biden transition team
Biden Taps Bruce Reed, Deficit Hawk and Longtime Enemy of Social Security, for Deputy Chief of Staff
"You cannot have Bruce Reed in your administration and pretend Social Security is safe."
President-elect Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he has selected longtime adviser and notorious deficit hawk Bruce Reed to serve as deputy chief of staff, alarming progressives who have warned for weeks that the Democratic operative's record of commitment to austerity and support for Social Security cuts should disqualify him for any role in the White House.
Originally considered a leading contender to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before Biden selected Neera Tanden for that role, Reed is one of the architects of former President Bill Clinton's disastrous "welfare reform" as well as the 1994 crime bill, which Biden helped craft.
"During the worst national crisis since the Great Depression, the last thing we need are Social Security cuts--or any other form of austerity. We are extremely disappointed by this selection."
--Alex Lawson, Social Security Works
More recently, Reed served as executive Director of the Bowles-Simpson commission, an Obama administration initiative that in 2010 recommended slashing Social Security benefits and raising the program's retirement age. Reed was the lead author of the commission's report, "The Moment of Truth" (pdf).
A bio distributed by Biden's team notes that Reed "has spent 12 years working on domestic and economic policy in the White House," but does not mention welfare reform, the crime bill, or the Bowles-Simpson commission.
Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, part of a coalition of advocacy groups that urged Biden to keep Reed away from the White House, said the selection of Reed is "inconsistent" with the president-elect's "campaign promise to protect and expand Social Security benefits."
"During the worst national crisis since the Great Depression, the last thing we need are Social Security cuts--or any other form of austerity. We are extremely disappointed by this selection," Lawson said in a statement. "Fortunately, many other top appointments, including Ron Klain as Chief of Staff, are far more consistent with the platform Biden ran on. Bruce Reed needs to conform to the path laid out by President-elect Biden and build back better, without even a tiny hint of cruel cuts and devastating austerity."
"Austerity is a pathway to disaster," Lawson added. "Biden should listen to the voices telling him to turn the page on the austerity economics of the past."
Amira Hassan, political director for Justice Democrats, warned in a tweet Tuesday that Reed "has not evolved from his views in the slightest," citing a 2018 interview in which he touted the Bowles-Simpson commission report and said "everything should be on the table."
"He is an ideologue who has never apologized or distanced himself from the many policy failures he helped create," said Hassan. "Seeing him named as Deputy CoS is not encouraging. He should be kept as far away from Congressional negotiations as possible. He believes in austerity for working people and hand-outs for corporations."
\u201cBruce Reed has been trying to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for decades now\n\nHere he is in 2018 touting the Simpson-Bowles Commission as the goalpost. \n\n\u201cCaller is absolutely right that everything should be on the table\u201d\u201d— Amira Hassan (@Amira Hassan) 1606076689
In a statement announcing his selection of Reed and others for White House staff posts, Biden described the new picks as "respected leaders whose values and priorities align with my own"--words not likely to reassure progressives, given Reed's history of deficit hawkery and attacks on the remnants of America's social safety net.
"Bruce Reed is no team player--his whole project in politics has been slapping down the left," the Revolving Door Project, a watchdog group that scrutinizes the executive branch, argued at the end of a Twitter thread on Tuesday detailing Reed's policy record. "If Joe Biden wants a paradigmatic infighter in his inner circle, why should the left think Biden will ever act in good faith?"
\u201cIn the 2000\u2019s, Reed led the neoliberal Democratic Leadership Council, which pushed hard for Democrats to vote for the war in Iraq.\n\nWhy?\n\nOpposing a pointless, bloody war would look too \u201cfar left.\u201d (10/x)\nhttps://t.co/DBPrnmoVFJ\u201d— Revolving Door Project (@Revolving Door Project) 1608650225
Deputy chief of staff is not a particularly powerful position and likely not the role Reed preferred, as The American Prospect's David Dayen pointed out on Twitter. But with Tanden likely to face confirmation troubles if the GOP retains control of the Senate, it is possible that Reed could be put forth as the alternative for OMB chief.
Regardless of which post he ultimately ends up holding, the prospect of Reed being in the White House and having the ear of Biden was enough to concern progressives.
"You cannot have Bruce Reed in your administration and pretend Social Security is safe," tweeted Tyson Brody, former research director for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign.
