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Biden Serves As Point Man For Working Families
By Joe Murray, The Bulletin
He came from blue collar origins and now Vice President-elect Joe Biden will be the go-to man for working families in the incoming Obama administration.
The Obama transition team announced yesterday Mr. Biden would head the “White House Task Force on Working Families.”
“My administration will be absolutely committed to the future of America’s middle-class and working families. They will be front and center every day in our work in the White House,” said President-elect Barrack Obama in a statement announcing the task force.
“And this task force will be one vehicle we will use to ensure that we never forget that commitment. I think it can make a great contribution to our work, and I’m grateful that the vice president-elect has agreed to chair it.”
The task force’s goal will be to increase the standard of living for working class families by focusing on education and training, as well as pursuing initiatives that protect worker’s retirements. Improving labor, economic and safety standards alike, is also a key focus. The hope is the Obama administration will implement policies geared at returning stability to the backbone of the economy – U.S. workers.
In accepting the added responsibility, Mr. Biden stressed the importance a healthy middle class in reviving the faltering U.S. economy.
“The one thing that we use as a yardstick of economic success of our administration: Is the middle class growing? Is the middle class getting better? Is the middle class no longer being left behind? And we'll look at everything from college affordability to after school programs … I will be the guy honchoing that policy,” Mr. Biden said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The task for will be packed with other high ranking officials inside the Obama administration. Other members include: Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Commerce, as well as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Counsel, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.
While Mr. Biden’s primary role will be to build a consensus among the group and to present a unified front to the country, the vice president-elect said he would use his relationship with Mr. Obama if obstacles are encountered.
“If in fact there is no consensus, [I’d] go to the president of the United States and say, ‘Mr. President, I think we should be doing this, cabinet member so and so thinks that. You’re going to have to resolve what it is we think we should do,’ ” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden stressed yesterday he is heavily involved with the decisions being made by Mr. Obama to date. He said he told Mr. Obama, during their running mate talks that he wanted to have a say in every issue facing the administration and he did not “want to be the guy that goes out and has a specific assignment.”
“I said I want a commitment from you that in every important decision you'll make, every critical decision, economic and political as well as foreign policy, I'll get to be in the room,” Mr. Biden said.
So far, Mr. Obama has respected such a role.
“Every single solitary appointment he has made thus far, I have been in the room,” Mr. Biden said. “The recommendations I have made in most cases, coincidentally, have been the recommendations that he's picked, not because I made them, but because we think a lot alike.”
Overseeing a task force has become a tradition among vice presidents. Vice President Dick Cheney headed a task force on energy, while Al Gore and George H. W. Bush chaired tasks for on reinventing government and reducing government regulation respectively.
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us.
The Obama transition team announced yesterday Mr. Biden would head the “White House Task Force on Working Families.”
“My administration will be absolutely committed to the future of America’s middle-class and working families. They will be front and center every day in our work in the White House,” said President-elect Barrack Obama in a statement announcing the task force.
“And this task force will be one vehicle we will use to ensure that we never forget that commitment. I think it can make a great contribution to our work, and I’m grateful that the vice president-elect has agreed to chair it.”
The task force’s goal will be to increase the standard of living for working class families by focusing on education and training, as well as pursuing initiatives that protect worker’s retirements. Improving labor, economic and safety standards alike, is also a key focus. The hope is the Obama administration will implement policies geared at returning stability to the backbone of the economy – U.S. workers.
In accepting the added responsibility, Mr. Biden stressed the importance a healthy middle class in reviving the faltering U.S. economy.
“The one thing that we use as a yardstick of economic success of our administration: Is the middle class growing? Is the middle class getting better? Is the middle class no longer being left behind? And we'll look at everything from college affordability to after school programs … I will be the guy honchoing that policy,” Mr. Biden said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The task for will be packed with other high ranking officials inside the Obama administration. Other members include: Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Commerce, as well as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Counsel, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.
While Mr. Biden’s primary role will be to build a consensus among the group and to present a unified front to the country, the vice president-elect said he would use his relationship with Mr. Obama if obstacles are encountered.
“If in fact there is no consensus, [I’d] go to the president of the United States and say, ‘Mr. President, I think we should be doing this, cabinet member so and so thinks that. You’re going to have to resolve what it is we think we should do,’ ” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden stressed yesterday he is heavily involved with the decisions being made by Mr. Obama to date. He said he told Mr. Obama, during their running mate talks that he wanted to have a say in every issue facing the administration and he did not “want to be the guy that goes out and has a specific assignment.”
“I said I want a commitment from you that in every important decision you'll make, every critical decision, economic and political as well as foreign policy, I'll get to be in the room,” Mr. Biden said.
So far, Mr. Obama has respected such a role.
“Every single solitary appointment he has made thus far, I have been in the room,” Mr. Biden said. “The recommendations I have made in most cases, coincidentally, have been the recommendations that he's picked, not because I made them, but because we think a lot alike.”
Overseeing a task force has become a tradition among vice presidents. Vice President Dick Cheney headed a task force on energy, while Al Gore and George H. W. Bush chaired tasks for on reinventing government and reducing government regulation respectively.
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us.
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