Maktkamp og Shutdown

Nok en maktkamp utspiller seg innenfor administrasjonen, denne gangen mellom finans-departementets Steven Mnuchin og de konservative rådgiverne rundt presidenten. Ifølge Politico:

Conservatives inside and outside Treasury say the new secretary, former Goldman Sachs banker, movie producer and Democratic donor Steven Mnuchin, is assembling a team that is too liberal and too detached from the core of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” platform of ripping up trade deals, gutting the Dodd-Frank banking rules and generally rejecting “globalism” in all its forms.

The ideological divide has been brewing for weeks inside the White House as a result of appointing a raft of top advisers with radically different worldviews. The battle at Treasury is simply an extension of that brutal fight, according to interviews with over a dozen administration officials, donors, lobbyists and conservative policy experts….

Right-leaning policy experts, Republican donors and some who worked on the presidential transition fear that Mnuchin has neither the policy chops nor the conservative credentials to lead Treasury, especially given pressure the agency will face after the health care battle to overhaul the tax code, eliminate Dodd-Frank or re-do housing finance rules. Republicans see major opportunities for policy shifts thanks to the business executive-turned-president, and they want Cabinet secretaries to take full advantage.

Som Washington Post skrev i går, er det også stor uenighet blant Republikanerne angående skattereform. Hvem er det som vil lede kampen om Trumps skattepolitikk? Nemlig Steven Mnuchin:

Within the administration, meanwhile, there are open questions about who will lead the charge on tax policy. The Treasury Department has close to 100 people working on the issue, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has signaled to lawmakers that he will be a point person in any negotiations. At the same time, some legislators say National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn has also emerged as a powerful force within the White House for overseeing economic policy and that he could attempt to take the reins of what is likely to be the administration’s most important policy issue going forward.

I løpet av de neste ukene kan vi lett få et komplisert drama som blander interne konflikter i det Hvite Hus, partipolitisk konflikter innenfor det Republikanske partiet og enda en farlig gisselsituasjon med gjeldstaket. 28 april er fristen før statskassen formelt sett går tom igjen. Selv med GOP i kontroll både i det Hvite Hus og Kongressen, kan det fortsatt gå dårlig, advarer Mike Allen.


Michael