From American Progress Action ...

MEET THE NEW CHIEF

President Bush announced this morning that he has replaced Andrew Card, his Chief of Staff for the past five years, with Joshua Bolten, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The transfer of power will officially occur on April 14. Bolten served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy at the White House from Jan. 2001 to June 2003. Under his helm at OMB, the federal debt ballooned from $6.8 trillion to the current $8.4 trillion. And, despite issuing numerous veto threats to Congress to control its spending, Bolten never carried through on his rhetoric. In December 2003, Bolten "laid out a plan to shrink the deficit in half in a five-year period." But as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has noted, Bolten mortgaged the nation's long-term economic health for short-term gain because "deficits will rise sharply again soon after 2009, in part as a result of the Administration’s own policies." Even prior to the announcement today, Bolten has long been considered to be among a "tight team of close associates of the president [who] is calling the shots," including Vice President Cheney, Card, and Karl Rove. While many have called for a shakeup in the White House that would bring in new ideas and a new way of doing business, White House officials acknowledge that Bolten "knows how this White House operates" and is unlikely to make dramatic changes. As then-Sen. Jon Corzine once said of Bolten, "He's one of those people, though, who is on message and loyal to a fault."