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In Xavier Becerra, President-elect Joe Biden is getting a staff participant, savvy politician and competent supervisor — who excels at being in the precise place on the proper time.
He’s additionally a really good man who received’t be an administration troublemaker, however he might be powerful in a struggle.
And he’s Washington-ready, not a naïve outsider who wants D.C. coaching wheels.
But, in contrast to many in politics, he’s not a media-seeking grandstander.
The California lawyer common is definitely a liberal, however not a far-left radical as some Senate Republicans allege.
Becerra as soon as stated he supported “Medicare for all.” But what does that imply? Leftists who advocate for that don’t imply actual Medicare, which is supplemented with non-public insurance coverage. They need government-only medical protection.
Becerra has stated he favors Biden’s extra reasonable, sensible proposal to develop the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — with a “public option” of government-funded insurance coverage.
That’s simply one of many difficult, heated battles Becerra will face as Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services, a snake pit of applications that appeal to fiercely competing pursuits and ideologies and may overwhelm somebody attempting to steer it.
The sprawling company spends greater than $1.4 trillion yearly and is accountable for the well being protection of greater than 100 million Americans, principally by way of Medicare and Medicaid.
Becerra, 62, appears as much as the job primarily based on his four-year tenure as California’s “top cop” operating a big forms and 12 phrases beforehand as a U.S. House member representing Central Los Angeles. He was chairman of the Democratic Caucus and helped maneuver Obamacare by way of the House.
The son of working-class Mexican immigrants, he can be the primary Latino U.S. well being secretary if confirmed by the Senate. He additionally was California’s first Latino lawyer common.
It was a wise transfer by Biden to decide on Becerra for the job after two earlier potential nominees botched their probabilities to develop into prestigious cupboard members.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a co-chair of Biden’s transition staff, was wanting to run HHS, in keeping with printed studies. She was supplied Interior secretary as an alternative and turned it down, upsetting the president-elect’s high advisors. She wound up getting nothing up to now.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo was about to be supplied the HHS job, in keeping with information studies. But she has children at school and wasn’t eager on shifting to Washington. She additionally fretted about turf — how a lot of a task she’d have in preventing the pandemic and vaccinating Americans. So, the governor publicly introduced she didn’t need the job.
The Biden staff rapidly turned to Becerra, who had already been vetted and was on the brief listing for U.S. lawyer common.
Becerra didn’t hesitate. He jumped on the provide, realizing that a chance to develop into a cupboard secretary is often a once-in-a-lifetime priceless reward. You’re highly effective and handled like royalty, particularly as a high participant in a brand new administration. You don’t get picky concerning the job or struggle over turf earlier than you’re even nominated.
Biden confirmed power in sticking to his weapons and never giving in to the preferences of the 2 governors.
Becerra was in the precise place on the proper time — as he was in 2016 when then-Gov. Jerry Brown chosen him to fill the lawyer common put up being vacated by Kamala Harris. Harris had simply been elected to the U.S. Senate, an workplace she would use as a springboard to vice president-elect.
Right earlier than the 2016 common election, Becerra was in Sacramento campaigning for 2 congressional candidates. At a reception, he ran right into a former Washington acquaintance: the late Nancy McFadden, Brown’s high aide. They talked for a protracted whereas. Harris appeared a cinch to win the Senate seat, and Brown hadn’t selected a substitute. McFadden began pondering: “What about Xavier?”
McFadden advised Becerra to Brown, who was impressed with the congressman’s résumé and political smarts, she informed me later. The governor talked with Becerra on the telephone and supplied him the job.
“It wasn’t a hard decision,” she stated. “It just made sense.”
It additionally made numerous sense for the Democrat to surrender his House seat and return to his hometown of Sacramento to develop into state lawyer common. Donald Trump had been elected president, and Republicans would management each homes of Congress.
Becerra most likely caught Biden’s eye by submitting greater than 100 federal lawsuits in opposition to the Trump administration over, you identify it: the administration’s makes an attempt to scuttle Obamacare, its anti-immigration insurance policies, efforts to undermine California’s environmental protections and weaken the state’s makes an attempt to struggle local weather change.
Becerra has been steadily successful in court docket.
Critics thought he was too obsessive about suing Trump.
“We don’t wake up looking to pick a fight, but when the Trump administration threatens our people, values and resources, we’re ready,” Becerra has stated.
Becerra has additionally been criticized by many Republicans for writing official titles and summaries of poll propositions with a Democratic bias. And they’re proper. Chalk it as much as his being a celebration staff participant.
There was hypothesis that Gov. Gavin Newsom would possibly choose Becerra to interchange Harris as senator. But that wasn’t going to occur. And Becerra wasn’t even campaigning for the Senate seat. He assumed — most probably accurately — that it’ll go to Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a longtime Newsom loyalist.
Maybe Becerra’s first process now must be to show his future boss to pronounce his identify. Biden butchered it twice introducing his new nominee to a nationwide TV viewers.
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