Washington, D.C. — Carmel Martin, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement today after two U.S. Senate committees approved the nomination of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to serve as the next director of the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB. Mulvaney’s nomination now moves to the full Senate.
Today’s committee votes advancing the nomination of Mick Mulvaney as director of the Office of Management and Budget represent another stunning endorsement by the congressional majority of President Donald Trump’s agenda to ravage the middle class and jeopardize the economy. President Trump pledged to stand up for working people and protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid yet nominated an OMB director who has slammed Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, advocated ending Medicare as we know it, and proposed massive Medicaid cuts that would kick millions of seniors, people with disabilities, and children off their health coverage. Given Rep. Mulvaney’s outrageous support for shutting down the government, putting the nation in default and wrecking our good credit, it is hard to imagine a more unprecedented and outrageous choice for OMB director than Rep. Mulvaney—further evidence that Trump’s promises to help the middle class are nothing more than empty words.
Last night, CAP sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the U.S. Senate Budget Committee expressing opposition to Mulvaney’s nomination. The text of that letter is below.
Dear Senators Johnson, Enzi, McCaskill and Sanders,
We write to express our opposition to the nomination of Representative John Michael “Mick” Mulvaney for Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Rep. Mulvaney, through his words and actions, has demonstrated that he is unfit to take on this important role, which impacts the lives of every American.
As the agency tasked with implementing and enforcing the President’s vision for the federal government, OMB works to shape government processes in the areas of budget, management, and regulation. While these responsibilities may appear to be mundane and bureaucratic, nothing could be farther from the truth. These responsibilities include developing the President’s budget, which essentially maps out his administrative priorities, including oversight of corporate interests.
Rep. Mulvaney’s positions and voting history demonstrate little interest in helping improve the functioning of government and an unfortunate willingness to risk the jobs and health of American families for the sake of radical ideological positions. These positions, including his support for government shutdowns and his opposition to federal infrastructure and research spending, highlight the danger of confirming an anti-government ideologue to such an important position.
In fact, Rep. Mulvaney’s actions have already had a negative impact on American families. His votes and support of the 2013 government shutdown are more than rhetoric, they cost American families real dollars. According to Standard & Poor’s, the shutdown may have cost our economy as much as $24 billion, and the Council of Economic Advisors estimated that the shutdown slowed private-sector growth by about 120,000 jobs.
Moreover, Rep. Mulvaney has acted with a dangerous recklessness towards the full faith and credit of the United States. He has attempted to block necessary increases in the nation’s debt limit, which would prevent the Treasury Department from honoring commitments made by law to bondholders, Social Security beneficiaries, members of the military, and others. The Treasury Department has said that failing to raise the debt ceiling could cause a financial crisis and recession that could be worse than the crash in 2008, but Rep. Mulvaney has said that he has “never believed the threat that this country will default on its debt as a result of any failure to raise the debt ceiling.”
During his confirmation hearing, Rep. Mulvaney made troubling statements that show his willingness to ignore science and facts. In particular, Rep. Mulvaney repeatedly doubted the threat of climate change, which the overwhelming majority of scientific community agrees is urgent. He also questioned the ties between microcephaly and the Zika virus. These statements are especially troubling given the important role that the OMB director plays in reviewing rules to protect the environment and public health.
Additionally, Rep. Mulvaney has demonstrated a willingness to jeopardize the health and well-being of American families for the sake of ideological positions. He has supported ending “Medicare as we know it”; called Social Security a Ponzi scheme; questioned the need for government research during the Zika crisis; and opposed emergency funding to help Superstorm Sandy victims. Any of these positions would be troubling, but as a whole demonstrate his skewed priorities—he cares more about politics than hardworking families.
An OMB director who questions that government should play a role in ensuring that Americans have access to clean drinking water and that people have clear rights in the workplace might present challenges to guaranteeing that our society is looking out for everyone—not just the powerful. But Rep. Mulvaney’s demonstrated interest in dismantling the government and stymying it from completing its most basic functions is an even more fundamental problem. Without a doubt, Rep. Mulvaney will use the regulatory process to undermine our country’s laws, putting personal ideology over the democratic process.
American families cannot afford to have Rep. Mulvaney at the head of the OMB, and we urge you to oppose his nomination.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.