WaPo: Biden hires all-female senior communications team, names Neera Tanden director of OMB

[kambaybolongo]

I'm not a fan of the accompanying text, but it does push back against the assertions like the one on this page that everyone on the left despises the pick.

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It's 100% on topic, and exposes hypocrisy from elected representatives thought to be progressives.

Why are you questioning the worthiness of such a post?

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Do you guys genuinely think Barbara Lee wrote that tweet or even knows that it was made? Come on, even Bernie Sanders twitter account occasionally posts things that are not in line with his ideology. Tweets from nameless staffers don't erase the indefensible things Neera Tanden has said and done nor give her any progressive bonafides.

 

[eebster]

If it's up to the Democrats (provided the GA runoffs go their way), she will get a passing vote. Hell, she may get support from a few Republicans.

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Man this must be the hardest job in the world. Certainly there is someone else, among 380 million americans, who is just as qualified for the job yet doesn't come with tonns of baggage?

And why do people keep bringing up her professional qualifications to counter her critics? That's completely irrelevant, she might be the most suited person in the world for this job and the pick would still be indefensible. People aren't questioning her qualifications but her morals and ethics and her open resentment of the progressive wing of the party.

 

[Tukarrs]

Neera is not good but allegedly the person in contention with her was even worse.



It's good to vent but progressives need to brace themselves for when Bernard votes her in.

 

[Volimar]

Do you guys genuinely think Barbara Lee wrote that tweet or even knows that it was made? Come on, even Bernie Sanders twitter account occasionally posts things that are not in line with his ideology. Tweets from nameless staffers don't erase the indefensible things Neera Tanden has said and done nor give her any progressive bonafides.

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I'm not here to give cover to Tanden. I think people should absolutely be free to oppose her nomination. All I'm saying is there's nothing wrong with disproving a demonstrably wrong assertion. There are several progressive voices that have endorsed this pick. How much of that is indicative of the number of supporters vs those opposed? I can't say. It's just demonstrably false that everyone on the left despises the pick. <shrug>

 

[Equippedwithtowel]

Neera is not good but allegedly the person in contention with her was even worse.



It's good to vent but progressives need to brace themselves for when Bernard votes her in.

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do you think people are in denial about that fact? why should the left care what bernie does?

 

[JesseEwiak]

Thanks for sharing Lee's perspective. What is your opinion of Tanden as OMB nominee?

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I think a fiscal liberal who supports full employment, and won't play the semantic games even prior Democratic OMB directors have when it comes to social spending is positive, and the fact she's a Democratic hack is actually a good, even for the Left,, because it'll likely lead to rosier results for Democratic plans of all ideologies, and greater pushback by the OMB against dumb Republican plans.

 

[kambaybolongo]

I'm not here to give cover to Tanden. I think people should absolutely be free to oppose her nomination. All I'm saying is there's nothing wrong with disproving a demonstrably wrong assertion. There are several progressive voices that have endorsed this pick. How much of that is indicative of the number of supporters vs those opposed? I can't say. It's just demonstrably false that everyone on the left despises the pick. <shrug>

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It depends what you define as "the left." If you define it broadly to include liberals and "progressive" corporatists, then sure, Tanden probably has a fair bit of support. If you narrow it to you know, actual leftists, I'd imagine she has little to no support. That being said, leftists are already completely disengaged from the Biden administration so it's a moot point.

 

[medinaria]

Neera is not good but allegedly the person in contention with her was even worse.



It's good to vent but progressives need to brace themselves for when Bernard votes her in.

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bruce reed is awful for completely different reasons (serious austerity hawk), so yeah - he's the rumored alternative, anyway

also basically all of us resigned ourselves to sanders voting pretty much party line on everything, ever since he endorsed biden in the general without any preconditions. this is who he is, and whether or not people like it is up to them - I personally don't really mind! politics is politics, you do what you gotta do sometimes.

