Trump taps Kushner to lead a SWAT team to fix government with business ideas

[highplainsdem]

Source: WaPo

President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions.

The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be staffed by former business executives and is designed to infuse fresh thinking into Washington, float above the daily political grind and create a lasting legacy for a president still searching for signature achievements.

“All Americans, regardless of their political views, can recognize that government stagnation has hindered our ability to properly function, often creating widespread congestion and leading to cost overruns and delays,” Trump said in a statement to The Washington Post. “I promised the American people I would produce results, and apply my ‘ahead of schedule, under budget’ mentality to the government.”

In a White House riven at times by disorder and competing factions, the innovation office represents an expansion of Kushner’s already far-reaching influence. The 36-year-old former real estate and media executive will continue to wear many hats, driving foreign and domestic policy as well as decisions on presidential personnel. He also is a shadow diplomat, serving as Trump’s lead adviser on relations with China, Mexico, Canada and the Middle East.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-taps-kushner-to-lead-a-swat-team-to-fix-government-with-business-ideas/2017/03/26/9714a8b6-1254-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html

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Editing to add a few comments on this story from Matthew Yglesias:

Link to tweet

This is genuinely the dumbest idea I have ever heard.

Link to tweet

Kushner’s business experience consists of inheriting his dad’s company at a young age after Chris Christie sent him to jail.

Link to tweet

Also what is it these idiots think SWAT teams do?

[truthisfreedom]

1. he farted again?

phew.

[George II]

2. As long as it doesn't interfere with his skiing vacations.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Kushner brings broad experience redeveloping

Family owned NYC properties for part time habitation by ultra wealthy hedge fund people and foreign businessmen.

He has no fucking experience doing any of that. This is another poke in the eye by dump.

[Cryptoad]

4. Government Stagnation is causes by

the constipation from a disconnected GOP. Government is not the Problem,,, Bad Government is the problem. The GOP has proven they can not govern rather just fuck things up .

[Achilleaze]

42. Pee45 is using Kushy to greaze the skids

for select republican profiteering.

[Langkous]

5. Shyster

Look it up, German word from my childhood
Fits perfectly with trump fam way of doing business

[Freethinker65]

6. Trump actually wanted Betsy DeVos for this but forgot she was busy

Cannot wait until he finds an official position for Baron and Tiffany

[jmowreader]

7. And what would "business" do about a CEO who blew the first major initiative he tried?

Why, they would FIRE him!

[vlyons]

8. "government stagnation has hindered our ability to properly function" - big Republican lie

well for starters if gov has stagnated, it's because Republicans have obstructed it in every way possible. 2ndly, no small part of cost over-runs are caused by corrupt contractors who falsely bill the gov for work not actually performed. Privatizing gov functions and services is what really scares me, because this is where the greedy criminal Republicans will sell off the gov on the cheap, then cash in on overpriced for-profit versions that offer far less than what we already have. Damn fucking Republican pigs!

[iluvtennis]

25. ++++ Like

[Scarsdale]

38. Please do not insult

pigs. They have more dignity than the entire tRump/Kushner clan rolled into one. Why no job for Maleria? Queen of Porn, perhaps??

[Leghorn21]

9. Man, that was quick - this is already trending - #8...I'm very curious as to what trumpers will

think of this? Big Daddy's handing off the reins to whatisname pretty blatantly here -

Some tweeter I read all the time said more than once, a couple weeks back, that, nah, Bannon ain't the real pres - it's Kushner: there's your POTUS -

Pet peeve: Kushner's daddy went to PRISON, not "jail".

https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=Kushner

[hibbing]

10. privatizing some government functions

Socialize the costs, privatize the profits.


Peace

[riversedge]

33. That is the way it usually works.

[Docreed2003]

11. So now we'll have American Commissars???

[not fooled]

12. Dumb, indeed

This is a smokescreen to attempt to privatize and wreck Federal government functions, plus displace anger at legislators and dump onto hapless, dedicated civil servants.

We need to fight this as vigorously as all the other dumbsh*t stuff they are trying to do.

Oh, and this has the stench of dimwitted, clueless control freak and modern-day Cruella de Vil Rebekah Mercer--with her ill-informed hatred for what large sectors of the Federal Government actually do--all over it.

Between her and those vile sociopaths the kochs, they can't trip over each other fast enough to try to go back to the good old days of the robber barons. Uh, you morons, the U.S. is a lot bigger and more complicated than in those days. IT WON'T WORK.

[NCjack]

13. This topic could become a SNL classic.

[Jonny Appleseed]

14. They need to stop saying "Kushner" and start saying "Son-In-Law"

Kushner is a nobody, stop pretending he's somebody just because Donny gave him permission to lay his daughter-wife across the bed of his gold-plated penthouse.

