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THREAD: It’s been 48 hrs of mixed news from @JoeBiden.
On the plus side: @BharatRamamurti and @gauragDC are, among others, FANTASTIC picks for Deputy NEC and Deputy PPO respectively.
https://mailchi.mp/bidentransition/health-team-3588606?e=16b06d5e99
On the plus side: @BharatRamamurti and @gauragDC are, among others, FANTASTIC picks for Deputy NEC and Deputy PPO respectively.
https://mailchi.mp/bidentransition/health-team-3588606?e=16b06d5e99
On the minus side: Giving Bruce Reed any job, much less Deputy Chief of Staff, is an act of deliberately ignoring the most harmful policies Democrats have pursued over the last 30 years. (2/x)
https://mailchi.mp/bidentransition/health-team-3588606?e=16b06d5e99
https://mailchi.mp/bidentransition/health-team-3588606?e=16b06d5e99
Let’s start with the plusses. @BharatRamamurti, a long-time adviser to @SenWarren, has struggled mightily to elevate his COVID-19 Oversight Commission (often against @SpeakerPelosi.) He’s a smart, principled fighter for the little guy. GREAT! (2/x) https://prospect.org/politics/leading-from-the-left-bharat-ramamurti/
Likewise, @gauragDC comes from @RepJayapal’s office, and before that played an instrumental role in pushing the Obama administration to embrace/fight for marriage equality and transgender rights. He’ll be a welcome advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in the Biden admin. (3/x)
However, we won’t be surprised if both Ramamurti and Raghavan struggle against Bruce Reed, who was one of the main architects of Clinton’s policing policies in the 90s and austerity hysteria in the 10s.
Reed is Rahm Emanuel, but slightly subtler. (4/x) https://prospect.org/cabinet-watch/will-biden-name-a-deficit-hawk-to-head-omb/
Reed is Rahm Emanuel, but slightly subtler. (4/x) https://prospect.org/cabinet-watch/will-biden-name-a-deficit-hawk-to-head-omb/
Ta-Nehisi Coates mentions Reed in his landmark mass incarceration piece — Reed worked to reclaim “tough-on-crime” politics for Dems, believing “Nixon stole the issue from the Democrats in 1968.”
Nixon did so as part of the racist Southern Strategy.(5/x) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/
Nixon did so as part of the racist Southern Strategy.(5/x) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/
Under Clinton, Reed…
- Fired 100K civil servants
- Publicized "broken windows" policing theories
- Urged a “middle ground” on disparate crack/powder cocaine sentencing
- Gutted habeas corpus which the Innocence Project founder called "a disaster."
(6/x)
- Fired 100K civil servants
- Publicized "broken windows" policing theories
- Urged a “middle ground” on disparate crack/powder cocaine sentencing
- Gutted habeas corpus which the Innocence Project founder called "a disaster."
(6/x)
Other ideas he tossed around, per his papers in the Clinton Digital Library…
- Federal DNA database
- Police-imposed curfews for minors
- Banning alcohol ads from public housing, largely due to racist arguments
- Federal death sentence for killers of police officers
(7/x)
- Federal DNA database
- Police-imposed curfews for minors
- Banning alcohol ads from public housing, largely due to racist arguments
- Federal death sentence for killers of police officers
(7/x)
Reed’s other “achievement” under Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it,” which meant imposing work requirements on practically any aid the federal gov't provides struggling families. The policy has utterly failed. (8/x) https://www.vox.com/2016/6/20/11789988/clintons-welfare-reform
Who exactly does Reed think needs these work requirements? At a back-slapping 2016 retrospective on “welfare reform” with Newt Gingrich(!), Reed characterized social safety net policies as “just there to keep the base happy.” (9/x)
https://inequality.stanford.edu/programs/conferences/20th-anniversary-welfare-reform
https://inequality.stanford.edu/programs/conferences/20th-anniversary-welfare-reform
In the 2000’s, Reed led the neoliberal Democratic Leadership Council, which pushed hard for Democrats to vote for the war in Iraq.
Why?
Opposing a pointless, bloody war would look too “far left.” (10/x) https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/us/centrist-democrats-warn-party-not-to-present-itself-as-far-left.html
Why?
Opposing a pointless, bloody war would look too “far left.” (10/x) https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/us/centrist-democrats-warn-party-not-to-present-itself-as-far-left.html
Reed was staff director of the Bowles-Simpson Commission, the disastrous plan to slash Social Security & Medicare IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREAT RECESSION.
All in the name of “Fix[ing] The Debt,” a billionaire-backed campaign which sang Reed’s praises. (11/x) https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/stacking-deck-phony-fix-debt-campaign/
All in the name of “Fix[ing] The Debt,” a billionaire-backed campaign which sang Reed’s praises. (11/x) https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/stacking-deck-phony-fix-debt-campaign/
While running Bowles-Simpson, Reed defended allowing his staffers to be paid by the Peterson Foundation, the Beltway's most prominent pro-austerity group.
Imagine a gov't commission to investigate gun laws allowing the staff to be paid by the NRA. (12/x) https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111006850.html
Imagine a gov't commission to investigate gun laws allowing the staff to be paid by the NRA. (12/x) https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111006850.html
Most recently, @jtlarsen found that the multibillion-dollar philanthropy Reed led gave $$$ to the DeVos family’s “education reform” initiatives. Does @JoeBiden really want to appoint someone willing to finance DeVos’ horrific education policy goals? (12/x) https://tyt.com/stories/4vZLCHuQrYE4uKagy0oyMA/6Mr4AyZM0i0Z432cB0Gz3E
Bottom line: Bruce Reed is no team player — his whole project in politics has been slapping down the left.
If @JoeBiden wants a paradigmatic infighter in his inner circle, why should the left think Biden will ever act in good faith? END
(13/x) https://twitter.com/jeffhauser/status/1336852035564691458
If @JoeBiden wants a paradigmatic infighter in his inner circle, why should the left think Biden will ever act in good faith? END
(13/x) https://twitter.com/jeffhauser/status/1336852035564691458