 

[Equippedwithtowel]

I'm not sure why the left should see as a win about a budget director's support for full employment. That's nice i guess but the budget direction has a lot of influence on the executive's domestic agenda so forgive people for seeing areas in which her track record on both policy and leadership might be a more substantial cause for concern.

it is how that social spending would be allocated (as well as when and how it is conditioned), essentially what compromises will be coming to justify opening the money printer. In my mind that is far more important and people are far more concerned about that the issue of not she falls within the liberal keneysian mainstream. If this conversation was happening in 1994 or 2006 the bar might be a bit lower but we live in 2020 and we have to organize our standards around the conditions of the moment.

 

[Foffy]

As if the Biden team hadn't given enough middle fingers to progressives. Tanden is an awful choice for a government appointment for so many reasons.

Biden keeps proving me right and making me glad I didn't vote for him.


It's a strategy that will totally pay off in the 2022 midterms! Can't wait for them to blame the left!

BTW, an interesting tidbit regarding her twitter account:

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I find this amusing. Liberals really are a problem in this country, because they often seem more willing to get cozy with conservatives than actually support progressive, "leftist" policy. A sign of things to come, clearly.

All I can think about is AOC's remarks about Biden. We have one chance to make the lives of people better, and if we fail that, we might seriously be fucked. We have barely beaten back the GOP and Trump despite terrible tax bills, a pandemic that is the worst on earth, incompetence at every position of power, and an economic depression. What should have been a blowout was a race that ended up being too close.

My fear is we will blow this, because we're talking about America. This place never gets anything right. Pushing someone who advocates for full employment is just about the last "sensible" thing you should be doing, as a great deal of America's current ills have been directly linked to this idea that everyone can get a job and we'll just link every social standing of wellbeing to that eroding reality. The pandemic should have been an absolute death call to this idea, but we know the GOP didn't budge, and now it looks like liberals won't, either...

 

[Pet]

fwiw I don't think she's a candidate selected with republicans in mind either, I was just kind of using that to contextualize the belief that biden needs to understand his dire need to make sure the left is happy as well. (also I think that picking anyone because republicans will confirm them is a fool's game, because republicans have shown repeatedly that they're not to be trusted - pick who you want, nominate them, and figure out what to do based on how the republicans respond)

so I think it would actually matter a great deal (and I don't think it'll be sanders himself, for "control of the senate" reasons in particular). in general, I tend to think that biden earns leeway by appointing people the left likes, and spends that leeway on appointing people the left dislikes - it's obviously not quite that direct, in that people don't have a mental ledger of this kind of shit, but it'd probably be mostly true. and I think that's kind of where the political realities set in - he either can't really pick people the left actually likes, doesn't believe he can, or doesn't want to.

as an example, data for progress (who are... not quite as left as I'd like, but at least getting there) put out a huge list of candidates they'd like to see all across the government: https://filesforprogress.org/reports/progressive-cabinet-project-report.pdf. so far, they are batting 0 for 8. my guess is that this pattern continues, although I'd love to be proven wrong. and that's kind of the issue - the best we've seen so far is "not somebody we'd actually like, but better than the alternatives". he's not really earning a lot of goodwill here, and neera's a big spend. possibly the biggest. (maaaaaaaaybe rahm emanuel is bigger. and there's rumors that he's getting a job too, so...)

so I think it's theoretically possible that he gets to a point where I could go "ok, we got some stuff, they got some stuff, whatever, it's a wash". but at least so far, from the picks we know, I don't really see it happening. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though.

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Again, thanks for elaborating. I get what you mean and I guess we'll have to see how everything pans out.

I wish I was more personally familiar with the many positions and qualifications, but it's been really helpful being able to learn from others.

 

[Scottt]

I think a fiscal liberal who supports full employment, and won't play the semantic games even prior Democratic OMB directors have when it comes to social spending is positive, and the fact she's a Democratic hack is actually a good, even for the Left,, because it'll likely lead to rosier results for Democratic plans of all ideologies, and greater pushback by the OMB against dumb Republican plans.

