Tea Party extremist Mike Mulvaney’s public disservice represents what governance of, by, and for privileged interests exclusively is all about. He’s hostile to virtually everything ordinary people value most.
His appointment deepens the Trump regime’s swamp. A former congressman, he was DJT’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director from November 2017 to December 11, 2018—a bureau he called a “sick, sad” joke while in Congress, co-sponsoring legislation to eliminate it.
He prioritized “identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations,” publicly declaring no intention to “aggressively push the envelope” to protect consumers.
He scaled back ongoing investigations, suspended new ones, while turning a blind eye to predatory payday lender practices.
Despite no evidence suggesting it, he claimed the CFPB hampers FIRE sector innovation and growth—comprised of finance, insurance and real estate.
In February 2017, Trump appointed him Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director, along with serving as acting CFPB head.
He’s militantly hostile to social justice, wanting it eliminated altogether if up to him, notably Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
As OMB director, Ralph Nader called him Trump’s “sadist-in-chief . . . a hatchet man extraordinaire . . . a mugger . . . one of the cruelest, most vicious presidential henchman in modern American history . . . a human wrecking ball,” adding, “It is difficult to exaggerate the relentless, savage delight [Mulvaney] takes in attacking the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Last May, Public Citizen explained the following: “Eight of the 10 financial institutions that are the subjects of the most complaints in the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) public database contributed to . . . Mulvaney while he was in Congress”—along with 19 of the 30 companies with the most complaints against them, adding, “These institutions have been the subject of more than 520,000 complaints, accounting for more than half of all complaints submitted to the (CFPB) database.
In April 2018, Mulvaney said, “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.”
He’s a poster child for what pay-to-play and deep-seated corruption are all about. In Congress, he supported shuttering the CFPB database, saying, “I don’t see anything in here that says I have to run a Yelp for financial services sponsored by the federal government. I don’t see anything in here that says that I have to make all of those [complaints about business operations] public.”
Hundreds of thousands of complaints were lodged against companies contributing to him as a congressman.
His contributors included Equifax, responsible for letting hackers gain access private information on 143 million Americans in 2017, waiting weeks before revealing it—what Public Citizen called “one of the most highly publicized scandals in recent years.”
On Friday, Trump named Mulvaney his acting chief of staff, replacing John Kelly, leaving at year-end.
Deputy OMB director Russell Vought will replace Mulvaney as director. Yet, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Mulvaney won’t relinquish his OMB post, adding he’ll spend “all of his time devoted” to acting as DJT chief of staff, Vought to run OMB.
Last year, a Politico report on Mulvaney headlined “Mick the Knife,” saying he “proudly calls himself a ‘right-wing nutjob’ and is quietly—and radically—trying to dismantle the federal bureaucracy.”
Trump’s preferred choice for White House chief of staff, Nick Ayers [Mike Pence’s chief of staff] turned him down. Reportedly, so did former New Jersey Governor/presidential aspirant Chris Christie.
Undemocratic Dem Senator Richard Blumenthal called Mulvaney “hardly the kind of peacemaker” needed for Trump regime relations with congressional Dems.
He represents virtually everything hostile to peace, equity and justice the way it should be.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
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