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Tag: office of management and budget
Senate Democrats: Trump Put Federal Workers At COVID-19 Risk

Senate Democrats: Trump Put Federal Workers At COVID-19 Risk

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Democratic senators are questioning the Trump administration about whether it has been doing enough to protect federal workers during the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter sent Monday to the White House, the senators demanded more information about the administration's policies, and they cited ProPublica coverage detailing how agencies have come up short.

The administration has the “authority and responsibility to make sure that federal agencies have effective and clear policies to protect these employees," wrote Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and 20 other lawmakers.

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Trump Budget Chief Can’t Explain Why GOP Blocked Military Pay During Shutdown

Trump Budget Chief Can’t Explain Why GOP Blocked Military Pay During Shutdown

Republicans have been backed into a corner for blocking military pay, and they have no good answers for why they’re harming the troops through their political gamesmanship.
Donald Trump’s budget chief Mick Mulvaney had no real answer when asked why the White House and Republican Party are blocking service members’ pay and benefits during the GOP-engineered shutdown of the federal government.

Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced a resolution to ensure that military personnel continue to receive their pay during the shutdown, as President Obama had done during the Republican-led shutdown in 2013.

But that lie was exposed on Sunday morning when Mulvaney was confronted by Face the Nation host John Dickerson about comments he made during the 2013 shutdown, in which Mulvaney pointed out that “our troops are still being paid.”

“I have a much greater understanding of a shutdown now that I’m the O.M.B. director,” Mulvaney insisted, but then falsely implied that military pay was deferred in 2013, as it will likely be this time around.

But Dickerson wasn’t dissuaded. “Claire McCaskill … brought up a vote to pay them while the shutdown was going on,” Dickerson said, adding “That vote — Mitch McConnell didn’t bring that up for vote.”

“Why wouldn’t the White House, the executive branch, do everything they can to take care of the troops while this is being adjudicated?” Dickerson asked.

Mulvaney first tried to dodge the question by vaguely referring to other unrelated resolutions that were proposed Friday night into Saturday morning, but finally chalked the blocking of military pay by Republicans to “the sort of the dynamic flow in the Senate.”

Unfortunately, our troops can’t pay their bills with Mulvaney’s excuses.

All day long on Sunday, Trump officials like Mulvaney tried to escape the consequences of their shutdown, and time and again, those efforts were met with failure.

Hopefully, that failure will lead them to end this shutdown quickly, and stop holding Americans hostage to their destructive agenda.

Budget Director Mulvaney: It’s “Kind Of Cool” To Shut Down Government

Budget Director Mulvaney: It’s “Kind Of Cool” To Shut Down Government

The Republican effort to pin the blame on Democrats for the shutdown the GOP engineered has suffered another blow, with Donald Trump’s own budget director openly stating that he considers his role in enacting the shutdown “kind of cool.”

Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. They decide what legislation comes up for a vote, what is allowed to proceed, and which bills become the law.

But when Mick Mulvaney, head of the Office of Management and Budget, spoke to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he offered a stunning moment of honesty.

As Hannity tried to minimize the fallout from a shutdown, Mulvaney told him that “the Office of Management and Budget is charged with, you know, sort-of implementing running a shutdown.”

“In fact, I found out for the first time last night that the person who technically shuts the government down is me, which is kind of cool,” he added.

That doesn’t sound like someone who sees shutting down the government as a negative thing.

And if it isn’t negative, that gives up the entire unfortunate game Republicans have been playing with the most important government in the world.

Mulvaney’s flippancy echoes Trump himself, who wrote in May of last year, “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’.” That same month, Mulvaney argued that “a shutdown in September” could be a way for Trump to “change Washington.”

When he served in Congress, Mike Pence was part of the team pushing for a shutdown in 2011. And Mulvaney, who represented South Carolina in Congress, was part of that push as well.

Republicans wanted a shutdown and so they engineered one. But the idea is extremely unpopular with Americans. The blame for the current crisis is falling squarely on Republican shoulders, particularly Trump.

And in the safe space of right-wing media, speaking to fellow travelers like Hannity, Trump’s team is still letting it slip that they find the entire sordid affair “kind of cool.”

Trump Says Rep. Mulvaney To Be White House Budget Director

Trump Says Rep. Mulvaney To Be White House Budget Director

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he has chosen U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina to be his White House budget director, turning to a fiscal conservative to help pursue his policy agenda.

The nomination to be director of the White House Office of Budget and Management will require Senate confirmation. The announcement was made as Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, began his holiday vacation at Mar-a-Lago, his oceanfront club in nearby Palm Beach, Florida.

Mulvaney, 49, was an outspoken critic of former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who resigned in 2015 amid opposition from fellow Republicans who were members of the House Freedom Caucus.

Mulvaney’s selection points to a strategy by Trump to cut government where he can. The president-elect in recent days has, for example, railed against what he has labeled a far too expensive new version of the Air Force One aircraft he will fly that Boeing is supposed to build.

In a statement announcing his selection, Trump called Mulvaney a strong voice in Congress for “reining in out-of-control spending, fighting government waste and enacting tax policies that will allow working Americans to thrive.”

“With Mick at the head of OMB, my administration is going to make smart choices about America’s budget, bring new accountability to our federal government, and renew the American taxpayer’s trust in how their money is spent,” Trump said.

Mulvaney said the Trump administration “will restore budgetary and fiscal sanity back in Washington”.

“Each day, families across our nation make disciplined choices about how to spend their hard-earned money, and the federal government should exercise the same discretion that hard-working Americans do every day,” Mulvaney said.

Trump on Friday night vowed to seek approval from Congress to spend $1 trillion in new spending to rebuild America’s crumbling network of roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure as a way to create jobs and make some needed repairs.

“We are going to fix our country. It’s time. We have no choice. It’s time,” Trump said in Orlando, Florida.

Democratic President Barack Obama had sought infrastructure spending but was thwarted by Republicans in Congress.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Dale Hudson)