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That is fair. I'm not sure whether Tanden will or won't play semantic games--though it's hard to guess either way through her professional record. I think that the OMB under Tanden would capably work towards Biden's administrative agenda since their politics align. My trepidation is that legislative and policy advances that draw from those politics won't be good enough to accomplish the necessary improvements.

 

[fragamemnon]

her open resentment of the progressive wing of the party.

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it's really just the left , not the entire progressive wing. Mainstream progressives are well represented in the big tent and Biden's politics and policies are right in line with where they are.

This left has for years treated Democrats with rhetoric almost indistinguishable from republicans, functionally acting an in-party insurgency. They reject the party's big tent politics and want to replace it. They had a candidate they overwhelming backed that was pretty open about doing that.




To be fair, the reasoning behind this is that they don't feel they can ever get what they want out of the Dem big tent, so it's better to burn it all down than to even try. There's reason for them to believe that.

This is where Neera and hyper-engaged "normie" big tent Dems and the too-online left have it out over. One side believes to the core in the big tent as the way to win majorities and that the left representation problem in the big tent is resolvable in a positive way, the other doesn't and sees the differences as intractable and majorities unreachable, and that's only fixable via a complete reboot of the party's organizing structure.

note I'm not trying to punch left. But IMO if you have a thread about Neera twitter feed you can't separate it from the context of the posts, and setting it in the in-party actual context is really important. It's also a tension that will not be going away anytime soon, if anything the structural problems of being a cosmopolitan party in a system that overwhelmingly values rural votes will continue to add more fuel to the fire.

 

[dabig2]

It's good to vent but progressives need to brace themselves for when Bernard votes her in.

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Bernie can vote however he wants. Doesn't erase that Neera is a bad pick for any cabinet level position, and I hope those on the left not comfortable with her continue to speak out about her history and present.

Bernie can sit there and take all the shit that will be coming in that hearing and still go on to confirm Neera, but whatever he does shouldn't be a concern for anyone here. What is a concern is that during the hearings the Repubs are enthusiastically going to bring up Neera's shitflinging past and other disreputable nonsense she got up into. And then she and the Repubs will probably bond over it.

So before such a hearing takes place, the only important thing that matters is that the left reframes the entire discussion. Bernie's individual action is inconsequential.

 

[Xaszatm]

I like how people dismissing the criticisms we have of Neera as "Twitter drama" are also usually the ones to bring up "rose Twitter". Makes it very obvious how much disdain they have for the left.

 

[Tfritz]

note I'm not trying to punch left. But IMO if you have a thread about Neera twitter feed

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it's really not a thread about neera tanden's twitter account, that was merely a slight detour in the larger discussion

 

[Codeblue]

This left has for years treated Democrats with rhetoric almost indistinguishable from republicans, functionally acting an in-party insurgency. They reject the party's big tent politics and want to replace it. They had a candidate they overwhelming backed that was pretty open about doing that.

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Not sure I agree with the notion that Republican and Leftist rhetoric is similar at all regarding Democrats. When you're in the center you're going to catch heat from both ends, and the critiques are typically at odds with each other.

 

[Orb]

It's good to vent but progressives need to brace themselves for when Bernard votes her in.

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Bernie is not a god and pointing out something "bad" he does isn't a gotcha for the left. I like Bernie Sanders because of his policies. I don't really care anything about Bernie the person and I don't hold him up as some paragon of perfection. I'm not going to wring my hands and try to justify his mistakes. If he does something I disagree with, I'll criticize it just like I would for everyone else.

People on this site need to stop with the "but Bernie did ____________" and think that's the perfect trap card to anyone on the left. Especially bringing him up as the gotcha when he wasn't even part of the conversation. It's so incredibly frustrating.

 

[fragamemnon]

Not sure I agree with the notion that Republican and Leftist rhetoric is similar at all regarding Democrats. When you're in the center you're going to catch heat from both ends, and the critiques are typically at odds with each other.

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The axis of attack isn't left/right, it's trust/distrust of institutions. You have Republicans with a refined Trump message here and Bernie types wanting to also tear down everything, including some even going against the natural order of capitalism.

