The President has nominated Andrew Biggs to become a member of the Social Security Advisory Board.
During the George W. Bush Administration, Biggs was Deputy Commissioner of Social Security -- only in an acting capacity if I remember correctly. Biggs openly plotted partial privatization of Social Security and campaigned for it with George W. Bush while serving as Deputy Commissioner. That was beyond the pale in my opinion. Completely inappropriate. As I recall saying at the time, Biggs was put in a position where he was supposed to be making the trains run on time but what he actually wanted to do was to blow up the locomotives and tear up the tracks.
As you may recall, George W. Bush's campaign to partially privatize Social Security went nowhere because it was a disaster politically. I have no idea why Republicans would want a man who is partially responsible for that fiasco in a position of honor.
Why is President Biden nominating Biggs? I don't know but there must be some deal. He certainly wouldn't be nominated by this White House based on his merits. I have no idea what the White House is getting in return.
Yeah, has to be part of a deal as Biggs is just a heritage foundation "expert" johnny one note about privatization and how to save social security one must destroy it. Shame to see him coming back.
ReplyDeleteIn the independent agency era, the Deputy Commissioner has been a political/policy job, not an operational one. Commissioners are not supposed to weigh in on things like fiscal reform, but Biggs as DC was clearly the White House's man in the agency. He was not supposed to make trains run on time. Politically, it was a massive disaster. So many previous advocates of privatization won't even mention it now.
ReplyDeleteThis Advisory Board is an irrelevancy. What do they do? Who takes them seriously?
The president, by law, often has to appoint both members of his own party and members of the opposite party. For appointees of the opposite party, they almost always take the recommendation of the Senate leader of that party. So Biggs is effectively Mitch McConnel's nominee.
I am guessing the Republicans get to pick the Republican appointees.
ReplyDeleteSec. 703(c)(1):
"(c)(1) The Board shall be composed of 7 members who shall
be appointed as follows:
"(A) 3 members shall be appointed by the President, by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Not more
than 2 of such members shall be from the same political party.
"(B) 2 members (each member from a different political
party) shall be appointed by the President pro tempore of
the Senate with the advice of the Chairman and the Ranking
Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Finance.
"(C) 2 members (each member from a different political
party) shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, with the advice of the Chairman and the Ranking
Minority Member of the House Committee on Ways and Means.