President Bush’s nominee for U.S. Treasury Secretary was confirmed Wednesday by the full Senate, a few hours after clearing the Finance Committee, which is chaired by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.
Grassley says Henry Paulson worked his way up over 30 years in the investment banking industry, becoming C-E-O of Goldman Sachs in 1999. Grassley says Paulson’s salary last year was 63-million dollars, adding, “I want to emphasize that because I think a lot of people in the United States are so cynical, that they wouldn’t believe anybody would give up that kind of salary to come and be secretary of the Treasury for less than 200-thousand dollars a year. But there are people in this country that are selfless and willing to serve the public through public service.”
Paulson grew up on a farm in northern Illinois and attended Northwestern University. Grassley says Paulson took low level jobs at the White House after graduating and then worked at the Pentagon, before moving into banking.