 

[samoscratch]

I wish I was surprised, but you know, progressives are good for bringing the votes home and then we are discarded like always.

 

[Codeblue]

The axis of attack isn't left/right, it's trust/distrust of institutions. You have Republicans with a refined Trump message here and Bernie types wanting to also tear down everything, including some even going against the natural order of capitalism.

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But the rhetoric is fundamentally different. "There's too much government and it doesn't work" isn't rhetorically indistinguishable as "Government is not doing enough for you and that's a failure of leadership". I don't feel like boiling both down to "government isn't doing what it's supposed to" really represents the arguments people are making.

 

[The Adder]

It depends what you define as "the left." If you define it broadly to include liberals and "progressive" corporatists, then sure, Tanden probably has a fair bit of support. If you narrow it to you know, actual leftists, I'd imagine she has little to no support. That being said, leftists are already completely disengaged from the Biden administration so it's a moot point.

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"If you only count True Scotsmen, then..."

 

[grunkleFungus]

The axis of attack isn't left/right, it's trust/distrust of institutions. You have Republicans with a refined Trump message here and Bernie types wanting to also tear down everything, including some even going against the natural order of capitalism.

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Capitalism is a natural order? Neera, don't you have work to do?

 

[Staf]

As a somewhat moderate i couldn't be more happier with these choices. Those are some superqualified women, really like Symone and Neera.

 

[Xaszatm]

The axis of attack isn't left/right, it's trust/distrust of institutions. You have Republicans with a refined Trump message here and Bernie types wanting to also tear down everything, including some even going against the natural order of capitalism.

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"Natural order of capitalism"? Also yay more horseshoe theory with the subtle implication that leftists are the same as right wingers.

 

[BringBackSonics]

Cecilia Rouse's role as Chair of CEA will be considered Cabinet level in the Biden Administration:

STATEMENT: President-Elect Biden’s CEA Appointees Have the Expertise and Commitment To Rebuild a Stronger and More Equitable Economy

www.americanprogress.org

 

[Tfritz]

I wish I was surprised, but you know, progressives are good for bringing the votes home and then we are discarded like always.

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just as a fun mental exercise (which may be useful in the future depending on how future elections shake out), who is someone you'd like to see in the position of director of the OMB? this isn't like, singling you out, specifically, samoscratch, it's using your post as a jumping off point for discussion about it. who is someone that leftists would actually be happy with in this position?

 

[samoscratch]

just as a fun mental exercise (which may be useful in the future depending on how future elections shake out), who is someone you'd like to see in the position of director of the OMB? this isn't like, singling you out, specifically, samoscratch, it's using your post as a jumping off point for discussion about it. who is someone that leftists would actually be happy with in this position?

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It's not complicated, a real progressive, someone who doesn't just serve the system, someone who doesn't advocate for cutting social security, someone that actually cares about the citizens of this country. Neera Tanden is basically a big fuck you to the progressive crowd because she is the opposite of what we're looking for.

 

[Shaun Solo]

the natural order of capitalism

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citation needed

 

[gogosox82]

It's not complicated, a real progressive, someone who doesn't just serve the system, someone who doesn't advocate for cutting social security, someone that actually cares about the citizens of this country. Neera Tanden is basically a big fuck you to the progressive crowd because she is the opposite of what we're looking for.

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Anyone who isn't Neera Tanden honestly. Horrible, horrible pick.

 

[Kay]

citation needed

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So natural that it took 10,000 years of cultural evolution and has managed to cook us alive and cover the planet in plastic in less than 300 years.

 

[Tfritz]

I mean, I get that, I was more looking for, like, actual names rather than "I want someone is good, instead of bad." Like a common refrain amongst The Left In America is that you have to give people a reason to support you, it's not enough to say "this person is bad."

Anyway I guess what I'm getting at is that The Left needs to start priming bureaucrats who will actually be able to fill these positions and handle all the boring, non-aesthetic stuff (as a bonus: while those bureaucrats are working their way through local government positions perhaps they can do some good things that help folks).

