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Resist Mick Mulvaney’s Nomination for Office of Management and Budget Director

Resist Mick Mulvaney’s Nomination for Office of Management and Budget Director

Mulvaney called the 2013 government shutdown “good policy,” led a failing effort in 2015 to shut the government down over Planned Parenthood funding, and created the House Freedom Caucus.

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy, Trump Administration

(Flickr/Gage Skidmore)
(Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

Who is Mick Mulvaney?

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), President-elect Donald Trump’s new nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, could be one of his most dangerous picks yet. During Mulvaney’s tenure in Congress, he called the 2013 government shutdown “good policy,” led a failing effort in 2015 to shut the government down over Planned Parenthood funding, and created the House Freedom Caucus—the extreme right-wing faction of the U.S. House of Representatives that ousted Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). In this new position, he would lead the office responsible for reviewing all agency policies and budgets to ensure that they are in line with the president’s agenda and would be the chief cheerleader for the president’s spending plans. As a key adviser on policy and budget issues, Mulvaney—who doubts that the United States defaulting on its debt would have an impact on the economy—could also push Trump to reject planned increases in the debt ceiling, which would send global markets into a tailspin and be a disaster for American families.

Rep. Mulvaney has consistently been to the right of most congressional Republicans on spending and has opposed many of his own party’s budgets. Although Trump promised not to touch Social Security and Medicare during the campaign, his selection of Mulvaney—alongside other picks such as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Tom Price—signals that Trump is getting ready to cause serious damage to both programs. Mulvaney has tried to gut both programs in the past and proposed doing just that in several bills. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who represents 170,000 federal employees and is a sitting member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget, summed up this pick best, saying, “I’m worried.”

25 percent cut to Social Security, Medicare, and other safety net programs

Mulvaney advocates for an extreme budget plan known as “Cut, Cap, and Balance,” which would require cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other federal programs by roughly 25 percent. The plan caps federal spending at 18 percent of gross domestic product—an extremely low level not seen since 1966—and the only way to reduce cuts to one program would be to cut another program even more deeply. Trump and Mulvaney could still give tax cuts to millionaires, but Cut, Cap, and Balance would hamstring the nation’s ability to respond to recessions by slashing the support programs that families turn to when they are struggling.

Resist Mick Mulvaney in 6 tweets

  1. Trump’s pick for OMB Director, Mick Mulvaney, founded the House Republican “Shutdown Caucus”
  2. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, called the 2013 gov’t shutdown “good policy”
  3. Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s pick to lead budget office, supported gutting Medicare and Social Security, cutting it by 25%
  4. Trump’s pick for OMB director, Mick Mulvaney, is an outspoken climate science denier.
  5. Trump’s OMB pick, Mick Mulvaney, proposed drastic cuts to eliminate free meals at schools for 280,000 low-income children.
  6. Trump’s OMB pick Mick Mulvaney addressed John Birch Society, “a conspiracist group exiled by the right” according to @splcenter

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