By Matt Rooney
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Any of you who are naive enough to think the Biden Administration will have a moderating effect on American politics are in for a rude awakening. Do you remember the name Neera Tanden?
You should. Back in April, I warned you that Phil Murphy was going to use COVID-19 as an excuse to push far-Left changes in New Jersey. One of the examples I cited: Murphy’s decision to add Tanden, (head of the far-left D.C. think tank “Center for American Progress” and a co-author of the Affordable Care Act), to his reopening task force.
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Murphy confirmed this week that Tanden would resign from his “Restart and Recovery Commission since Joe Biden intends to nominate her to run the Office and Management and Budget. It’s a huge, powerful job, and the primary role of the OMB director is to produce the president’s proposed budget. Tanden would have extraordinary control of federal spending assuming, of course, that Joe Biden takes office in January.
“Congratulations to my dear friend and member of our Restart and Recovery Commission @neeratanden, and to @Princeton’s Cecilia Rouse,” Murphy tweeted on Sunday. “Two stellar choices to help President-elect @JoeBiden rebuild our nation’s economy.”
Who is she? Really?
A radical. Murphy likes her for a reason. In 2017, Tanden pushed back against Michelle Obama’s famous “when they go low, we go high” catchphrase, tweeting her belief that “going high doesn’t f**king work.”
2024 hopeful Nikki Haley summed it up reasonably well in a pair of Tuesday tweets:
Biden’s pick for budget chief is Neera Tanden. Tanden is one of the architects of ObamaCare, has been described as a Clinton loyalist for her years of service to Hillary Clinton & spent years leading a liberal think tank where she oversaw proposals like “Medicare Extra for All.”
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 1, 2020
Tanden has shown bad judgment in the past. She said that @realDonaldTrump is “part of [a] conspiracy against [the] US” & has a track record of disparaging Rep Senators. There’s a saying that “personnel is policy,” which is why Biden’s nomination of Tanden is deeply concerning.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 1, 2020
I started out 2020 worrying about the impact Tanden would have on New Jersey’s future. Thus far, Murphy’s task force has overseen the permanent closure of 31% of the state’s small businesses that existed before the COVID-19 shutdown.
Now? She’s likely to be turned loose on the country.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
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