 

[Equippedwithtowel]

I mean, I get that, I was more looking for, like, actual names rather than "I want someone is good, instead of bad." Like a common refrain amongst The Left In America is that you have to give people a reason to support you, it's not enough to say "this person is bad."

Anyway I guess what I'm getting at is that The Left needs to start priming bureaucrats who will actually be able to fill these positions and handle all the boring, non-aesthetic stuff (as a bonus: while those bureaucrats are working their way through local government positions perhaps they can do some good things that help folks).

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is there anyone who isn't part of a think tank who's main model is taking corporate money to make corporate friendly "progressive" policy? The people who are complaining would complain less if that happened.

Biden can pick whoever he wants, he won. The point where people are chided for failing to pretend the pick is something it is not is where i think a lot of people want to push back

 

[Pekola]

I mean, I get that, I was more looking for, like, actual names rather than "I want someone is good, instead of bad." Like a common refrain amongst The Left In America is that you have to give people a reason to support you, it's not enough to say "this person is bad."

Anyway I guess what I'm getting at is that The Left needs to start priming bureaucrats who will actually be able to fill these positions and handle all the boring, non-aesthetic stuff (as a bonus: while those bureaucrats are working their way through local government positions perhaps they can do some good things that help folks).

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As I understand it, this was posted before. It's a 165 page document that has over 100 potential cabinet picks:

The Data for Progress Cabinet Tracker

What has running cover for Biden won?

www.carlbeijer.com

The problem is never that the people aren't there, tbh. There's tons of people, but people like Tanden are grandfathered in because she's worked for tons of campaigns, and is kinda a mainstay in all democratic campaigns. IMO, you should move away from people like Tanden if you want to work with the left base. Or don't, but there's consequences to that.

 

[dabig2]

The axis of attack isn't left/right, it's trust/distrust of institutions. You have Republicans with a refined Trump message here and Bernie types wanting to also tear down everything, including some even going against the natural order of capitalism.

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​

"We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice," said King. "The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor — both black and white, here and abroad." ​

​

- MLK​

Since the "natural order" of capitalism includes: exploitation, waste, inequality, and very much racism; then I would hope there are those out there willing to speak up about it and mobilize others on the ground to tackle capitalism for what it is. Goes far beyond Bernie types as well.

"Natural order of capitalism"? Also yay more horseshoe theory with the subtle implication that leftists are the same as right wingers.

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always relevant:

The far right wants to impose a fascist ethnostate.
The "far left" wants everyone to have healthcare, housing, and basic dignity.

These two things are not morally equivalent and I cannot believe this point continues to be lost on so many people.

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Anyone who isn't Neera Tanden honestly. Horrible, horrible pick.

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They legit thought she'd be a bone to us, lmao

Just interviewed the head of a major progressive group who said that the Biden transition team reached out after the Tanden nomination to say "aren't you happy, we met your demands, we brought in a movement leader"

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It's why we have to be loud and remain loud. Can't let them control the narrative and framing any longer.

 

[gogosox82]

I mean, I get that, I was more looking for, like, actual names rather than "I want someone is good, instead of bad." Like a common refrain amongst The Left In America is that you have to give people a reason to support you, it's not enough to say "this person is bad."

Anyway I guess what I'm getting at is that The Left needs to start priming bureaucrats who will actually be able to fill these positions and handle all the boring, non-aesthetic stuff (as a bonus: while those bureaucrats are working their way through local government positions perhaps they can do some good things that help folks).

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Why do leftists have to do this? Why don't you go first? Who do you want for OMB unless your totally fine with Tandem. Honestly, i find this question largely performative. Its not like anyone cares who leftists think about who is OMB. If we name someone we like, they pick the opposite as demonstrated by Biden picking Tanden.

 

[Balphon]

Anyone who isn't Neera Tanden honestly. Horrible, horrible pick.

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Bruce Reed it is, then.

