Mick Mulvaney, popular vote loser Donald Trump's current Office of Management and Budget director and squatter at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, "isn't blowing up the CFPB," a Politico headline tells us. In fact, the story says, he "has continued with dozens of lawsuits and nearly 100 investigations into corporate abuses in the five months since President Donald Trump installed him as the bureau's acting director." So what's all the fuss? Well, he might not be exploding the agency, but he sure is trying to make it implode. It seems he's on a mission to make life so miserable for all of the employees of the CFPB that they just leave, so he can reduce the budget to nothing and have the the CFPB just dry up and blow away.
Mick Mulvaney says he's legally barred from shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a regulator he once called a "sick" joke.
But the agency's acting director could move dozens of employees to the basement of its Washington headquarters. And he might try to relocate other staff members to Dallas.
Such options are being proposed by his top aides as Mulvaney seeks to cut spending at the Republican-loathed watchdog by tens of millions of dollars, according to an internal cost-savings analysis that was obtained by Bloomberg News. Another budget-trimming idea: making employees share desks.
"All options are on the table as we work to make the bureau more efficient and effective," said John Czwartacki, the CFPB's chief communications officer. He said he wasn't certain whether Mulvaney had reviewed the recommendations and that no final decisions have been made.
So employees will be forced into the basement, or sharing their desk with co-workers, or moving to Texas. It's the Office Space and Brazil style of employee management. He's already moved to zero out the CFBP's budget, requesting exactly $0 from the Fed in January for the second quarter of this year. If he put 70 people in the basement, they think they can save $16.6 million. Making them work from home could save $18.3, the same savings as making employees share desks.
It sure looks like what they're really doing is figuring out how to shit-can as many employees as possible. Because other than the teleworking from home option, these are horrible, horrible ideas for an agency that is reportedly already having morale issues. Mulvaney's days at the agency should be numbered. As the acting director, Mulvaney is supposed to be out after 210 days, which would be June 22. But Trump and Mulvaney can drag that out into 2019. That’s plenty of time for Mulvaney to drive all the employees away.