Why Biden Prefers Politicians Over Experts

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Senator Ted Cruz (AWOL-Cancun) is on a roll, criticizing Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, for having what he sees as the wrong qualifications for the job: “If a Republican tried to nominate a trial lawyer like Xavier Becerra to lead HHS in the midst of a global pandemic, they would be laughed out of the room.” He’s not alone; Cruz joined 10 other Republican senators in complaining that Becerra is unqualified for the position.

They’re wrong. In fact, Becerra, who spent 12 terms in the House before serving as California’s attorney general starting in 2017, couldn’t be a more typical nominee. And there are very good reasons why presidents keep picking nominees with similar backgrounds. The job of a cabinet secretary, whether at HHS or elsewhere, is more than anything a political job, so politicians are the ones with the right training for the position.

That’s why President Ronald Reagan’s HHS secretaries included Richard S. Schweiker, who had been a senator from Pennsylvania, and Margaret Heckler, a former House member from Massachusetts, neither of whom had any relevant specialist knowledge. (A third HHS secretary under Reagan, Otis Bowen, was a doctor — and also a former two-term governor of Indiana with a 20-year political career.) President George W. Bush’s HHS secretaries, Wisconsin’s Tommy Thompson and Utah’s Mike Leavitt, had both been governors. Again, neither had any subject-matter expertise.

It’s true that some cabinet secretaries have been specialists, such as former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who was a scientist. But there are also plenty like Elaine Chao, who went from chair of the Federal Maritime Commission to deputy transportation secretary to director of the Peace Corps to secretary of labor to secretary of transportation. In other words, she’s been a general-purpose governing professional who knows how to manage a bureaucracy. Not a policy specialist.

Politicians, governing professionals, policy specialists: All have their advantages. But especially in a sprawling department like HHS, specialists have a real disadvantage because no one can be an expert in all the necessary policy areas. Besides, the government has no shortage of people who know about pandemics. What it needs are people with the political skills to coordinate the federal bureaucracy, state and local governments, private business, a variety of hostile and friendly interest groups, and more, all while keeping Democrats in Congress happy and not giving Republicans any ammunition they can use against the president.

Becerra’s experience at the top of a state bureaucracy seems a particularly useful background for this stage of the pandemic. Given the choice, I’d much rather have someone who knows how to make things happen in state governments than someone with a deep scientific understanding of how coronaviruses spread. Especially since one of the skills that politicians need to be successful is learning how to be briefed on a wide range of policy questions.

Cruz says: “I’ve been a lawyer for 25 yrs & a Senator for 8. Would you hire me to remove your appendix? Of course not. I’m not remotely qualified to be HHS Secretary.” To his first point: No, personal medical care is not, in fact, part of the HHS secretary’s job. To his second point? What’s needed is a skilled politician. I won’t disagree with Cruz’s implied self-assessment.

1. Matt Grossmann talks with Robert Lupton and Elizabeth Chase Connors about the roots of partisan polarization.

2. Dan Drezner on foreign-policy narratives.

3. Jowei Chen and Nicholas Stephanopoulos on gerrymandering.

4. Amy Walter on why internal Republican politics will probably play a much smaller role in 2022 than some imagine. Probably correct!

5. Michael Grunwald on Democrats now and in 2009.

6. Al Hunt on Christian conservatives who defied Trump.

7. Greg Sargent on Republicans and the commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection.

8. And Ed Kilgore remembers an old Washington scandal.

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