119 replies to this topic

[Rich T Bikkies]

LFC, on 04 December 2020 - 10:48 AM, said:

Fauci is going to be Biden's Chief Medical Adviser.

And Trump is going to fire him before 2359 EST tonight.

[AnBr]

Biden's Economic Team Knows Compromise Is Overrated

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Advisers learned from their Obama years that Republicans won't be reasoned with, so they might as well shoot for the stars.

President-elect Joe Biden has now picked most of his economic team, including Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary and Cecilia Rouse to head the Council of Economic Advisers. All three are veterans of President Barack Obama's administration, and there's one big lesson they should have learned from their previous service: Preemptive compromise will get you nowhere.

Winston Churchill once said that we should “never let a good crisis go to waste.” Like Obama, Biden and his advisers will confront an economic crisis from Day One: a lingering recession, elevated unemployment and a dysfunctional health care system.

But unlike Obama in 2009, Biden probably won't have a Congress under unified Democratic control -- unless the party can pull off twin victories in Georgia's Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections. Some will argue that this means Biden will have to be even more conciliatory than Obama was. Instead, Biden and his advisers likely will have taken away the opposite lesson from the early 2010s. Namely, that it makes sense to start with sweeping proposals that capture the heart of the nation.

[LFC]

Biden names retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to head the DoD.

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President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense, according to four people familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon.

Biden selected Austin over the longtime front-runner candidate, Michele Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official and Biden supporter who would have been the first woman to serve as defense secretary. Biden also had considered Jeh Johnson, a former Pentagon general counsel and former secretary of homeland defense.

The impending nomination of Austin was confirmed by four people with knowledge of the pick who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the selection hadn’t been formally announced. Biden offered and Austin accepted the post on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the process.

As a career military officer, the 67-year-old Austin is likely to face opposition from some in Congress and in the defense establishment who believe in drawing a clear line between civilian and military leadership of the Pentagon. Although many previous defense secretaries have served briefly in the military, only two — George C. Marshall and James Mattis — have been career officers. Marshall also served as secretary of state.

Like Mattis, Austin would need to obtain a congressional waiver to serve as defense secretary. Congress intended civilian control of the military when it created the position of secretary of defense in 1947 and prohibited a recently retired military officer from holding the position.

One of the people who confirmed the pick said Austin’s selection was about choosing the best possible person but acknowledged that pressure had built to name a candidate of color and that Austin’s stock had risen in recent days.

Josh Marshall calls this out as A Serious Mistake (paywalled). Getting a waiver for somebody who very recently served is a practice he wants to see end.

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I know very little about Lloyd Austin, who appears to be Joe Biden’s pick to be Secretary of Defense. So I want to be clear this criticism isn’t a criticism of him but of his status and background as a recently retired four-star general. It’s the first post-election choice from Biden I find very disappointing.

Like General Mattis, Austin is a recently retired four star General. He will need a congressional waiver to serve as Defense Secretary because the law actually forbids recently retired (less than seven years) general officers from serving as Secretary of Defense. Mattis and George Marshall are the other two who’ve gotten waivers.

There’s a good reason for this law. Such appointments blur the line which between uniformed and civilian authority over the US military. It also encourages the belief that former generals are the most logical people to run the Pentagon. That belief is so pernicious precisely because it does have an inherent logic. But of course it runs totally counter to civilian supremacy over the armed forces.

I’m sure Austin believes all this too. Even though I know little about him, I don’t think Biden would choose him if he weren’t accomplished and ready to do a good job in the role. But it’s still a mistake. It was a mistake with Mattis. But that was a first in well over half a century. Doing it again four years later just compounds the error.

[LFC]

Apparently veteran of the Obama administration Tom Vilsack is the pick for Agriculture and Marcia Fudge is the HUD pick.

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President-elect Joe Biden made two key domestic policy picks Tuesday, selecting former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role along with Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions.

The picks highlighted Biden’s delicate balancing act as he builds out his Cabinet, seeking to diversify his picks and reward the coalitions that helped elect him while also following his instincts to surround himself with close allies who served in the Obama administration.

