June 17, 2018

Real Corruption: Mick “Pay and We’ll Talk” Mulvaney

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/22/real-corruption-mick-pay-and-well-talk-mulvaney
"It’s not just that Mick Mulvaney has no scruples; he has no shame. It has become commonplace to see Trump administration officials, up to and including the president, abuse public resources for personal gain and comfort. But private planes, $31,000 dining room sets, and other lavish expenditures at public expense are the petty rewards of narcissists. The corruption that matters most is the kind that hurts millions of Americans to enrich the tiny class of billionaires that is this regime’s true constituency. When it comes to this kind of deep corruption, which perverts government’s role for the benefit of the privileged few, Mick Mulvaney is a master of the art. In fact, he’s made it his ideology. Mulvaney is Trump’s Budget Director. He is also doing double-duty as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency created under President Obama to protectconsumers from being ripped off by predatory and criminally-inclined banks. As a member of Congress, Mulvaney once called the agency he now leads “sick, sad,” and a “joke.” Even if Mulvaney uses his position at the CFPB to serve banks, it’ll still cost them. He pretty much said so, in a speech he recently gave to the American Bankers Association. “We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” Mulvaney told an audience of 1,300 bankers and loan company executives. “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.” That’s a vision of play-for-play government, and it’s a vision Mulvaney shares with Trump, his party, and other members of his administration."