With a mission to defend Social Security against all threats, progressives in the U.S. sounded the alarm Thursday in response to reports that President-elect Joe Biden is considering senior campaign advisor and deficit hawk Bruce Reed for a top job in the Democrat’s White House.
“Whether or not Bruce Reed gets a White House job will be such a big indicator of whether or not the Biden presidency will break from the deficit hawk wing of the Democratic Party.”
—Waleed Shahid, Justice Democrats
At particular risk should Reed, also a former chief of staff to the former vice president, get the job, said Social Security Works, is the protection of Social Security—a program Biden has pledged to defend, despite his record of proposing cuts to it.
“Joe Biden ran for president on a promise to protect and expand Social Security,” Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, said in a statement. “Seniors listened, and delivered his margin of victory in key states like Arizona and Michigan. Appointing Bruce Reed to head the Office of Management and Budget would betray that promise,” Lawson added…
“As executive director of the Bowles-Simpson Commission,” Robert Kuttner wrote at The American Prospect Wednesday, “Reed was not only an austerity advocate himself. He brought on unpaid staffers from leading austerity organizations funded by Pete Peterson,” a longtime deficit fearmongerer…
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/19/social-security-defenders-tell-biden-keep-austerity-obsessed-bruce-reed-far-away
