David J. Phillip/AP Photo
Possible VP candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris before a Democratic presidential primary debate last September
With August fast approaching, we should know Joe Biden’s choice for running mate in a few days. Most in the progressive community hope it will be Elizabeth Warren, on several important grounds.
First, she is far and away the potential VP who most stands for the profound reform the country needs; and she is astute at both the legislative and popular politics needed to bring about drastic reform.
Beyond her stellar values, Warren has a mastery of detail on how corrupted capitalism works that surpasses that of any other elected official. She is as good as it gets in explaining the complexities of corrupted capitalism in ways that regular people can connect to their own lives.
Further, Warren would rally a lot of grassroots support. She’s not Bernie, but except for the bitter-enders on the left, Warren would provide a lot of reassurance to progressive voters.
She could also help Biden govern. The two are personally close and he values her counsel.
And last but far from least, she would be a plausible and superb president should Biden die in office or serve only one term.
But Warren may well not get the nod. Given the transformation in racial consciousness since the police murder of George Floyd, there is momentum for Biden to embrace the moment by choosing a Black running mate.
Kamala Harris has been assumed to be the front-runner. However, excitement even in the Black community about Harris has been lukewarm; and people and groups who know her record best have raised alarming concerns on criminal justice and other issues.
Coming up fast as a contender is former U.N. ambassador and national security adviser Susan Rice. Like Harris, Rice is African American. But to the extent that Rice has a public image at all, is it less as activist Black woman and more as foreign-policy professional. As such, Rice might be the safer choice, both to moderate white voters and to progressives distressed about Harris’s record, though Rice might be less motivating to the grass roots.
For Warren supporters, there is one other factor in the event she is not chosen as Biden’s running mate. She would make a superb Treasury secretary.
Indeed, if Biden passes over Warren for veep, he will be under great pressure to reassure progressive voters that Warren will play a very major role both in his campaign and in his administration.
Of all the economic power positions, Treasury secretary is the most important. The secretary is in charge not just of the technical functions of Treasury such as the national debt, but is the key power player on financial regulation, relations with the Federal Reserve, and has a great deal to say about the budget and about foreign trade.
On all of these issues, Warren is deeply knowledgeable and a breath of fresh air compared to the Wall Street proxies and austerity-mongers who have held the job under Democrats as well as Republicans. As Treasury secretary, she could have almost as much influence as vice president.
One important difference, of course, is that the Treasury secretary can be fired and the VP can’t. My sense is that Warren would rather be VP, and she may well be right. On the other hand, the fact that he can’t fire his VP may be giving Biden pause.
Another reason to welcome Warren as Treasury secretary is the rest of the list of contenders. With one notable exception, the entire list is too congenial to Wall Street.
That exception is Sarah Bloom Raskin, who shares both Warren’s expertise and her progressive views on reform. Raskin is especially passionate on the need for all the credit being created in the pandemic by the Fed and the Treasury to be directed to struggling Americans rather than to banks and corporations.
Raskin has all the necessary credentials, having served as a governor of the Federal Reserve and then as deputy Treasury secretary, the number two position at the department. She was Obama’s most progressive economic appointee.
After Raskin, it’s a long way down.
Two possible candidates are people with Wall Street backgrounds who were more progressive in office than expected. One is Antonio Weiss, a former investment banker with Lazard, whom Obama appointed to a senior counselor job at Treasury, much to the consternation of progressives who blocked him from a post that required Senate confirmation. As a senior counselor, he brokered the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act. On some issues, he turned out to be a pleasant surprise and an ally of reformers.
Warren is too talented and galvanizing not to be in the next Democratic administration one way or another. Treasury secretary is a fine second-best.
Also in that category is Gary Gensler, Obama’s head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, yet another alum of Goldman Sachs, where he made partner at 30. But from the perspective of many on Wall Street, Gensler was a class traitor—also a champion of reform and an ally of progressives.
Both would be better than your typical former investment banker, which sure is a low bar.
But Biden is said to want a woman for Treasury secretary as well as for VP. One possibility is Sheila Bair, the former head of the FDIC and a Republican to boot. In that job, she turned out to be a close ally of Warren and other progressives who wanted the big banks to be cleaned out rather than propped up. Bair could do the job, but she is said to want a seat on the Fed rather than Treasury.
Another contender is former Treasury undersecretary for international affairs Lael Brainard, appointed by Obama in 2014 to a seat at the Federal Reserve. Brainard has spoken of the need for greater financial reform. And at a Fed dominated by Trumpers she is a relative progressive, which is not saying much.
Brainard has made two previous runs at Treasury secretary, first in 2013 when Jack Lew got the job; and again in 2016, when she was the odds-on favorite to be President Hillary Clinton’s appointee. But Brainard is a protégé of Larry Summers, close to the people at BlackRock, and would be rather less progressive than either Warren or Raskin, on a range of issues from budget balance to hyper-globalization.
So Warren is the standout. Constitutional scholars have even found that there is no obstacle to Warren serving in both jobs—VP and Treasury secretary—but that is probably a bridge too far.
One other consideration is whether Warren can be confirmed. Assuming Democrats take back the Senate, she ought to be. But Wall Street can be expected to make a full-court press to peel off a few corporate Democrats to keep her out of that power position.
Warren is too talented and galvanizing not to be in the next Democratic administration one way or another. Treasury secretary is a fine second-best.
But the VP job doesn’t require Senate confirmation, only the confirmation of the voters—which is more likely if Warren is on the ticket.
