Tag: Mick Mulvaney

Trump names Mulvaney acting chief of staff

President Trump on Friday named budget director Mick Mulvaney as his acting White House chief of staff, capping off a week of frenzied speculation about who would take over the key West Wing role.

Trump said in a pair of Twitter posts that Mulvaney would start at the beginning of next year after outgoing chief of staff John Kelly leaves his post.

“Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration,” Trump wrote. “I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

View the complete December 14 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here. 

Trump official gave big banks a ‘discount’ for screwing people over

Credit: Alex Wong, Getty Images

Mick Mulvaney used his tenure at the CFPB to do the bidding of corporations, not help consumers.

The Senate approved Kathy Kraninger as the new head for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), but not before previous chief Mick Mulvaney could make a mockery of the agency.

Mulvaney took over the consumer protection agency in November 2017, even though he hated the agency and once said, “I don’t like the fact that CFPB exists.”

When the Washington Post delved into Mulvaney’s tenure at the CFPB, it found a disturbing pattern of Mulvaney using his position to go soft on companies that were harming consumers.

View the complete December 7 article by Dan Desai Martin on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Trump’s Budget Director Reveals Plans to Attack Social Security and Medicare

Mick Mulvaney, Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

Americans will not be fooled into allowing Mick Mulvaney to make what he deemed “easy” cuts to earned benefits.

Opponents of Social Security and Medicare are so eager to end these two overwhelmingly important and popular earned benefits that they can’t contain themselves. Mick Mulvaney, the Trump administration’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, is the latest to make crystal clear the longstanding plan to destroy both programs.

Speaking at a conference of state legislators hosted by the anti-government American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”), Mulvaney just revealed that he plans first to go after what he sees as more politically achievable cuts. He explained that the next step, presumably after Trump is in his second term, will be for the administration not just to cut these programs but to end them as we know them.

Mulvaney is apparently so eager to go after our earned benefits that he threw the point into a speech to state legislators, even though both Social Security and Medicare are federal programs.

View the complete November 30 article by Nancy J. Altman on the Common Dreams website here.

Mulvaney defends White House aide over ‘dying’ McCain comment: It was ‘joke’ in ‘private meeting’

The following article by Luis Sanchez was posted on the Hill website May 12, 2018:

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney on Saturday defended the White House aide who made a derisive comment about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), saying the real issue was that the “bad joke” had been leaked to the press.

“This was a private meeting inside the White House. It was a joke. It was a badly considered joke that she said fell flat,” Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said during an appearance on Fox News.

But Mulvaney argued that the leak of the comment posed the greater issue: “The leak was designed to hurt that person. Also, it completely ignored the harm it would do to the McCain family, which is doubly inconsiderate.”

The Hill first reported Thursday that special assistant Kelly Sadler had mocked McCain’s brain cancer diagnosis a day after the Arizona Republican had come out against Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel. Continue reading “Mulvaney defends White House aide over ‘dying’ McCain comment: It was ‘joke’ in ‘private meeting’”

Mulvaney Backlash May Drive Political Money Changes

The following article by Kate Ackley was posted on the Rollcall website April 26, 2018:

Even lobbyists distanced their industry from remarks by the White House budget chief

Watchdog groups characterized Mick Mulvaney’s remarks as “brazen.” Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Advocates for tougher campaign finance regulations say comments from Mick Mulvaney seeming to describe a pay-to-play style of politics on Capitol Hill will boost their long-term effort to overhaul the rules and could benefit like-minded candidates in the midterm elections.

Mulvaney, the White House budget chief and acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told a group of bankers Tuesday that when he served in Congress, his office refused meetings with lobbyists who did not provide political contributions. Mulvaney, a Republican, represented a South Carolina district from January 2011 to February 2017, when he became director of the Office of Management and Budget. Continue reading “Mulvaney Backlash May Drive Political Money Changes”

Fox News blacks out Mick Mulvaney’s admission that he sold access to lobbyists

The following article by Judd Legum was posted on the ThinkProgress website April 25, 2018:

Money talks.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney during a House Appropriations Committee hearing, April 18, 2018. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Last night the New York Times reported Mick Mulvaney, who simultaneously holds two top positions in the Trump administration, admitted to a group of bankers that, as a Congressman, he sold access to lobbyists.

“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress. If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you,” Mulvaney said. Continue reading “Fox News blacks out Mick Mulvaney’s admission that he sold access to lobbyists”

Mick Mulvaney’s confession highlights the corrosive influence of money in politics

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website April 25, 2018:

THE BIG IDEA: Mick Mulvaney said the quiet part out loud.

Mick Mulvaney, who runs the OMB and CFPB, testifies last week during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday at the American Bankers Association conference in Washington. “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”

Mulvaney, who represented South Carolina in the House from 2011 until President Trump appointed him as director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2017, told the 1,300 industry executives and lobbyists that they should push lawmakers hard to pursue their shared agenda. Continue reading “Mick Mulvaney’s confession highlights the corrosive influence of money in politics”

CFPB lets payday lender accused of stealing millions off the hook

The following article by A.P. Joyce was posted on the mic.com website April 20, 2018:

Interim CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced in its latest report to Congress that it would be dropping its enforcement actions against a business group that is accused of running an international online payday lending scheme.

The group, known as NDG Financial Corp, is accused of violating U.S. usury laws, and employing deceptive and abusive practices to collect from borrowers. Continue reading “CFPB lets payday lender accused of stealing millions off the hook”

Mulvaney defends pay freeze even for feds he knows are underpaid

The following article by Joe Davidson was posted on the Washington Post website April 20, 2018:

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Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney testified Feb. 13 before the Senate Budget Committee on the President’s Fiscal Year 2019 Budget. (Senate Budget Committee)

Just two days after the Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog documented raises as high as 72 percent for handpicked aides, President Trump’s budget boss defended a general pay freeze for federal employees, even those he knows are underpaid.

Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney told a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday that an “analysis of the way that we paid federal workers seemed to indicate that we overpay at the lower levels and underpay at the upper levels.” Continue reading “Mulvaney defends pay freeze even for feds he knows are underpaid”

Trump’s military parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director says

The following article by Erica Werner was posted on the Washington Post website February 14, 2018:

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Feb. 14 that President Trump’s desired military parade would cost “between $10 million and $30 million.” (House Budget Committee)

Trump’s military parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Wednesday.

Mulvaney offered the estimate during questioning at the House Budget Committee. He said the White House hasn’t yet budgeted for the parade and would either rely on Congress to appropriate funds or use money that already has been approved. Continue reading “Trump’s military parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director says”