President-elect Joe Biden rolled out his team of top economic policy hands Tuesday, with a heavy emphasis on their backgrounds and collective focus on addressing longstanding inequities.
Biden highlighted the historic nature of many of his choices, including Janet Yellen to be the first female Treasury Secretary, Cecilia Rouse as the first Black woman to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, and Neera Tanden as the first woman of color to head the White House Office of Management and Budget. Biden also noted that Wally Adeyemo, his pick to be Yellen’s No. 2, would be the highest-ranking African American in the history of the Treasury Department.
Biden touted the group as “groundbreaking Americans who come from different backgrounds, but share my core economic vision.”
“Let me be clear, with this team and the others who we will add in the weeks ahead, we will create a recovery for all and get this economy moving again,” Biden said from a stage in Wilmington, Del. “We will create jobs, raise incomes, reduce drug prices, advance racial equity across the economy, and restore the backbone of this country: the middle class.”
The president-elect has vowed to make the upper echelons of his administration the most diverse in history — and recently made a point of announcing the first all-female White House communications team — but some people in Democratic circles have grumbled that his selections to date have not lived up to that promise, particularly for a number of the most sought-after positions.
Biden’s nominees made a point to emphasize the need to reshape the economy to be more inclusive of all parts of society, particularly as the country remains in the throws of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rouse said the United States is in “a moment of urgency and opportunity, unlike any we faced in modern times.”
“The safety net has frayed, leaving vulnerable Americans to slip through into hardship and hopelessness. And importantly, structural inequities that always existed in the economy are being exacerbated like never before,” she said.
Yellen and others also referenced the need to address climate change as part of their economic agenda, but largely steered away from rhetoric that could invite controversy and complicate their confirmation.
"It’s essential that we move with urgency," Yellen said. "Inaction will produce a self-reinforcing downturn causing yet more devastation.”
However Tanden’s nomination is already shaping up to be the first potential confirmation standoff, given that her pugnacious online presence has made enemies on both the left and the right. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said her nomination is “radioactive,” a sentiment shared by other Republicans in the Senate.
Tanden offered a modest olive branch during her introductory remarks, saying that she believes government should “serve all the American people, Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike.”
The president-elect had a similar event for his national security team last week, and Tuesday's appearance was Biden's first since suffering a hairline fracture in his foot over the weekend. Biden was wearing a walking boot and moving under his own power, though the stage was reconfigured to allow him and others to sit when not speaking at the podium.
Not present on the stage was Brian Deese, who POLITICO reported is expected to become Biden’s top economic adviser as director of the National Economic Council. The president-elect’s team has thus far held back on publicly announcing his post as it showcases the other members of the team. Deese was a former senior official in the Obama administration and currently works as the global head of sustainable investing at Wall Street titan BlackRock.
Shortly after the event concluded, outgoing President Donald Trump posted a series of clips to his Twitter account of a hearing by state legislators in Michigan to highlight purported election irregularities that underpin Trump’s last-ditch efforts at staying in office and urged followers to tune into a conservative network airing the proceedings.
