The Health Team
Jonathan Cohn spills the beans on Barack Obama’s health care team:
Today the Obama transition office will announce its health care policy team. As expected, Tom Daschle will be leading it. According to sources closes to the transition, he’ll be joined by a set of analysts including Lauren Aronson, Mark Childress, Dora Hughes, and Jeanne Lambrew. Harvard economist David Cutler will be serving as a part-time, outside advisor, reprising a role he served during the campaign. Among the other outside advisers are Jonathan Blum, Rahul Rajkumar, Terrell McSweeny, and Jenny Backus. [...]
The team is heavy on people who know a thing or two about moving plans through Congress. Take Aronson. Her most recent job was in Rahm Emanuel’s office. There, she advised him on floor strategy; she also was a liason to other members and outside stakeholders. Before that, she worked for Chris Jennings, a former Clinton staffer who is one of the best known health care advisers in town. So, like Daschle’s appointment, the naming of this team suggests that Obama is serious about pursuing health care reform.
I think this barely counts as transition gossip, since it doesn’t even include titles. Meanwhile, Jeanne Lambrew is a CAP Senior Fellow further reenforcing the point that each and every person working here is now incredibly important and influential. If you’re interested in the question of how and/or why the incoming administration will push for health care reform despite the economic crisis, you should read her testimony on “Health Policy and the Economic Crisis” which I imagine is a subject she’ll have occasion to revisit.
39 Responses to “The Health Team”
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November 25th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
DTM has already conceded that Obama is a centrist. So anyone slightly to Obama’s right would be center-right.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
All this talk about CAP in the transition made me wonder: is ThinkProgress going to become the Obama Pravda?
Oh well, it had a great run under Bush.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I get why lefties are pushing the meme that Obama is a centrist pragmatist surrounding himself with center-right establishment figures while selling out liberals, but why are conservatives playing along?
If you’re a Democratic President elected in a time of crisis with large congressional majorities is there anything better than having your Republican opponents spend months calling you a centrist before you even take office?
Is this just a case of Republicans trying to pissoff liberals or convince themselves that the this year’s elections weren’t so devestating?
November 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Does this mean you can get me a job in the administration? I mean, it seems like you’re on track to know pretty much everyone working for him…. Shoot me an email if you want to hook me up.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I get why lefties are pushing the meme that Obama is a centrist pragmatist surrounding himself with center-right establishment figures while selling out liberals, but why are conservatives playing along?
Most “lefties” are not, like DTM, “arguing” this for political gain. Rather, they are people like Matt Stoller who are idiots. So, the reason that some lefties are pushing the meme that Obama is a centrist pragmatist surrounding himself with center-right establishment figures while selling out liberals is because they are stupid and actually believe this. Some conservatives “play along” because they are also stupid and actually believe it. Others seem to do so because they like the idea that they are promoting dissension among the Democrats – Mixner, for instance, seems to largely be into this because he is taunting liberals on comment pages.
I’m not aware of anybody who is actually seriously pushing this in a strategic way to make Obama look further to the right than they really think he is. There’s people like DTM, or, to a lesser extent, Matt, who joke about this, but that’s not the same thing at all.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I get why lefties are pushing the meme that Obama is a centrist pragmatist surrounding himself with center-right establishment figures while selling out liberals
Do you? Why do you think lefties are “pushing that meme?” Do you think they’re lying?
November 25th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
So, the reason that some lefties are pushing the meme that Obama is a centrist pragmatist surrounding himself with center-right establishment figures while selling out liberals is because they are stupid and actually believe this.
Given that Obama actually has surrounded himself with center-right establishment figures, and that Obama’s policies actually are centrist and pragmatic, why are lefties stupid to believe this? Do tell.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Remember to turn off the lights and leave the key with the bldg super on the way out.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Golly, Mixner, you’re full of interesting ideas. Tell me more about how “centrist” is an absolutely defined term and not a constantly changing label whose referent ipso facto must change depending on where the “left” and “right” are. Ideally, you would want to get on national TV and tell the entire country about how centrist Obama is. Those liberals sure will hate you.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Mixie at work.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
“My name is pseudonymous in nc and I live in a permanent state of uncontrollable rage.”
November 25th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I think that Judy Feder who lost her race against Frank Wolfe in Virginia-10 would be a great addition to this team. She is super smart and very knowledgeable about health care policy.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
“Mixner, putting the ‘ass’ in Asperger’s.”
November 25th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
“My name is pseudonymous in nc, and I live in a permanent state of uncontrollable rage.”
November 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Wow. You guys sure suck at human interaction….
December 16th, 2008 at 6:17 am
When Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) switched from Democrat to independent in 2006, Democrats needed him to remain in their caucus to control the Senate with 51 votes. Yet many Democrats openly disdained Lieberman for championing the war in
December 16th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has been a close adviser to Barack Obama throughout the Illinois senator’s campaign for the White House and will now be working for Obama with former Senate majority leaders on
December 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
It looks like John McCain has won Missouri — the last state not marked in either red or blue on the electoral map. The Missouri Secretary of State’s office said Tuesday night the Arizona Republican led President-elect Barack Obama by
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