Biden transition: a political fight is brewing for the White House budget chief candidate

The election of US President-elect Joe Biden to head the Office of Management and Budget is rapidly turning into a political battle that could disrupt his efforts to quickly complete his Administration.

Some Republicans express doubt that Neera Tanden can be confirmed by the Senate after she spent years attacking Republican lawmakers on social media.

Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton claimed that Tanden’s rhetoric was “hateful and led by the awakened left.”

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said Tanden’s “combative and insulting comments” about Republican senators created “certainly a troublesome path.” He called her “perhaps the worst (Biden’s) nominee yet.”

Such sentiment is remarkable considering the general reluctance of the Republican Party to criticize President Donald Trump’s barrage on Twitter. But like all of Biden’s nominees, Tanden has little room for error as he faces confirmation in a highly divided Senate.

That could be especially overwhelming for Tanden, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and president of the center-left Center for American Progress, given her history of political combat.

Biden’s transition team released a litany of praise for Tanden from figures like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Georgia Governor candidate Stacey Abrams.

Other Democrats were also quick to defend Tanden’s nomination. Former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett said Tanden “grew up on welfare and lived in public housing. She experienced first-hand the importance of our social programs. Her extraordinary career has been dedicated to improving opportunities for working families. It is an excellent option to direct OMB. “

“Neera Tanden is smart, experienced and qualified for the position of director of the WBO,” added Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a member of the party’s progressive wing. “The American people voted decisively for change; Mitch McConnell shouldn’t stop us from having a functional government that goes to work for the people we serve.”

In the Senate, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said it’s impossible to take Republican criticism of Tanden seriously.

“Honestly, the hypocrisy is staggering. If Republicans are concerned about criticism on Twitter, their complaints are better directed at President Trump,” Schumer said.

At OMB, Tanden would be responsible for preparing Biden’s budget presentation and would command several hundred budget analysts, economists, and policy advisers with deep knowledge of the inner workings of government.

If the Democrats won the runoff elections for the two Senate seats of the Georgia Republican Party, Tanden’s job would become very important because the party would win a slim majority in the House.

That would allow them to pass special budget legislation that could roll back Trump’s tax cuts, push through the Affordable Care Act and pursue other spending targets.

OMB would play a central role in such legislation.

Top Democrats, including Biden, supported deficit packages early in their careers, but the party has since changed.

Biden was a force behind the establishment of the Obama deficit commission, which was created to win votes from moderate Democrats to approve an increase in the government’s borrowing cap and was chaired by the former White House chief of staff from Clinton, Erskine Bowles.

Tanden shares a common view among Democratic lawmakers that Republicans tend to raise concerns about deficits only when Democrats are in power.

They point to the tax cut packages passed in the first year of the Trump administration and the 2001 tax cut by former President George W. Bush.

– AP