US President-elect Joe Biden has named Neera Tanden as his future budget director, but Tanden could have a hard time during her Senate hearing to confirm her nomination. According to the Republicans, the 50-year-old Tanden has ‘no chance’, the left wing of the Democratic party finds her ‘too centrist’.
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Neera Tanden is said to be the first woman of Indian origin to hold the post of White House budget director. This is a powerful position: the budget director is in charge of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and is responsible for an overview of the budget and the evaluation of the projects and expenditure of the various ministers.
But Tanden may not get it easy at her Senate hearing, where Republicans currently have the upper hand. She needs to get a majority of the Senators behind her, but according to a spokesman for Republican Senator John Cornyn, she has already burned her bridges with the Republicans by a series of ‘derogatory comments’ from her current position as chair of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. Also a former employee of Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell does not expect Teeth to get through her hearing unscathed. He also pointed out that in recent history, one choice of a newly elected president has been denied in the Senate.
Against universal health insurance
Within her own party, Tanden is criticized by the left wing for opposing a system of universal health insurance.
It is not yet clear whether the Republicans or the Democrats can attribute the majority of the seats in the Senate: on January 5, two more ‘run offs’ will take place in the state of Georgia because the election results in early November were too narrow . The Republicans have won 50 out of 100 seats so far, but it is possible that it could end in a draw.
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