Biden Surprises With Left-Leaning Policies Progressives Laud
- Biden ran as a centrist, but aides are promoting liberal ideas
- Progressive tilt seen in administration’s hiring decisions
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When Jared Bernstein worked as chief economist for then-Vice President Joe Biden during the slow recovery from the financial crisis, White House discussions would often revolve around taming the fiscal deficit.
It was “exactly the wrong economic issue” to be focused on, Bernstein said in January 2012, less than a year after he left President Barack Obama’s administration. The political backdrop of the time made it tough “to explain to the public we have to spend more now and spend less later,” he said in a PBS “Frontline” interview.