Washington:
Neera Tanden, President-elect Joe Biden’s outspoken nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, faces a challenge winning Senate confirmation immediately after a Washington profession in which she has crossed highly effective figures on each the appropriate and left.
Biden unveiled lots of of his best financial nominees on Monday, such as Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen.
Tanden, 50, chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress (CAP) feel tank, and a longtime aide to former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, would be the initially lady of colour to lead the OMB, which acts as the gatekeeper for the $4 trillion federal spending budget.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton known as Tanden “a partisan hack” on Twitter for as soon as referring to Republican Senator Susan Collins as “the worst.” Tanden is “unfit to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate,” he wrote.
She has “zero chance” of getting confirmed, warned Drew Brandewie, communications director for Republican Senator John Cornyn, since of her “endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican senators whose votes she’ll need.”
Two runoffs in Georgia on Jan. 5 will establish regardless of whether Republicans sustain manage of the Senate. Well just before Tanden was named, some Republicans have been threatening to block Biden’s Cabinet picks.
CAP declined to comment on the criticism of Tanden, referring queries to the Biden transition group
A representative for the transition group stated the president-elect “looks forward to working in good faith with both parties in Congress to install qualified, experienced leaders,” adding Biden “has been heartened to see a number of Republican senators express their desire to work together and indicate that they believe that presidents deserve latitude in building their team.”
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, a close Biden ally, called Tanden “sensible, knowledgeable, and certified for the position of OMB Director.”
John Podesta, chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton and founder of CAP, said Tanden’s expertise would benefit all Americans as the Biden administration worked “to heal the deep financial wounds designed by the coronavirus pandemic, expand access to well being care, combat climate alter and far more.”
Tanden also won the endorsement from Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of U.S. unions, who tweeted that she would be a strong advocate for working families, “making sure our national spending budget addresses inequality & eliminates the rigged guidelines of an economy stacked against us for also lengthy.”
CRITICISM FROM LEFT
While Republicans criticized Tanden for her left-leaning views, the think tank she runs is seen by some Democrats as too corporate-friendly, in part because Wall Street and corporate executives and grants supply some of its funding.
She previously sparred with the progressive camp over her support for Clinton against Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential race, and drew fire for backing cuts to the Social Security retirement program to balance the budget nearly a decade ago.
When Sanders criticized a CAP-backed news site’s 2019 video about his personal wealth during the latest Democratic presidential race, Tanden agreed it was “overly harsh.” Sanders’ office did not respond to a query on whether he would support Tanden’s nomination.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Tanden would not call herself a “lifelong dyed-in-the-wool progressive movement activist,” but was also not threatening to wield “an austerity scalpel” over the budget.
“Whatever her position on other concerns, Neera Tanden has been actively outspoken in saying that now is not the time to be concerned about deficits,” Green said, “And that is an vital signal to progressives.”
Some Republicans, including strategist Bill Kristol, urged conservatives to support Tanden’s nomination, suggesting she would be more careful with federal funding than other Democrats.
“OMB is exactly where Cabinet secretaries’ ill-regarded as projects go to die, exactly where applications are evaluated, exactly where trade-offs are created. Neera Tanden is the appropriate individual for the job,” he wrote on Twitter.
(This story has not been edited by The Spuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)