President Obama receives economic advice from the son of one of the members of the George Soros-backed Democracy Alliance, a secretive group of progressive millionaires and billionaires.
Jason Furman is an assistant to the president for economic policy and the principal deputy director of the National Economic Council, according to his White House biography. He has been with Obama since the then-Illinois senator brought him on as an economic adviser in mid-2008.
Furman had a privileged upbringing in New York City. His mother, Gail Furman, is the president of the family’s foundation, the Furman Foundation, and a prominent child psychologist in Manhattan.
According to Matt Bai’s book The Argument: Inside the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, Gail Furman pledged more than $25,000 in seed money to fund the Democracy Alliance.
She also sits on the boards of numerous organizations including the liberalEleanor Roosevelt Legacy, Human Rights First, and The Brennan Center for Justice.
Furman’s mother is a prolific political donor. She gave $190,300 to liberal candidates and organizations during the 2012 election cycle, records show, including $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee and $30,800 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
She also gave $2,250 to the liberal fringe group J Street.
The family foundation has donated significantly to liberal organizations. For example, the foundation gave $20,000 to the Center for American Progress and $15,000 to People for the American Way between 2004 and 2006, recordsshow.
Jason Furman was a prodigious juggler. He was able to juggle a bowling ball, an apple, and an egg simultaneously, according to the New York Sun. He monetized his skill, the New York Times pointed out in 2008:
On the not-so-mean streets of New York City, where he had a privileged upbringing, he could draw crowds of up to 200 people and earn up to $500 a day — or, as he says after juggling the numbers, roughly $1,000 in 2008 dollars.
Furman earned three degrees from Harvard University including a Ph.D. in economics and a master’s degree in government, as well as a master’s from the London School of Economics.
He has close connections to the Washington liberal establishment. TheHuffington Post called him, along with many other Obama appointees, "a protégé of former Treasury Secretary and current Citigroup executive Robert Rubin.
Furman and Rubin served in President Bill Clinton’s administration. Furman wasdirector of the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project from 2007 to 2008. Notable future Obama staffers Jack Lew and Gene Sperling, as well as other Obama bundlers, served on the project’s advisory board during that time.
Furman succeeded Peter Orszag, Obama’s first director of the Office of Management and Budget and another ally of Rubin’s, at the Hamilton Project.
He has advised past Democratic campaigns including Al Gore’s 2000 presidential bid as well as John Kerry’s 2004 campaign.
Furman’s academic reputation spurred organized labor to protest his appointment as Obama’s campaign economic adviser, the Los Angeles Timesreported.
The liberal Huffington Post also questioned the move, calling the appointees "Clinton retreads."
Furman has not been a strong donor to Democratic candidates despite his connections and wealth. He has donated recently only to the campaign of Dan Maffei, the New York attorney who was turned out by the voters of New York’s Twenty-Fifth Congressional District in 2010 in favor of Ann Marie Buerkle,records show.