Remember Neera Tanden? The former head of the Center for American Progress tried to helm the Office of Management and Budget, but that nomination tanked after both Democrats and Republicans made it well-known, they weren’t going to confirm her. She trashed Republicans, sure—but she also came after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who chairs the Budget Committee, the very committee that she needed to win over. She failed. Yet, she was a sacrificial lamb as other loony lefty nominees were confirmed, like Vanita Gupta, who is now the associate attorney general at the Department of Justice. Yet, Biden gave her a lifeline. Amid a garbage jobs report, Hamas firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and a cyber attack on a key pipeline that supplies 45 percent of fuel to the eastern United States, Tanden was tapped to be a senior adviser to Biden on May 14 (via WaPo):
Tanden had initially been selected to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget, but her path to confirmation was blocked by Senate Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who expressed concern over her past social media posts taking shots at various political figures.
Manchin’s opposition was enough to doom her prospects in a Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. It marked the only defeat for a Biden Cabinet pick.
Tanden’s new job at the White House does not require Senate confirmation. Her portfolio will include health-care policy and overseeing a review of the U.S. Digital Service, according to a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
The official said Tanden will be responsible, among other things, for preparing contingency plans for potential Supreme Court rulings that may result from Republican legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act. Tanden worked as a senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration and helped draft parts of the former president’s signature health care law.
This is Susan Rice 2.0. Rice was probably going to be selected to take over for Hillary Clinton when the former left after making it known she didn’t want to serve as our top diplomat for Obama’s second term. Both women were caught up in the Benghazi scandal. Both women lied about the nature of the terrorist attack. Confirmation for Rice would have been hard, so Obama made her his national security adviser, a role that made her even more dangerous probably. With Tanden, the die-hard lefty is in Biden’s ear on SCOTUS and health care. Maybe that OMB position would have been better. Biden’s folks are mulling a court-packing scheme. So, keep an eye out.
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