As issues of election integrity are being questioned in the Supreme Court, Joe Biden is busy stacking his potential administration with lovers of big government, big business, and big spending. A look at a few of his most notable nominees reveals that the economic priorities of a Biden administration are more closely tied to progressive identity politics and “racial equity,” than to actual economic security
Neera Tanden - Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Tanden is the President of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank that even the Washington Post has recently warned is "backed by corporate and foreign interests." The center’s progressive priority issues range from gun control to immigration, but a look at its economic goals provides a more clear window into policies that Tanden is likely to push as budget chief.
Recently, the center has focused its efforts on making the case for stricter coronavirus lockdowns, as a means of boosting the economy, claiming "It is precisely the lack of a national strategy to combat the pandemic that is holding back the economic recovery as a whole." Over the summer, it warned of the "economic fallout from premature reopenings" of American businesses.
Another economic goal highlighted by the center in recent weeks is to "build a new social contract among companies, investors, working families, and the public," by "implement[ing] a wide range of policy changes to align corporate practices with the interests of all stakeholders." This language aligns almost exactly with the World Economic Forum's plan for a "Great Reset" of the global economy. It also parallels Biden's signaled allegiance to that plan, which aims to position global corporations as the "trustees of society."
In November, Tanden's organization issued a an economic policy recommendation for the Biden administration to "explicitly prioritize eliminating the racial wealth gap" The brief suggested the following "menu of options" to the Biden administration, noting "all of which could be implemented within the first year."
Create a White House Racial Equity Office
Appoint a senior adviser to the president
Ensure racial equity within the Executive Office of the President
Work with Congress to modify the goals of the Council of Economic Advisers
"In staffing White House policy positions, particularly economist positions, special consideration should be given to experts on race and the racial wealth gap," reads the brief. "This prioritization is particularly important for staff economists, who are often academics or on loan from other agencies for temporary assignment."
It also advises that Biden "work with Congress to modify the Employment Act of 1946" to task the Council of Economic Advisers with "efforts to reduce the racial wealth gap."
Cecilia Rouse --Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
Rouse is a labor economist who previously served on the Council of Economic Advisers for Obama as well as Bill Clinton's National Economic Council. She is currently the Princeton Dean of International and Public Affairs, where her legacy includes helping to strip the public policy school, formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson School, of its namesake. She characterized the action as part of the "hard work of confronting racism and other injustices."
"I have often been asked if not Wilson, then who should the School be named for? I am glad we are not going down that path," Rouse said at the time "Connecting the School to a certain person signals that the School stands for much of what the honoree believes. I feel that for a policy school to be the best, it has to be a place where a true diversity of backgrounds and beliefs exist."
Rouse’s research mirrors these concerns. A 2016 article from Rouse examined the supposedly pressing societal problem that “the economics profession includes disproportionately few women and members of historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups, relative both to the overall population and to other academic disciplines.” She and her co-author attributed this to “implicit attitudes and institutional practices.”
Upon hiring her for her dean position, Princeton boasted that she had authored papers on subjects such as "the existence of sex discrimination in symphony orchestras" and "the consequences of Milwaukee’s private school voucher program on student achievement."
Brian Deese -- Director of the National Economic Council
In addition to his being credited as being the "architect" of the $80 billion auto industry bailout, Biden's website touts Deese's role in "negotiating" the Paris Climate Accord, an agreement that many consider to have left Americans with the short end of the stick as many other nations involved failed to live up to their end of the bargain.
Had President Trump not withdrawn from the agreement in 2017, its cumulative impact would have caused a loss of 400,000 jobs (with 50% being in manufacturing), an average loss of $20,000 per American family of four, and aggregate GDP loss of over $2.5 trillion, according to an analysis by the Heritage Foundation.
"Compliance with the terms of the Paris Accord and the onerous energy restrictions it has placed on the United States could cost America as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025 according to the National Economic Research Associates," Trump said upon announcing his withdrawal from the deal. "This includes 440,000 fewer manufacturing jobs — not what we need — believe me, this is not what we need — including automobile jobs, and the further decimation of vital American industries on which countless communities rely. They rely for so much, and we would be giving them so little.”
