An expert political panel including Elaine Chao and Neera Tanden discuss the results of the 2012 Presidential Election, and the impact it will have on the economy.
Part 2: The Economy and the Election
Moderator
Ron Brownstein, Editorial Director, National Journal
Panelists
Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Alex Brill, Research Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
The Honorable Elaine Chao, Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress
Bio
Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in May 2011 as a senior fellow, and is currently on leave from the Center until after the presidential election. Between 2009 and 2011, he was the chief economist and economic advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, and a member of President Obama’s economic team. Dr. Bernstein’s areas of expertise include federal and state economic and fiscal policies, income
inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, international comparisons, and the analysis of financial and housing markets.
Prior to joining the Obama administration, Dr. Bernstein was a senior economist and the director of
the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute. From 1995 to 1996, he held the post of deputy chief economist at the Department of Labor. He is the author and co-author of numerous
books for both popular and academic audiences, including Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?, and nine editions of The State of Working America. Mr. Bernstein holds a Ph.D. in social welfare from Columbia University.
Alex Brill
Alex Brill is a former policy director and chief economist of the House Ways and Means Committee who has also served on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. In Congress
and at the CEA, Mr. Brill worked on a variety of economic and legislative policy issues, including dividend taxation, the alternative minimum tax, international tax policy, social security reform, defined benefit pension reform, and U.S. trade policy. At the American Enterprise Institute, Mr.
Brill studies the impact of tax policy on the economy, the consequences of stimulus legislation, healthcare reform, pharmaceutical spending, unemployment insurance reform, and financial innovation and technology. He received a B.A. in economics from Tufts University and an M.A. in mathematical finance from Boston University.
Ron Brownstein
Ron Brownstein, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of presidential campaigns, is National Journal Group's editorial director, in charge of long-term editorial strategy. He also writes a weekly column and regularly contributes other pieces for both National Journal and The Atlantic, and coordinates political coverage and activities across publications produced by Atlantic Media. Mr. Brownstein also writes for 2012 Decoded.
Prior to joining Atlantic Media, Brownstein was the national affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has also served as the Times' national political correspondent and the author of the weekly Washington Outlook column. Brownstein is a National Journal alumnus, having served as the magazine's White House and national politics correspondent from 1983-1986, and then as its west coast correspondent through 1989. He appears regularly on national television, including NBC, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC, and served as a political analyst for CNN from 1998 through 2004. His sixth and most recent book, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America, was published by Penguin in November 2007.
Mr. Brownstein was twice named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, receiving that recognition for his coverage of both the 1996 and 2004 presidential campaigns. In addition, he is the recipient of several journalism awards, including the Exceptional Merit in Media award from the National Women's Political Caucus, the Excellence in Media award from the National Council on Public Polls in 2005, and the Journalist of the Year award from the Los Angeles Press Club in 2005. In 2007, the American Political Science Association presented him its Carey McWilliams award for lifetime achievement, granted to honor a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.
Elaine Chao
Elaine Chao served as the 24th Secretary of Labor from 2001 to 2009. The first American woman of Asian descent to be appointed to a presidential cabinet, she was also the longest-tenured Secretary
of Labor since World War II and the only member of President Bush’s original cabinet to have served all eight years of his administration.
Secretary Chao’s distinguished career spans the public, private, and non-profit sectors. During her time leading the Department of Labor, she focused on improving worker training programs to increase the competitiveness of the U.S. workforce in the global economy and set new records in worker health and safety. Prior to joining the Bush administration, she was president and CEO of United Way of America, where she restored public trust to the organization after it had been tarnished
by financial abuse and mismanagement. As director of the Peace Corps, she established the first Corps programs in the Baltic states and the newly-independent countries of the former Soviet Union. Her previous government service includes time as the deputy secretary of transportation and chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.
Secretary Chao earned an economics degree from Mount Holyoke College, her MBA from Harvard Business School, and has been recognized with numerous awards for her public service record, including 34 honorary degrees. She is married to the Republican Leader of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell.
Neera Tanden
Neera Tanden is the president of the Center for American Progress and counselor to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Most recently, Ms. Tanden served as the chief operating officer for the Center, leading strategic planning of the organization and managing all operations.
Ms. Tanden previously served as senior advisor for health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services, advising Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and working on President Obama’s health
reform team to develop and pass the Affordable Care Act.
Prior to that, she was the director of domestic policy for the 2008 Obama campaign, where she managed all domestic policy proposals. Ms. Tanden also served as policy director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, having previously served as associate director for domestic policy and senior advisor to the first lady during the Clinton administration. She received her B.S. from the University of California Los Angeles and her law degree from Yale Law School.
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, highlights President Obama's unprecedented campaign selling pitch of raising taxes on America's highest earners. Tanden asserts that Obama's re-election validates the President's plan to implement higher revenues on the rich.
The panel of political experts discuss what steps the Obama Administration and the Federal Government need to take to get the U.S. economy back on track.
