BIDEN's ECONOMIC TEAM: A SHARED FOCUS ON COVID, INEQUALITY — The president-elect's picks for key White House economic positions, which were reported on Sunday , share a philosophy on prioritizing the virus and addressing disparities. "Until COVID is controlled, we can't return to business as usual — one vs. the other is a false tradeoff," Heather Boushey, who leads the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and is set to join Biden's Council of Economic Advisers, tweeted last week. Cecilia Rouse, tapped to be CEA chief, and Jared Bernstein, also chosen for a CEA seat, have similarly been vocal champions of more relief to prop up the economy amid the outbreak, as well as calling for targeted aid to the most vulnerable sectors. That's a departure from Trump's economic team, which often battled with public health experts in the White House and repeatedly dismissed the risk of coronavirus surges. THE HIRE THAT's GETTING THE MOST ATTENTION: NEERA TANDEN FOR OMB CHIEF — A Tanden-led OMB would likely play an outsized role in policymaking and could be a signal of how the White House will rely on executive authority to achieve its objectives, Biden allies told PULSE. If Tanden gets the Senate-confirmed job — more on that below — she'd have her hands on all the major rules coming out of the Biden administration, a role drawing on her experience as leader of the Center for American Progress and as a veteran of two previous administrations. She's also struck a pragmatic balance on policy, such as the liberal think tank's rollout of a Medicare expansion plan last year that was less transformative than Medicare for All, seeking to preserve employer-sponsored health insurance. "I don't apologize for having a plan that meets progressive goals like universal coverage and addresses broad interests ... like lowering health care costs all while maintaining choice," Tanden said on POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast last year. The pick got kudos from leading progressives like Stacey Abrams and Democrats who have worked with Tanden. "Neera is formidable," said Brookings' Kavita Patel. "She knows her way around the West Wing, executive office and all the agencies — and her background in health makes her an incredible asset in the fight against COVID and its aftermath." — She also understands the virus' toll. Tanden contracted Covid-19 this summer and has spoken about suffering days of fatigue, dealing with a hazy memory and grappling with the uncertainty about taking a turn for the worse. "I ended up being ill for six weeks," Tanden wrote in USA Today in October. "It made it absolutely clear to me that the idea people infected with coronavirus are fine as long as it isn't fatal, or suffer a short, mild bout of illness when they contract the virus, is a misconception." — But it's going to be a confirmation battle in a narrowly divided Senate. Tanden's outspoken criticism and often blunt remarks, including on Twitter, have made her a target of both the left and right. Zaid Jilani, a progressive journalist who worked as a staff writer on CAP's now-defunct ThinkProgress, shared criticism of Tanden's management style. "To manage a govt agency you can't constantly antagonize people publicly/privately," Jilani wrote. "Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican Senators' whose votes she'll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed," tweeted Drew Brandewie, the communications director for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). JEFF ZIENTS IN MIX TO BE COVID CZAR — Zients, who led OMB during the Obama administration and helped oversee the HealthCare.gov repair job, is a finalist to be Biden's manager of the coronavirus response, POLITICO Playbook first reported last week. Zients also served as CEO of the Advisory Board, a health care research and consulting firm (where one of your co-authors previously worked, albeit with very limited exposure to Zients). BIDEN'S OTHER HEALTH CRISIS — The president-elect will inherit not only a global pandemic but a resurgent drug addiction crisis that federal officials say is spiraling out of control, POLITICO's Dan Goldberg and Brianna Ehley report. "Since the pandemic hit we have not been able to control the opioid epidemic," Nora Volkow, the long-serving director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in an interview. "Our vulnerabilities have just gotten worse." More than 76,000 people died of a drug overdose between April 2019 and April 2020, according to the most recent preliminary federal data, the most ever recorded during a 12-month period. — Just how much the pandemic has exacerbated the drug crisis this year is still coming into view. Ohio recorded 543 overdose deaths in May, the most ever in a single month. Oregon reported a 70 percent increase in the number of overdose deaths in April and May compared to the same two months in 2019. In Maine, overdose deaths during the first half of 2020 were up 27 percent from the previous year. Spikes have also been documented in Colorado, Kentucky and Louisiana.
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