March 28, 2017

Trump puts son-in-law with no government experience in charge of improving government

Huffington Post - Over the weekend, the president’s philosophy on running the country suddenly became more clear. Trump wants to get a lot of work done, he just wants his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to do it.

As the Washington Post’s Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker reported on Sunday, Kushner has been tapped to run an entirely new office with the “sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises ? such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction.”

Okay, but let’s cast our minds back to Jan. 9, when the same newspaper reported this:
Kushner, who will not take a salary, is expected to have a broad portfolio that includes government operations, trade deals and Middle East policy, according to a member of Trump’s transition team. In a statement, the transition office said Kushner would work closely with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon to execute Trump’s agenda.
And on Feb. 10, The Washington Post reported:
Trump said he wanted to explore the possibilities for making what he has called “the ultimate deal,” a peace pact between Israel and the Palestinians. He is deploying his son-in-law — and now senior adviser on the Middle East — Jared Kushner to the task.
So, if you’re keeping track, Jared Kushner, who comes to Washington with no government experience, no policy experience, no diplomatic experience, and business experience limited to his family’s real estate development firm, a brief stint as a newspaper publisher, and briefly bidding to acquire the Los Angeles Dodgers, will be working on trade, Middle East policy in general, an Israel-Palestine peace deal more specifically, reforming the Veterans Administration, and solving the opioid crisis.

Apparently, this new office will also be responsible for “modernizing the technology and data infrastructure of every federal department and agency; remodeling workforce-training programs; and developing “transformative projects” under the banner of Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, such as providing broadband internet service to every American.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

" Kushner, who will not take a salary,"

So this is how he's getting around, "5 U.S. Code § 3110 - Employment of relatives; restrictions". He's not taking a salary. I wonder what other considerations he is getting for his time on the job.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/3110

Anonymous said...

Don't understand why people are upset about this. Is this any different than John Kennedy putting his 35 year old brother in charge of everything, or Bill Clinton putting his wife, who didn't have any experience or training in either economics or health care, in charge of developing a multi-trillion dollar health care plan? Sorry, but no one beats the Dems for nepotism. It's ingrained into their elitist power structure, and they aren't in a position to criticize others for doing the same thing.