Joe Biden has made another cabinet selection.
It's a very important one because it is the secretary of Health and Human Services who
will be coming in during a global hundred year pandemic.
And it turns out that Joe Biden has selected someone who has long supported Medicare for
all.
This is very interesting.
It's a big deal.
And it is Xavier Becerra, who has been chosen to lead Joe Biden's Department of Health and
Human Services now back in 2017, when when he was also California attorney general, as
he still is, Becerra said he would, quote, absolutely support a Medicare for all plan.
Becerra will be leaving his post as California attorney general.
He will be a huge part of fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
He will be a very welcome replacement to the clownish Trump secretary of HHS, Alex Azar,
who is just a wild Trump brownnoser.
Now, from the standpoint of identity, there is another first, Xavier Becerra would be
the first Latino to run HHS.
We're expecting more more health related announcements from Joe Biden very, very soon.
We found out about some of them I mentioned already.
Secretary of HHS will be Xavier Becerra at the CDC.
It will be Rochelle Walensky, the Mass General Hospital chief of infectious disease here
in Boston.
Surgeon general will be Dr. Vivek Murthy, who was also Barack Obama's surgeon general.
So these are solid choices, qualified people.
Now, I admit what does not make sense to me about choosing Xavier Becerra for secretary
of HHS is that he does lack experience in the area of health and medicine.
He's a lawyer now.
There's a counterpoint to that.
Now, it's great that Xavier Becerra has supported Medicare for all.
I see a lot of Bernie people who like the choice for that reason.
But he does lack experience in the field of medicine.
On the other hand, he has been front and center as a lawyer fighting for Obamacare.
And as I imagine we will see as soon as Joe Biden is sworn in, Republicans go right back
to let's get rid of Obamacare, let's get rid of Obamacare, even though we have no replacement
in that sense, Becerra is a good choice.
But remember that Biden doesn't support Medicare for all anyway.
But he does want to expand the Affordable Care Act to include a public option.
And Becerra has experience defending the ACA in legal settings.
And the the other important aspect of this is that the truth is that secretary of HHS,
you're not really making medical decisions.
You're really an executive managing the apparatus of health and Human Services.
And in that sense, there's no way to argue that Becerra is unqualified.
Now, hilariously, there are some Republicans who have immediately said Becerra is a radical.
He's a he's a radical.
We can't we can't have him running HHS.
And, of course, you know, those those guidelines for what counts as radical at this point have
been completely khatuna fired by the right.
This also, by the way, take Xavier Becerra off the list to be the replacement for Kamala
Harris, whose Senate seat will.
Be vacated when she becomes vice president, and that's another story which we'll be covering.
And lastly, there is a good chance that Basara will have a tough confirmation fight in the
Senate.
I think he will be confirmed because ultimately he's completely qualified, but I think it
has the potential to get quite ugly.
Let me know what you think about the selection.
I'm on Twitter at
David Pakman.
I'd love to hear from you.