If you've been watching the headlines lately, the President Elect has been announcing picks for various positions. (The Disloyal Opposition is still pretending it’s not going to happen.)
Biden has been getting attention with the mix of people getting named — for one, they’re not all rich white old guys. Robert Reich has come out with a short video that gets behind the job titles to assess whose voices will be heard, who will be shaping policy — who is in The Loop in other words when it comes to making and executing policy.
Cabinet Picks can be important, depending on the assignment and the need to be approved by the Senate — but not always as important as you might think. Presidential advisors can have a much bigger impact, day to day depending on their portfolio and how close they physically are to the Oval Office. They don’t need Senate approval. Task Force heads can be very important, depending on their task, and again they don’t have to get past the Senate.
Biden has a lot to do, and little time — and it will be in the face of unending and unprincipled obstruction. Watch the video below (less than seven minutes). It will help make sense of how things unfold in the days, weeks, and months to come, and who to keep an eye on. It’s part of the larger rehabilitation of the Federal government that has been decimated and demoralized over the last four years.
Personnel is policy. There is a tremendous amount of power in the Federal agencies. Who interprets the regulations on the books, how they are enforced, how they are prioritized, can make a tremendous difference in how government works and who it works for.
(And if earmarks, AKA “pork” return to Congress, targeted spending can also make a difference. It can incentivize cooperation across party lines where there is none now. Kevin Drum explains how it used to work and can again. Getting government spending bills through is going to be a critical.)
Trump’s deliberate gutting of agencies with positions left unfilled, budgets slashed, foxes in hen houses, and attempts to rewrite and rescind regulations were an attack on that power. So is his last minute reclassification of Federal employees so that some can be fired more easily and others can be embedded as partisan moles to undermine Democratic administrations.
There are those who are concerned about Biden’s prospects as an agent of a progressive agenda. Watch who gets the kind of appointments Reich talks about, and look at personnel lower down. The signs so far are encouraging. The fact that the Biden transition team is reported busy lining up people shows they understand the importance of it.
We tend to obsess over the importance of the Presidency, Congress, and the Courts when it comes to getting progressive policies in place. We should not underestimate the importance of the machinery that carries out those policies 24/7. If Biden is faced with a McConnell Senate, there’s still a great deal that can be done through the power of the executive branch to execute.
Not least of this will be demolishing Reagan’s Big Lie: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help." Climate change is going to provide many ‘opportunities’ for people to welcome help from government, let alone all the other disasters Republican ideology has inflicted on us.
When push comes to shove, government employees are the boots on the ground. They need support, they need competent leadership, and we have to counter the reflex right-wing demonization of the people who truly are public servants.
Let’s make it happen.
Wednesday, Dec 9, 2020 · 12:52:12 AM +00:00
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xaxnar
UPDATE: Kevin Drum weighs in on appointments.
...Cabinet officials generally got confirmed because they’re in the media spotlight and no one really wanted to look like partisan hacks opposing them just for the sake of opposition. But there are thousands of other appointments at lower levels who are critical to carrying out a president’s agenda. Those are very definitely not in the spotlight, and if a Republican Senate decides to stonewall these appointments the consequences could be pretty dramatic. The old appointees will mostly leave, but if new ones can’t be confirmed then we’ll be left with a huge number of important policy positions being run by civil servants in acting positions. This is something to watch very closely after the drama of the Cabinet selection is over and everyone settles down to routine business.