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While much of the political world’s focus this week has been on Donald Trump’s federal criminal indictment, there have been several notable developments on Capitol Hill in recent days, including a Senate confirmation vote that caught my eye. Politico reported:
Senate Democrats on Tuesday confirmed Jared Bernstein as the White House’s chief economist, despite opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Republicans. The Senate approved the long-time confidant of President Joe Biden to chair the Council of Economic Advisers in a 50-49 vote.
This is probably the point at which most of you will simply stop reading. I realize that stories about the Council of Economic Advisers and economists most of you have never heard of don’t constitute “click bait.”
But I’m hoping some of you will stick around so I can explain why this vote struck me as notable.
As The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne noted, Jared Bernstein is a “widely respected and genuinely liked” economist, even among those who disagree with him. If any Biden White House nominee for the Council of Economic Advisers would be well positioned to garner broad, bipartisan support, it’s him. Bernstein is qualified, experienced, and well suited for the job.
And he received exactly zero votes from Senate Republicans. Manchin joined with the GOP minority, explaining that he and the economist are “just different philosophically.”
It’s a tough dynamic to defend. The Council of Economic Advisers is not a policymaking body, it’s an advisory one. It’s hardly outlandish to think Biden should be able to seek economic advice from whichever qualified professionals he prefers.
Some might see this and think it’s simply a matter of partisanship: Democrats vote for Democratic CEA nominees and oppose Republican CEA nominees, and when there’s a Republican president, it’s reversed. But that’s not quite right: When Donald Trump nominated Kevin Hassett to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, he was confirmed 81 to 16, despite having a more problematic background. (Manchin voted for Trump’s nominee, but opposed Biden’s.)
“This is the president’s choice; he’s very qualified,” Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told Politico. Republicans fighting the nomination “just want to be partisan here, when we never have in the past.”
Bernstein is the kind of nominee who, by traditional norms, would’ve been confirmed by unanimous consent. The fact that he cleared the chamber on 50-49 vote, even after Trump’s comparable nominee was approved by a lopsided margin, is a reminder about the partisan asymmetry on Capitol Hill.