What you need to know about the new White House Budget Director [What you don't know might hurt you]

Hotair ^ | 07/28/2014 | Dustin Siggins

[SeekAndFind]

Who is Shaun Donovan?

Recently confirmed by the Senate to head the White House’s budget office, Donovan at first appears to be a typical bureaucrat. He has held the position of Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2009, and has now been promoted to one of the highest offices in the U.S. bureaucracy.

However, a look at Donovan’s tenure at HUD and his lack of knowledge about America’s fiscal circumstances shows that the Senate should have opposed his nomination. Instead, a majority of Republicans and every voting Democrat ignored Donovan’s ignorance about the federal budget and entitlements, as well as probable fraud at HUD under his leadership.

How little does Donovan know? Consider what Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, said on the Senate floor in opposition to Donovan’s nomination. Sessions noted, per Donovan’s written testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, that Donovan has “not written any papers or given any talks or lectures that specifically lay out a comprehensive plan for Medicare or Social Security.”

Also, according to Sessions, “in response to one question about Medicare data, Mr. Donovan told me the data did not exist. The data does in fact exist, and Mr. Donovan’s response cited the very report in which the data could be found.”

Finally, Sessions pointed out that “at his hearing, Mr. Donovan could not answer fundamental questions from Senator Johnson about the Social Security Trust Fund.”

[Baynative]

"According to the IG report, published on May 30 of this year, a non-staff consultant for HUD was paid $622,369 from February 14, 2011 through February 27, 2014, from an account that was illegally accessed for the payments."

Business as usual in the beltway. Odds are we'll never hear mention of this again.

[rstrahan]

Budget? What budget? Who cares about a budget? Haven’t passed one in years. Just continuing spending resolutions.

[Soul of the South]

“Instead, a majority of Republicans and every voting Democrat ignored Donovan’s ignorance about the federal budget and entitlements, as well as probable fraud at HUD under his leadership.”

More evidence of the uniparty. There is no opposition party, just a few members of the once Grand Old Party who haven’t yet been bought off or extorted.

[dforest]

Sessions, one of the few who doesn’t waiver and serves his constituents well.