Neera Tanden Quotes

Author Image

Neera Tanden

Profession : Public Servant

Birth : September 10, 1970

Candidates use their negative message to highlight a contrast with their opponent that helps define themselves positively.

Neera Tanden

When George W. Bush became president, Republicans authorized a series of massive tax cuts that ballooned the federal deficit and worsened income equality, and passed a prescription drug bill despite the fact that it carried a $400 billion price tag for which no one paid.

Neera Tanden

Barack Obama came into office in the midst of an economic crisis and yet, shortly into his first term, Republicans suddenly rediscovered the urgent need for deficit reduction.

Neera Tanden

True conservatives would not be concerned about deficits when liberals are in power, but then ignore them entirely when the Republican party wants to prioritize tax cuts for the rich.

Neera Tanden

The GOP attempted to make the 2018 elections a referendum on Pelosi's potential leadership, not for the first time. For more than a decade, Republicans have launched round after round of shameless attacks against her.

Neera Tanden

Republicans fear Nancy Pelosi because she has Teflon skin and a spine of steel - and because she is a progressive woman who wields power with supreme potency and without a moment of apology or uncertainty.

Neera Tanden

In Nancy Pelosi, our country has a perfect example of why we should never choose our leaders because of the attacks by political opponents.

Neera Tanden

What can defeat health care reform? Polls - or more specifically, Democratic politicians misreading them.

Neera Tanden

Elections are based on competing arguments. Of course, issues are integral to those arguments - the very building blocks of them. But very few individual issues make or break a nationalized election.

Neera Tanden

It's not easy to explain a system that creates insurance exchange markets, coupled with tax credits to make sure the insurance sold on the exchanges is affordable.

Neera Tanden

As a former Hill staffer, I understand the incentives to announce the possibility that you will vote no. When you do that, the leadership will quickly return your calls.

Neera Tanden

For decades, cost-conscious Republicans criticized the way health care is delivered in our country. They argued that generous insurance plans, combined with the fee-for-service system in which doctors, hospitals, and other providers are reimbursed for each point of service they deliver, creates incentives for overuse.

Neera Tanden

Americans for Job Security is a corporate front group. It has spent millions on behalf of campaigns to repeal the estate tax and take down the Employee Free Choice Act.

Neera Tanden

Our society strangely tolerates mocking Indians.

Neera Tanden

Back in the Clinton White House, I was a middling staffer on the Domestic Policy Council, working on issues ranging from the adoption tax credit to media violence and its effect on children.

Neera Tanden

One of my bosses, as it happens, was Elena Kagan. And I had pretty good vantage for watching her as she crafted policy that could survive those political times.

Neera Tanden

Policymaking is a series of trade-offs. The best course of action is often not very salable, so you negotiate between the ideal and the practical.

Neera Tanden

There seems to be a notion that a single woman can't represent the interests of mothers. Frankly, there were plenty of Republican members of Congress who happened to be mothers, who didn't lift a finger to help mothers balance work and family.

Neera Tanden

I concede that, in the first 18 months of his presidency, Obama has not accomplished all that he campaigned on.

Neera Tanden

The left has demanded fire in the belly from Obama. But will it actually have the president's back when he shows it?

Neera Tanden