 

[fragamemnon]

"Natural order of capitalism"? Also yay more horseshoe theory with the subtle implication that leftists are the same as right wingers.

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To stay on topic of the nominees-Neera's worked in the fabric for over a decade in Democratic Party (often to the left of it) policymaking, which is a lot about juicing consumer markets to nudge outcomes, closing off damaging externalities through regulation and welfare programs, and preventing/fixing market failures that would lower the standard of American life. The underlying base for all of this is capitalism, so to the party it is the natural order of things and moving off of that foundation would require a complete reboot of every party policy apparatus and a totally different set of cabinet and deputies to execute policy through. Hence the "tear it all down" remark above. You can't have any of Biden's economic nominees if you aren't operating from that starting point, it would be like doing math in base 6 instead of 10.

The "far left" wants everyone to have healthcare, housing, and basic dignity.

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Neera, in her time running CAP, oversaw staffing and programs for healthcare , housing , and fighting poverty . The far left doesn't own those issues-but they do care deeply about them, which is great. The left can (and most do, it's not like Bernie's supporters didn't also vote for Biden, they did in reliable numbers!) works to solve them through broadly workable policy using allies as a force multiplier for those goals. CAP stuff makes it into Dem Party bills and platforms because it's decent proposals.

Neera punches back at the small part of the left (overrepresented in left media and on Twitter) that doesn't want to cooperate and has a "not good enough, you want poor people to die" approach to cooperation. Which has to be super insulting when you tell it to someone whose head is in these problems all day, so flame on because people are people.

Another note-the non-"mean on Twitter" arguments people are making about Tanden have not seem to prevent her from getting plenty of progressive wing endorsements.

 

[medinaria]

just as a fun mental exercise (which may be useful in the future depending on how future elections shake out), who is someone you'd like to see in the position of director of the OMB? this isn't like, singling you out, specifically, samoscratch, it's using your post as a jumping off point for discussion about it. who is someone that leftists would actually be happy with in this position?

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the thing about this question is that the actual job itself just... isn't that demanding in terms of qualifications. like, neera tanden's being considered for it! her qualifications are "working on clinton campaigns" and "being in charge of a think tank", basically - and apparently that's good enough. so my answer would be to go look through house members in safe democratic seats, find one with a pulse that doesn't support austerity or balanced budget amendments, and pick them. don't really care which. some of them are probably even on the budget committee, which is a place that omb directors have been pulled from before.

 

[Tfritz]

Why do leftists have to do this? Why don't you go first? Who do you want for OMB unless your totally fine with Tandem. Honestly, i find this question largely performative. Its not like anyone cares who leftists think about who is OMB. If we name someone we like, they pick the opposite as demonstrated by Biden picking Tanden.

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mostly i just think it'd be good if there were more leftists running things, and that a potential leftist president should have a good bench of folks they can appoint to these positions, and the often repeated mantra of "it's not enough to say 'person bad' you have to give people a reason to support you" applies here.

as for "no one really cares what we say, they'll just pick the opposite" thing: listen, this is a discussion forum. it's for discussing things!

 

[nelsonroyale]

​

"We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice," said King. "The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor — both black and white, here and abroad." ​

​

- MLK​

Since the "natural order" of capitalism includes: exploitation, waste, inequality, and very much racism; then I would hope there are those out there willing to speak up about it and mobilize others on the ground to tackle capitalism for what it is. Goes far beyond Bernie types as well.



always relevant:




They legit thought she'd be a bone to us, lmao



It's why we have to be loud and remain loud. Can't let them control the narrative and framing any longer.

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Fucking hell, that conflation mostly boils down to the fact that she has ethnic minority heritage right? because there isn't really any genuine appraisal in which Tanden could be counted as progressive, unless it is in traditional modernisty sense. Like we are choosing someone who is a PoC, shouldnt that please you? As someone who is a PoC, that is a pretty insulting stance.

She would be granting ethical wavers of all things in her position.

 

[B-Dubs]

Don't bump 2 month old threads for no reason