Austerity-minded Jeff Zients’s appointment as White House chief of staff signals Joe Biden’s return to the fiscal hawkishness that has always been his sweet spot.
by Branko Marcetic, Jacobin
With the grand ambitions of Joe Biden’s first year or so dead and buried, the 2022 midterms seemed to serve as a chapter break ending the first, pseudo-Rooseveltian phase of his presidency. We can’t know exactly what the next phase is going to entail, but we may have just gotten a big clue.
Among the big news out of DC this week is that Biden is replacing outgoing chief of staff Ron Klain with Jeff Zients, millionaire and former COVID-19 czar. This has, for good reason, sparked outrage among progressives, who view Zients’s panoply of conflicts of interest, private equity past, and mishandling of the pandemic as disqualifying.

Despite Klain’s questionable record, he won progressives over through what seemed like genuine efforts at outreach, making them feel — unusually, for a modern White House occupied by either party — that their ideas were being factored into policymaking. Zients would’ve struggled to fill his shoes no matter what. But his sketchy past has made that a particularly tall order, and possibly signals that Biden is ready to ditch the already tenuous progressive populist approach of his first two years.
Poll after poll confirms:
Americans are ready to move on from Joe Biden.
We’re calling on Joe Biden to announce that he’s not running for President in 2024.
Sign our petition below saying “Don’t Run Joe”! Learn more at www.DontRunJoe.org
Recent Posts
Top Five Weapons Companies Set To Get $140 Billion From Pentagon Next Year
September 22, 2023
Take Action Now A Sludge analysis estimates that more than half of the fiscal year 2024 Pentagon budget will go to private contractors, with the five…
Schumer Circulates Petition To ‘Demand’ Federal Marijuana Legalization
September 22, 2023
Take Action Now Striking auto workers pulled off a major coup before their strike, baiting America’s largest auto manufacturers into self-sabotage.……
Rich Men North Of Richmond
September 21, 2023
Take Action Now Anthony was touching the constituency the left is supposed to talk with, is supposed to reach out to, is supposed to hear and learn…
Meeting Union Demands Would Be A Win-win For Automakers
September 21, 2023
Take Action Now But with corporations insistent on squeezing more profits no matter the cost, strikes are inevitable — and necessary. By Sonali…