Former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday said the next coronavirus rescue package should include mechanisms to start dialing back the scope of the federal government after Congress has authorized close to $3 trillion in spending in recent months.
“I hope that if we look at a stimulus package going forward, another bill, that we find ways to make sure that we can shrink the government back down to a normal size when this need has passed,” Mr. Mulvaney said on Fox Business Network.
“My fear is all we’re doing is raising the base,” he said, saying the “center of gravity” in Congress is always to spend more money.
Mr. Mulvaney said that in 2008 and 2009, “we grew the government, and the government never got any smaller after that.”
“So are there things in [the] stimulus to allow us to shrink the government, to control … spending?” he said. “Will there be a way, for example, to have civil service reform to allow any president of the United States to fire underperforming federal workers?”
“Things like that should be included in [a] stimulus package,” Mr. Mulvaney said.
The Trump administration has signaled that even with an economy showing signs of recovery from the coronavirus-related shutdowns, there will likely be a need for more federal spending amid the ongoing pandemic.
Mr. Mulvaney said new infrastructure spending might not pack much of a short-term punch amid reports that the Trump administration is weighing a push for a new trillion-dollar infrastructure package.
“Infrastructure sounds great, but it’s really a very poor short-term stimulative tool,” he said. “It simply takes too long to get the money into the system.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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