President Bush took another step toward assembling the economic team that will spearhead his Social Security and tax reform proposals when he appointed Indiana businessman Allan B. Hubbard as assistant to the president for economic policy and the new director of the White House National Economic Council.
Hubbard, the president of E & A Industries Inc., an Indianapolis-based company he founded in 1977, replaces Stephen Friedman, who resigned in November after heading the economic council for two years. Friedman succeeded Lawrence B. Lindsey, who left the post in December 2002 when former Treasury secretary Paul ONeill resigned.
As Bushs top economic adviser, Hubbard will join other key administration officials in pushing the tax and Social Security reforms. They include Treasury Secretary John Snow, who now appears as if he will remain in his post despite speculation that Bush would ask him to resign, and two Treasury tax policy experts, Robert Carroll and Eric Solomon, who were appointed recently to replace acting assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy Greg Jenner, who resigned in December.
Hubbard, a former classmate of Bushs at the Harvard Business School and a long-time family friend, was the deputy chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle from 1990 to 1992. He more recently served as the Indiana state Republican chair and then as chair of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign in Indiana.
Hubbard received a masters degree from Harvard Business School. He also holds a bachelors degree from Vanderbilt University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.
