Progressives Slam Biden's Choice for Chief of Staff as Health Care "Profiteer"

[News Junkie]

Reports Sunday that President Joe Biden has chosen Jeff Zients to replace outgoing White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain were met with alarm among progressive watchdogs, who pointed to Zients’ disastrous tenure as the administration’s coronavirus czar as well as his history in the corporate world — where he built a fortune investing in healthcare companies accused of fraud.

Klain, who developed a solid working relationship with progressives in Congress, is expected to depart shortly after Biden’s State of the Union address on February 7.

Revolving Door Project executive director Jeff Hauser called the elevation of Zients to White House chief of staff a “catastrophic decision,” saying in a statement that “the Biden administration has been at its best when it has been on the attack against corporate excesses that wide majorities of Americans find abhorrent.”

“Americans are appalled by profiteering in healthcare — Jeff Zients has become astonishingly rich by profiteering in healthcare,” said Hauser. “Americans are aghast at how social media companies have built monopolies and violated privacy laws — Zients served on the Board of Directors of Facebook as it was defending itself against growing attacks from both political parties.”

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https://truthout.org/articles/progressives-slam-bidens-choice-for-chief-of-staff-as-health-care-profiteer/

Not Joe's best pick, imo.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

1. "Progressives"

[Walleye]

2. Exactly. Are they really interested in progress

[GusBob]

7. Aghast, I tell you we are

And whats more Appalled!

[sheshe2]

11. Not to mention the article is from Truth Out...

The author is from Common Dreams.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

12. Uh huh.

Be ever vigilant my Democratic friends.

Our backs are not safe.

[emulatorloo]

15. 2 for one double-trouble. Thanks for posting this.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

16. Just need some Jacobin for the trifecta

[Ocelot II]

3. Chiefs of staff don't make policy. I don't know anything about this guy,

but whatever his sins in his previous employment, he's not going to be making decisions about healthcare or any other substantive government policies. Chiefs of staff are executive level office managers. If he's good at herding cats, works well with Biden, and can organize a complicated executive environment I don't see the problem. And I don't recall anything "disastrous" about his covid response.

[PatSeg]

13. Exactly

Apparently he brings the skills needed for a chief of staff and as you said, he won't be making policy decisions. Biden can't please everyone all the time. We went through this during the Obama years as well.

[niyad]

4. Welcome to our DU family.

[aeromanKC]

5. I trust Joe.

[Autumn]

6. Biden must know what this guys history is.

[Pantagruel]

8. Bigger picture

Zients' biggest sin appears to be his wealth. The "crimes" cited and Zients' involvement in them seem like small potatoes ?

https://truthout.org/articles/progressives-slam-bidens-choice-for-chief-of-staff-as-health-care-profiteer/

[brooklynite]

9. I've had engagement with many PACs and advocacy groups...

Never heard of REVOLVING DOOR PROJECT

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. It's a project from the Center of Economic and Policy Research.

https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/

[brooklynite]

20. Never heard of them either.

[Beastly Boy]

10. Slamming is easy. Deciding is a bit more nuanced.

If your good mechanic is terrible at pulling teeth, would you prefer him to a lousy mechanic with excellent dental credentials?

If you are a certain type of progressive, you might. But not me.

[ColinC]

14. Sounds like he has his work cut out for him

…gaining the trust and building a relationship with progressives from scratch. I’m sure he’ll do fine.

[mn9driver]

17. This guy has long time connections in the business and media communities.

A lot of those connections are with people who are more progressive than not. Holding him up as being insufficiently pure for some progressives isn’t constructive.

We will see what he can do to move Joe’s agenda along.

[betsuni]

18. Catastrophic! He worked in the CORPORATE WORLD! He had a job! CAPITALIST! CORRUPTION! MONEY!

We'll all die alone in the gutter, suffering, while Zients counts his MILLIONS and nibbles fancy canapes. Appalling! We are doomed! What a monster and ...

Oh wait. Never mind.