Julie Su was confirmed last year as deputy labor secretary. But after Joe Biden nominated her to succeed Marty Walsh as Secretary of Labor, it became clear that bipartisan opposition would derail her nomination.
But Joe Biden didn’t let a small detail like the Constitution of the United States stop him. Despite the constitutional necessity for Biden to get the “advice and consent” of the Senate on his cabinet, he’s decided to allow Su to serve “indefinitely.”
And they’re terrified of Trump tearing up the Constitution?
Because Su is deputy labor secretary and has already been confirmed by the Senate, Biden claims that Su became acting secretary of labor the moment the president received Marty Walsh’s resignation. But Republicans disagree strongly.
“It is my view that this use of the Succession Act violates the constitutional provision of advice and consent and would potentially open any DOL action under Julie Su’s leadership to legal challenges,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking GOP Senator on the HELP Committee, wrote in a letter to Biden.
“If your administration believes Ms. Su cannot receive the necessary votes for confirmation, then you should rescind her nomination,” he added. “Any attempts to bypass the will of Congress, especially its constitutionally mandated advice and consent role, is unacceptable.”
Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the chamber floor, “American taxpayers have seen enough of Julie Su. When will Senate Democrats finally decide that they have, too?”
After Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., came out against her, the White House called on him and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who hasn’t publicly taken a stance, to “reconsider” their positions, implying that she also opposes the Su nomination.
The White House’s decision reflects an attempt to navigate a politically thorny situation as President Joe Biden ramps up his 2024 re-election campaign.
Labor leaders and unions strongly support Su, and Biden has promised to be “the most pro-union president” in American history. Replacing her with a more corporate-friendly nominee in pursuit of winning Senate approval risks turning off a key constituency without much obvious political upside.
Before joining Biden’s cabinet, Su served as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency under Gov. Gavin Newsom. While there, she compiled an impressively disastrous record, including the ruinous attack on the gig economy when California reclassified tens of thousands of independent contractor jobs as a favor to Big Labor. The law was so bad that the state legislature amended it by exempting a long list of industries and professions.
She also presided over the largest unemployment fraud case in history during the pandemic. More than $32 billion was stolen due to mismanagement, incompetence, and stupidity, but Biden wants her for Secretary of Labor even though she can’t even get her own party to back her.
The most recent census data show that liberal states like New York and California are no longer the economic powerhouses they once were. The fastest-growing region in the U.S. is the South—and it’s growing in direct opposition to the liberal consensus. A recent report found for the first time in U.S. history, the economic output of six states in the South—Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee—is outpacing the Northeast corridor.
Besides better scenery and milder winters, these new economic centers have a few important things in common: They are right-to-work states with lower average costs of living and, consequently, higher quality of life.
Indeed, Biden wants Su for his cabinet for two reasons: 1) she’s Asian-American, and Biden needs an AAPI face to fill out his rainbow cabinet, and 2) organized labor loves her, and Biden needs their votes for 2024.
Biden sees both reasons as more important than any quaint notion of following the Constitution.
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