Biden Quietly Adds Goldman Sachs, Big Tech Officials to Transition
"We cannot move forward in a new direction with just the same people, including some of the people who are responsible for the mess we are in."
President-elect Joe Biden's transition team in recent weeks has quietly brought aboard alumni of Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, tech giants Google and Facebook, and notorious consulting firm McKinsey, heightening alarm among watchdog groups that have urged the incoming administration to steer clear of the corrupting influence of corporate America.
Without the public announcements that accompanied the president-elect's cabinet picks and original members of the transition, Team Biden has added to its agency review groups Monica Maher, vice president for cyber threat intelligence at Goldman Sachs; Eric Goldstein, an 18-year Goldman Sachs veteran; and Josh Zoffer, a former engagement manager at McKinsey who now works at private equity firm Cove Hill Partners.
"Corporate America is meticulous in its pursuit of influence over the executive branch, targeting not only the highest profile spots but the full slate of relatively obscure, powerful positions beneath them."
--Eleanor Eagan, Revolving Door Project
On or around Thanksgiving, Politicoreported, Biden's transition also "quietly added four Facebook and Google employees to its agency review teams," despite pressure on the president-elect to resist Big Tech's efforts to "co-opt" his administration. As Reuterspointed out earlier this month, there are currently "more tech executives than tech critics on Biden's transition team."
Eleanor Eagan, research assistant at the Revolving Door Project (RDP), an initiative that scrutinizes executive branch appointees, told Common Dreams Tuesday that the Biden team appears to have been counting on "people not paying quite as much attention" to later additions to the transition team.
"This move by the transition team to slip in these revolving-door figures later in the game certainly is a troubling indication of what could be to come" as Biden begins staffing lower-profile but powerful positions in his administration, said Eagan.
As part of its ongoing effort to shine light on industry influence on the upper reaches of the federal government, RDP on Tuesday morning unveiled a Personnel Map that aims to visualize and track "the breadth and depth of corporate America's interest in the executive branch."
\u201cFor most, the inner workings of the executive branch are a bewildering mystery. But while we all focus elsewhere, corporations have been stacking the deck with friendly faces to maintain the status quo \n\n(1/2)\n\nhttps://t.co/7qiLbGg8ll\u201d— Revolving Door Project (@Revolving Door Project) 1608043293
News of Biden's latest additions to his transition team "fits very well with what we're trying to highlight with the Personnel Map," said Eagan.
"Corporate America is meticulous in its pursuit of influence over the executive branch, targeting not only the highest profile spots but the full slate of relatively obscure, powerful positions beneath them," Eagan added in a statement. "The Revolving Door Project believes it is time for groups with the public interest at heart to think just as expansively about executive branch governance."
With Biden's cabinet beginning to take shape following his picks to lead the State Department, the Pentagon, the Agriculture Department, Housing and Urban Development, and other key agencies, progressives are growing increasingly concerned about the corporate ties and business-friendly records of several of his nominees.
"The progressive movement deserves a number of seats--important seats--in the Biden administration. Have I seen that at this point? I have not."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
Tom Vilsack, Biden's pick to lead USDA, is a dairy industry lobbyist; retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, the president-elect's nominee for defense secretary, currently serves on the board of Raytheon, one of the largest military contractors in the world; and Antony Blinken, Biden's secretary of state pick, co-founded a consultancy firm that has worked on behalf of corporate clients in the tech, finance, and arms industries.
"I think there are some red flags or, in this case, some discouraging blue flags," Norman Solomon, national director of the progressive advocacy group RootsAction.org, told the Associated Press over the weekend, pointing specifically to Neera Tanden, Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
Progressives have also been vocalizing their frustration with what they view as a lack of representation among the president-elect's nominees thus far. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) toldAxios last week that given the significant role it played in Biden's decisive victory, "the progressive movement deserves a number of seats--important seats--in the Biden administration."
"Have I seen that at this point? I have not," the Vermont senator said. "I've told the Biden people: The progressive movement is 35-40% of the Democratic coalition. Without a lot of other enormously hard work on the part of grassroots activists and progressives, Joe would not have won the election."
Evan Weber, political director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, told the Washington Post over the weekend that "we cannot move forward in a new direction with just the same people, including some of the people who are responsible for the mess we are in."
"We would like to see more young progressives in roles in the Biden administration," said Weber.