secretary on international affairs (rather self-explanatory.) With G-20 preparations under way and apparently a recent tariff on Chinese tires, it looks like the Treasury Department could use some leadership. If your telling yourself "well they still have acting officials" your right, but you can almost compare an interim appointee to a substitute teacher. The sub lacks a certain loyalty to the students, just like the students lack loyalty to the sub, from the start authority and control crumble. With international markets still struggling to recover after the events of last year, Obama and the American people need a strong, loyal Treasury Department.

So how do we fix it, apparently the blame is being tossed around, but I think you start by controlling how far we investigate these appointees. Not many people outside the IRS have heard of Home-Office tax deductions, in some ways we need to start making some trade-offs. We can spend months vetting candidates and bickering over party politics or we can have individuals appointed swiftly to vital positions, where they can serve national interests. Now the latter might lead to some rotten apples, but we're talking about 500+ appointments (each with crucial tasks), I think its a fair trade in the end.