Vilsack spent eight years as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor.

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President-elect Joe Biden will reportedly select Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Politico first reported the news on Tuesday.

If confirmed, the Ohio lawmaker would lead the agency that is expected to play a key role in the Biden administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by assisting Americans who’ve struggled with rent and mortgage payments.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (R-SC), who serves as the chair of Biden’s inaugural committee, advocated for the former Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman to be appointed to the President-elect’s Cabinet.

Fudge also has the support of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, which will handle her nomination.

[LFC]

Azar folds, accepts Biden's victory, and says he will cooperate fully with the transition. We'll see.

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Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday stepped away from President Donald Trump’s fantasy that he, not President-elect Joe Biden, won the 2020 election.

Azar told CNN that his department “will ensure a full cooperative, professional transition.”

“I’ve already met with the Biden transition team,” he said. “We want to make sure they get everything that they need.”

The Trump official stated that he would be in touch with Biden’s chosen HHS secretary, Xavier Becerra, “as is appropriate” before the Senate confirmation hearings.

“I want to ensure that any transition is as smooth, as professional, as possible because we’re about ensuring the health and well-being of the American people, and that’s what matters to me,” he said.

Azar’s remarks signaled something of a shift after he kept refusing to refer to Biden as the president-elect on Sunday, prompting Fox News anchor Chris Wallace to correct him twice.

[LFC]

I was going to put this into the Coronavirus thread but I think Biden would have taken this action even without the pandemic.

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President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team are reportedly already making plans to ensure that the White House, which has been plagued with a series of COVID-19 infections thanks to President Donald Trump’s disregard for protective measures against the virus, is safe enough for the 78-year-old Biden to move in come January 20.

According to Politico, Biden’s transition team will have the White House fully cleaned by General Services Administration (GSA) staffers hours after Trump leaves the building.

A spokesperson for the GSA told Politico that the staffers will “thoroughly clean and disinfect” every area of the East and West Wings that people have touched, including furniture and doorknobs.

A private contractor will also reportedly provide “disinfectant misting services.”

Nicole Lurie, one of Biden’s COVID-19 advisers, told Politico that the operation will be “the polar opposite of what you’re seeing now.”

[JackD]

He'd need to do it to remove the odor if noting else.

[pnwguy]

JackD, on 10 December 2020 - 11:50 AM, said:

He'd need to do it to remove the odor if noting else.

The shit stains on the constitution may be harder to clean up.

[LFC]

Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg for Transportation Secretary. I wonder if Moscow Mitch will allow him a confirmation hearing in the next 4 years.

[LFC]

If the CDC Director position required Senate approval she would have sealed her fate at the hand of Moscow Mitch's obstruction machine.

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Incoming director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday said that she will make every effort to “promote science” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, ensuring that science-based evidence is turned into actionable guidance that is uniform across states.

The Trump administration, on the other hand, sought to downplay the coronavirus pandemic in the lead up to the 2020 election in an effort to boost President Trump’s campaign. White House staffers, including Ivanka Trump, also reportedly meddled in the CDC’s COVID messaging to make it more politically advantageous.

“We need to just make sure that the science is being consistent and translatable into guidance that is uniform across the states,” Walensky told CNN’s John Berman in an interview early Wednesday.

The current chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School professor was tapped earlier this month to lead the CDC when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January — a task that will likely involve reestablishing confidence in an agency that has been politicized during Trump’s tenure.

[LFC]

On the other hand the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does require Senate approval. They'll keep this one open forever, just as they have refused to approve pretty much any Director of the ATF for years. The CFPB is needed as much as ever, of course, and maybe even more after the pandemic economy. In full:

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When the Obama administration created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it was meant to be the good wolf hunting predatory lenders, scammers and fraudsters intent on fleecing the American people. And indeed, under its first director, Richard Cordray, it was pretty effective, clawing back some $12 billion in ill-gotten gains on behalf of ordinary people.

