She was not even invited to the negotiations with G.O.P. congressional leaders during last winter's government shutdown. Panetta's departure leaves an enormous vacuum, and Raines appears eager to take advantage of it. In a White House that churns out micro-initiatives every day, Raines has squelched the Administration's habit of making such announcements without checking whether OMB has sanctioned a plan to pay for them with cuts elsewhere. This month he stepped in to require a more thorough vetting of measures that would tighten food-safety regulations. Raines has reined it in.
Raines also has no patience for Washington policyspeak, or political euphemism.
His ideas go well beyond making the numbers balance. Until now the U.S. government's relationship with the troubled District of Columbia had been a squabble over how large the federal subsidy should be. Last month Raines unveiled a bailout plan that would totally transform the contract between the two, opening a debate that all sides agree was long overdue. Within the Administration, Raines' first budget has produced a fair share of acrimony. For starters Clinton has for the first time committed himself to balance, with numbers credible enough to stand up to scrutiny on Capitol Hill but big enough to accommodate the promises he made during the last campaign.