[Retrograde]

21. And keep asking, who's paying for this?

Even if the son-in-law isn't getting a direct salary I'm sure he's getting to use government resources, such as office space, admin help, travel on government planes, SS protection...

[Sunlei]

15. "will report directly to Trump"Close enough to hear Mr.Trump yelling@Spicer over the 'daily' presser

I bet Kushner didn't expect he'd have to live with Grandpa and work for him.

[FormerOstrich]

16. I am thinking

they intended a SWOT (pronounced SWAT) analysis and couldn't even get the acronym right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis

[dhol82]

34. You might be right

[TygrBright]

17. "SWAT" method of gov't streamlining:

1. Wait 'til 3 am

2. Kick in the door

3. Toss in flash grenade

4. Shoot wrong guy

5. Announce "Mission Accomplished"

Yeah, this is gonna work great!

ironically,
Bright

[Juliusseizure]

18. Son Baron to head NASA because he's good w/computers

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Only a fool like tRump thinks a government is a business or a household.

Governments are not commanded the way captains of industry command vast conglomerates.

Governments do not have a 30 year time line that households have (mortgage payments). Government's timeline should and must be much longer. If you want the country to last and be strong and glorious through to the end of your grandchildren's lifetime, better plan on 80 years minimum.

In any case, tRump has never sat at a kitchen table figuring out if the family can afford a new kitchen in addition to the daughter's braces.

Native Americans and First Nations have a much better perspective. It is noteworthy for two things:

1) They take a 7 generation view, which 7 x 20 = 140 years or 7 x 25 = 175 years or 7 x 30 = 210 years, depending on how you count generations.

2) They recognize that we are not inheriting a land from our forefathers. We actually are borrowing it from our children.

[Alice11111]

28. Agree. His longterm view is about 3 minutes or less.

[KT2000]

31. business is about money

government about people
Big Dif

[Honeycombe8]

20. Oh, Gawd. What I think is going on is..transfer of govt money to corporations.

The completion of the corporate oligarchy control of the country. Taking over the government money...except a chunk will now go to profits for corporations. Like ins. cos. comprise a large portion of our health care cost.

Am I getting paranoid?

What's with the opiod addiction thing? That reminds me of Bush's fixation, complete with Congressional hearings on, of all things, steroid use in baseball. Remember that bizarre thing? It cost the country no telling how much to have those useless hearings.

[CousinIT]

22. Government stagnation is primarily caused by Republicans.

Shoving more of them into a West Wing "SWAT" team won't help. Shipping their asses to Mars will help.

[keithbvadu2]

23. Dubya's MBA "business ideas" left the economy in ruins.

Dubya's MBA "business ideas" left the economy in ruins.

Trump's "business ideas" consist of cheating the American worker out of his wages and cheating his contractors.

[Ellipsis]

24. The guy sure has a short bench.

[briv1016]

26. In other words, how many gov't functions/contracts can his son in law sell off to the highest bidder

[Alice11111]

27. It is all part of his plan to try & set Kushner up for Prez

DT is not in good health, physically and mentally. Plus, the walls may be Closing in. IMO, he wants to make a deal, keep Pence clean of any scandals (notice how they are bending over backwards to do this, loudly declaring it over and over, not that it is true), and when DT goes, Pence makes Kushner his VP.

It may sound preposterous to us, but this is how DT thinks. Who does he dine with whenever possible? Who is the real Sec of State? Who helped him decide to send special ops to Yemen over dinner, with no generals in the loop?

[mchill]

29. Not this again - sheesh

We all lived through this with OMB Portman and POTUS Bush. What a fiasco it created. Contractors that came and went. Unqualified people. Lawsuits against the government for not starting contracts on time (because Contractor not ready). Loyal and skilled employees out the door. Poor results. Lots of stressed out civil servants who feared when their number would be up. Oh yeah, and big contracts to cronies in DC.

[machoneman]

36. One more thing: this attempt bypasses...

Both Congress and the agency heads by installing 'political officers' like the Nazi and Communists did.

Those appointed heads and elected officials (in some areas) will not take lightly to Trump's SIL taking over a part of their turf. We already know Trump has installed tattle-tails in many agencies to ensure the heads of those agencies speak well of Trumpian policies 24/7/365. Now, even more power is slipping away from those agency heads.

I still think for these very reasons Matthis and Tillerson will be the first to say fuck-it and throw in the towel. If they go, expect a few others to say we don't need this shit. Too bad it won't be DeVos, Perry, Carson, etc. Also, Rinse P is on a short list of those soon to be fired, Apprentice style!

[drm604]

30. Dammit, government is not business!

They're two different things with different purposes, they function differently, and there's no logical reason to assume that they should be run the same way. Believing otherwise is simply an unwarranted leap of faith.

Government provides the environment within which businesses can operate. It is therefore something different from business.