Naturally, Trump and his gang weren’t into that. I know, I know, I’m as surprised as the next guy that a (so-called) billionaire former casino owner who only paid $750 in income taxes in recent years wouldn’t be serious about protecting working Americans’ money from scammers and abusive lenders, but it’s true. From the very beginning, “various industry actors — payday lenders and others who are subject to CFPB oversight or enforcement actions — were contributing to the Trump campaign and the Trump inauguration committee,” says Lisa Stifler, the director of state policy for the Center for Responsible Lending. As soon as Trump was elected, he began systematically pulling the CFPB’s teeth. Now, the incoming administration has its work cut out for it.

Directors of the bureau serve five-year terms, meaning that the current Trump appointed director Kathy Kraninger theoretically has almost three years left in her tenure. However, on that count, Trump and the GOP may have been hoist by their own petard. The Trump administration, anxious to do away with Director Richard Cordray, an Obama appointee, spent years litigating to gain the ability to fire the head of the CFPB. They eventually won in court, and the CFPB was determined to be a part of the executive branch rather than an independent agency, but by that point, Cordray had already resigned, allowing Mick Mulvaney to take the helm as director in late 2018. That ruling still stands, and it likely means that Biden will be able to fire Kraninger and appoint his own director once he takes office.

Nevertheless, serious damage has already been done. Mulvaney had always hated the bureau, infamously calling it a “joke” in a “sick, sad kind of way,” and systematically sought to undermine its watchdog work as soon as Cordray left. Under Mulvaney and Kraninger, his successor, the amount of money recovered by the CFPB on behalf of citizens dropped from $43 million per week to just $6 million, according to a report by the Consumer Federation of America. Indeed, under Mulvaney and Kraninger, as of the report’s publication in March 2019, the CFPB had only brought two cases related to credit reporting and mortgage lending, one case related to debt collection, and no cases related to student lending, and had “also failed to announce or resolve a single anti-discrimination case.” Unless we believe the nation’s grifters and loan sharks decided to stop work when Trump was elected, the only possible explanation is that Kraninger and Mulvaney systematically ceased pursuing enforcement against them.

Not only did the CFPB not pursue new enforcement actions, they even backpedaled on prior wins, according to a report from the House Financial Services Committee. In the case of Enova International, an online lender that was found to have illegally taken money from debtors’ bank accounts, a settlement had already been reached during Cordray’s tenure under which the company “offered to return approximately $1.4 million to consumers.” Yet, once Mulvaney and Kraninger came in, that went by the wayside, and although a $3.2 million civil penalty — paid to the CFPB itself — was assessed against Enova, zero money was actually returned to consumers. The report blandly states that “Trump’s appointees failed to pursue remedies that would have returned money to victims.”

Fixing the CFPB isn’t something that can wait. The failure of the CFPB under the Trump administration has already jeopardized the financial wellbeing of American consumers and endangers our economic recovery. For instance, according to Stifler, the much lauded $1,200 “Trump checks” — the only government support millions of people have seen during the pandemic — in some cases simply disappeared into the hands of creditors. “For many folks, that stimulus money went straight to a bank account and creditors wiped that money right out of the account to pay off the debt,” she says, adding that payday and title lenders have been explicitly using the pandemic in their marketing materials.

Without a strong CFPB, it’s hard to protect people from these sorts of abusive and exploitative practices. Lastly, beyond appointing a new director, the Biden administration needs to push for the reinstitution of a key payday lending rule which was scrapped earlier this year. The rule made it illegal to grant payday loans — often with triple digit interest — to people deemed unable to repay them. With the arrival of a vaccine and the imminent reopening of businesses, preventing such practices will be critical to the financial wellbeing of households and a healthy economic recovery. The CFPB may have become a toothless bureaucracy under the Trump administration, but it’s time to give it the tools to take on financial predators once more.

[andydp]

Wrong thread. Sorry !

[LFC]

The Trump administration continues obstructing the transition.

