The director of the Office and Management and Budget is a critical Cabinet-level appointee who oversees the budget-planning process for all federal agencies. Whoever fills that role has enormous responsibility for and influence over how taxpayer dollars are spent.
President Donald Trump’s nominee, Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, has a record that makes it clear he’s the wrong choice to head OMB.
The OMB director must understand how to shepherd taxpayer dollars responsibly and keep our economy healthy and strong. But Rep. Mulvaney has exactly the wrong priorities.
Mulvaney, who’s going through confirmation hearings in the Senate, has supported deep budget cuts to some of the most important investments we make as a nation, like medical and scientific research, including into the Zika virus. He supports huge, arbitrary budget cuts that will hurt our nation in the long run, costing jobs and putting families at risk.
That’s not all. Mulvaney has called for deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Specifically, he wants to end Medicare as we know it, and has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.” Cuts or drastic changes to those programs would leave generations of retirees at risk of slipping into crippling poverty.
Mulvaney has also helped lead the charge for government shutdowns, reckless confrontations that show he doesn’t know how to compromise and doesn’t care if he puts people out of work.
We need an OMB director who will preserve essential services and promote economic stability and growth, not one who will propose huge arbitrary cuts that will cost jobs and threaten the economy. Mulvaney is the wrong choice.