[Rhiannon12866]

32. Wait! I thought he was already assigned to solve the Middle East crisis...

What does it take to convince Trump that his "business" experiences are useless in running government??

[DeminPennswoods]

35. He can start by reading Gore's Reinventing Gov't report

and all the ones that were developed before it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

37. If it's the Trump business model we're fucked

National debt? Just declare bankruptcy.

[Javaman]

39. the orange menace was pissed that his daughter and son in law were off skiing while he face planted.

so, rather than, you know, be an adult and accept the defeat, he blames everyone else.

and by doing that, he's going to make those "everyone else" pay for it.

Kushner is now in prision, forever to be sequestered to the WH and never to leave the orange menaces side. And always be under his gaze of psychopathic stupidity.

he doesn't have a "new job" he has solitary confinement.

LOL

[riversedge]

40. NBC: Trump Son-in-Law Jared Kushner to Oversee Government Overhaul

Mar 27 2017, 3:51 am ET

Trump Son-in-Law Jared Kushner to Oversee Government Overhaul

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-son-law-jared-kushner-oversee-government-overhaul-n738801?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

by Peter Alexander and Alex Johnson

President Donald Trump will name his son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, to lead a new office responsible for streamlining and overhauling the federal government on Monday, the White House told NBC News on Sunday night.
Image: Jared Kushner
Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, will lead a new office seeking to streamline the federal government, the White House confirmed. Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images / Getty Images

"All Americans, regardless of their political views, can recognize that government stagnation has hindered our ability to properly function, often creating widespread congestion and leading to cost overruns and delays," according to a statement issued Sunday in Trump's name.

"I promised the American people I would produce results, and apply my 'ahead of schedule, under budget' mentality to the government," the statement said.

Plans for the new structure, to be called the White House Office of American Innovation, were first reported Sunday by The Washington Post. The Post reported that Trump's chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, a highly controversial figure, would have no formal role in the operation. .............................

[RobinA]

41. Having Worked

in both the private sector and the public sector, I've never understood this value of how business does things versus how government does things. They seem equally screwed, but in somewhat different ways. I worked for 12 years for a business that was the result of a merger between two fairly significant players in that particular filed. The merger was a botch from day one and most of its architects jumped ship early on. The people who had innovated and worked hard for their respective companies for many years were the ones left holding the bag as the company slid further and further down the drain. Many of the problems were the result of the fact that the merger-doers were finance people and not operational. Massive operational problems that weren't solved ahead of time turned out to be incredibly expensive.

More than a few suicides, many ruined careers, thousands of employee relocations and tens of thousands of lay-offs later the company continues to limp along, still cutting costs by laying people off and raising money by selling ever less profitable sections of the business. A couple big legacy customers keep it in business for now, but eventually it will cease to exist. I am long gone after having survived 12 years of lay-offs and hiring freezes, much for the better in my case. But if this, or even the other merger I had the displeasure of working through, is some example of how to do better than government,it's nothing I can see.

[pressbox69]

43. Why Kushner?

Isn't WWE Vincent K McMahon available?

[FSogol]

44. Grifters gotta grift.

[Fiber Lady]

45. "Employee"

Wouldn't we be "the employers" in this scenario? Trump is our employee. If the government were to be run as a business, "We the People" would hire and fire.

[hatrack]

46. What a steaming pile of pathetic BULLSHIT

[George II]

47. Is he going to start before or after........

....he testifies before the Congressional Intelligence Committe?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

48. We can save a lot of money by dumping everyone in a VA hospital out on the sidewalk. Next, we

reward the team leaders with $585 Christian Dior sunglasses.

[CrispyQ]

50. The last company my husband worked for did that type of shit.

He worked in IT, so he saw the HR requests to take entire departments off the rolls cuz they outsourced them. Invariably, soon after, there would be an influx of Directors & VPs. Eventually my husband's department was outsourced, too. Two entire departments - jobs shipped to India so the company could hire a few more upper management. It would be interesting to see how top heavy American companies are. Too many queens & not enough worker bees.

[CrispyQ]

49. Our government is broken because a bunch of stupid people voted for candidates

who wanted to shrink government down to the size where you can drown it in a bathtub.

My cousin voted Trump & now regrets it. I asked him, "If I were to interview for a job at your company & I told you I hate your company & that I want to destroy it, would you hire me? Hell no! So why do you vote for people who hate government?" He responded with, "I just want government to be smaller." I asked him, "What part of drown it in the bathtub didn't you understand?"

[erpowers]

51. Asking Too Much

The Trump Administration is asking too much of Jared Kushner. Trump really needs to hire some more people and allow them to do some of the jobs they are asking Kushner to perform. It is not just that Kushner does not seem to have the proper experience or knowledge of these issues; it is also that one would think very few people could have a large amount of knowledge on so many different issues.