PRESIDENT HAS A PLETHORA OF BROKEN PROMISES

…Mick Mulvaney, the "OMB Swamp Monster" working for the president.

The list of Trump’s broken campaign promises just continues to grow.

Let’s take a look at just a few of what the president promised during the 2016 campaign:

·       “I know how broken Washington is and I’m going to ‘Drain the Swamp’ in DC!”

Results: Trump’s administration is the: "swampiest” administration in political history!

·       “The Trump administration will heavily vet all nominees!”

Results: The Trump White House Vets no one.  They leave vetting to Congress.

·       Trump said, “I will not play golf as did President Obama, I will be working in the White House”

Results: In Trump’s first year he has already played more golf than Obama played in his 8 years in office.

·       Trump said that, “He would not be taking any vacations.”

Results:  Trump has spent most every weekend playing golf at his resorts and all the travel and security expenses are paid by US taxpayers.

Trump said that, “There would be no more expensive ‘State Dinners’ at the White House.”

Results: Trump just had his first State Dinner for the President and First Lady of France.

·       Trump said he would get rid of DACA.

Results: A Federal Judge has given the orders to allow new DACA enrollees.

·       Trump said, “Mexico would pay for ‘The Wall’ ”.

Results: The US is going to pay for whatever is actually built.

There are many other promises that have not been kept, but let’s go back and look at that promise to “Drain the Swamp”.

One of the promises that trump expounded on was that “No one knew better than he, as to how the system works, therefore, only he could fix it!”

Well, according to Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budge (OMB), here is what he presented 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.”  (In other words, "Pay for Play" is the way it works!)

Mulvaney, told the 1,300 industry executives and lobbyists that they should push lawmakers hard to pursue their shared agenda.

He told the crowd that trying to sway legislators (with large donations) is one of the “fundamental underpinnings of our representative democracy.”

For good measure, he insisted that he always made time for his constituents when he was in office. “If you came from my home and sat in my lobby, I talked to you without exception, regardless of any financial contributions,” Mulvaney said. 

Mulvaney’s comment appears to be of the same mentality that drives the Trump orbit.

Multiple Republicans admitted last fall during the debate over Trump's tax cuts that they worried about losing campaign contributions if they didn’t vote for the legislation. “My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again for money,’” said Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), the first member of Congress to endorse Trump’s presidential campaign.

The president himself has repeatedly said that he views politics as transactional. “As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in 2015. “As a businessman, I needed that.”

He was asked about that quote during a GOP primary debate. “You better believe it,” Trump replied. “I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them and they are there for me.”

Mulvaney’s comments are especially notable because he’s been viewed for several years, by supporters and critics alike, as one of Wall Street’s best friends in Washington. “He was also tapped by President Trump last November to temporarily run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in part because of his promise to sharply curtail it.”

Since then, he has frozen all new CFPB investigations and slowed down existing inquiries by requiring employees to produce detailed justifications. He also sharply restricted the bureau’s access to bank data.   He has scaled back CFPB efforts to go after payday lenders, auto lenders and other financial services companies accused of preying on the vulnerable.

Mulvaney had received nearly $63,000 in donations from payday lenders for his former campaigns.  But he wants Congress to go further and has urged it to stop funding the independent watchdog operation from the Federal Reserve, a move that would give lawmakers, and those with access to them, more influence on the Reserve's actions.

Mulvaney also announced during his speech to the bankers that he will likely end public access to a database used by consumers to file complaints against financial institutions.   There will be no formal way to file a complaint.

“The CFPB database has drawn 1.5 million consumer complaints on financial companies and products since its launch in 2011,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “It includes the names of the companies that receive complaints and detailed consumer experiences. Advocates say having the information available to the public makes the portal effective by putting pressure on companies to respond to consumers. Businesses say it spreads unverified negative information about them.”   And Mulvaney wants to get rid of this function.

Mr. Mulvaney said, “The bureau would continue to maintain a toll-free number and a website to gather consumer complaints and forward them to companies, but the database would be hidden from public view.”  (This won't allow multiple complaints to be compared to see a trend as would a data base.)

Democratic members of Congress are rightly accusing Mulvaney of practicing pay-to-play politics. “This is supposed to be a government by the people, for the people. Not a government of the thieves and the money changers. Mick Mulvaney is a disgrace,” tweeted Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), who sits on the Finance Committee.

“Mulvaney didn’t offer this as a sad concession to reality but an actual principle of governance he had personally abided,” notes New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait.  Chait added: “People in government might have always given their donors more influence over their decisions, but they at least pretended that was not the case in public. The Trump administration is not even bothering to put up a facade. … The completely accurate sense that Trump and his party are out to get themselves and their friends rich is the administration’s gaping vulnerability.”

Many long-time journalists are characterizing Mulvaney’s statements as scandalous:

“A remarkable admission that would very likely spark an immediate House ethics investigation [if he was still in Congress],” tweeted veteran congressional correspondent Paul Kane.

“I’ve never before seen a former member describe Congress so explicitly as an extortion racket,” said Politico editor Timothy Noah.

“This really is one of the hallmarks of the Trump era, but had mostly been just Trump doing it…. saying the inside part out loud,” added the Times’s Maggie Haberman. “It’s spreading to his appointees.”

“Mulvaney is my No. 1 draft pick for: The Guy Who Would Give The Detective Extra Information To Amuse Himself, But It Ultimately Leads To His Downfall,” quipped HuffPost congressional reporter Matt Fuller.

From a conservative New York Post columnist:  “Mick Mulvaney has three roles. He's the OMB director. He runs the Consumer protection agency (CFPB). And he plays a villain in a Double 007 Bond film.”

All of this is just more proof that President Trump has no intention of “Draining the Swamp” in Washington DC.

Copyright G.Ater  2018