In an article for Bloomberg published Thursday, columnist Jonathan Levin argued that recent fiscal messaging and policy decisions amount to hypocrisy on the part of policymakers.
The columnist strongly criticized Stephen Miran, the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) under President Donald Trump, for his apparent flip‑flop. At his Senate confirmation hearing for a Fed governor seat in March, Miran’s message was, in effect, “Don’t hold me to my words.”
According to Levin, that alone should disqualify him.
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Earlier, in a March 2024 essay, Miran had condemned the “revolving door” between the White House and the Federal Reserve, calling for an overhaul of that system and criticizing how technocratic Fed leadership had been replaced with “highly political” personnel moving freely between the executive branch and the central bank.
Yet now, as Trump’s nominee to the Fed Board, Miran seeks exactly the path he previously denounced, walking through that revolving door and joining the institution he once argued needed reform.
Levin noted that this irony makes Miran “among the most egregious examples of what he criticized.”
Levin also called out policymakers who preach fiscal discipline yet support major initiatives without transparent budgeting. “It’s hypocrisy to preach balanced budgets one moment, then rubber‑stamp multitrillion‑dollar plans with zero price‑tag attached the next," he wrote.
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Levin described the disconnect between politicians’ pledges and their actions, noting that speeches on cutbacks are often followed by unveiled spending. He warned this gap erodes public trust and could weaken long-term financial discipline.
The author reframed hypocrisy not as mere political spin, but as a threat to governance and credibility, saying that must be addressed if fiscal integrity is to be preserved.
"More recently, the president has been attempting to fire Governor Lisa Cook. If he succeeds in that, replacing Cook along with the Miran nomination would give Trump picks four of the seven slots on the Board of Governors. (Five if you include Powell himself, a 2018 pick by the president — though their supposed falling out is a whole other story.) Even under the most optimistic of interpretations, this all looks very bad, and appearances matter," he said.
"Miran now claims that his proposals were a 'package deal' that couldn’t be pulled apart as they sought to strike a very delicate balance. That sounds like a convenient excuse for hypocrisy," Levin added.
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