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Following a briefing with nearly two dozen of his national security advisers, Biden said that most government agencies have shown “exemplary” cooperation with his transition team, but that in a few cases the team has had to deal with “obstruction from political leadership.”

“My team needs a clear picture of our force posture around the world and our operations to deter our enemies,” Biden said. “We need full visibility into the budget planning underway at the Defense Department and other agencies in order to avoid any window of confusion or catch-up that our adversaries may try to exploit.”

Biden then reiterated that his team has encountered “roadblocks from political leadership” at the departments of Defense and the OMB, before stressing the dire potential consequences of stonewalling when it comes to national security issues.

“Right now, we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas,” Biden said. “It’s nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility.”

Biden further called out the Trump administration by pointing to his team being briefed on “the steps needed to clean up the humanitarian disaster that the Trump administration has systematically created on our southern border.”

[LFC]

More obstruction from the Trump administration. This is un-American.

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On Thursday, Bloomberg News reported that Russ Vought, the Office of Management and Budget director under outgoing President Donald Trump, has blocked key officials at the agency from meeting with members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team — possibly delaying the new administration's fiscal policy by months.

'The director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, has argued internally that the agency needs to focus on finishing new regulations the Trump administration plans to publish before the president leaves office, according to people familiar with the matter," reported Nancy Cook.

"But experts on the federal budget say Vought's refusal to give Biden's team access to career OMB officials is unprecedented and could hurt Biden's efforts to roll out big-picture, forward-looking ideas on everything from health care to climate change to taxes at the start of his four-year term."

[LFC]

Biden's Press Secretary is already a breath of fresh air after 4 years of White House stank.

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Incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that she hopes to “rebuild trust with the American people” — a move that would represent a swift departure from the kind of false information peddling that has become routine in President Donald Trump’s administration.

“I think more than any point in history… part of the job of the White House press secretary is to rebuild trust with the American people,” Psaki told NPR’s Steve Inkeep in an interview, adding that her goal from the podium would be to “be truthful and transparent” in peeling back the curtains for Americans.

Her comments come as President Trump has routinely attacked reporters, while calling leaked information that was unfavorable to him “fake” and accusing the press of acting as the “enemy of the people.”

The White House’s current press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany famously pushed false information to advance Trump’s election gambit in public appearances and dubiously took on the dual role as Trump’s 2020 campaign adviser.

“In a moment where people don’t trust the information they’re getting from most sources, is to be as steady and as fact-based as I can be,” Psaki said.

The incoming communications official declared she plans to reinstate daily press briefings and take questions from reporters, but added that she wouldn’t prop up efforts by right-wing networks that have pushed debunked conspiracy theories.

“We’re not going to allow the briefing room to be a platform for propaganda, and we will shut that down as needed as well,” Psaki said.

[LFC]

Biden Set To Pick Merrick Garland For Attorney General

I think his first act should be to start an investigation into how Mitch McConnell so wildly overperformed in the election vs. the polls. After all per the MAGAt Metric it's clear evidence of election fraud.

[AnBr]

Biden appoints geneticist Eric Lander as science adviser

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President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Eric Lander, founder and president of the Broad Institute, to be both his science advisor and head of the White House office of Science and Technology Policy. “He’s incredibly good at explaining complex scientific issues,” one former colleague said.

...

In addition to choosing Lander, Biden wrote him a letter that issues him marching orders. It invokes former President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1944 letter to Vannevar Bush that led to a report that has shaped U.S. science policy ever since. Biden asks Lander and his team to address five questions about the future of science and technology, and recommend how his administration can combat public health threats, mitigate the impact of climate change, keep the country a world leader in innovation, use science to improve social equity, and strengthen the U.S. research enterprise.

[andydp]

I sense an unsettling pattern here: qualified people are being put in high level positions requiring competence and experience.

[pnwguy]

This was a nice touch today by our friends at the Lincoln Project

[LFC]

pnwguy, on 20 January 2021 - 03:02 PM, said:

This was a nice touch today by our friends at the Lincoln Project

Sam! Good on you.