Posted on 04/16/2017 3:57:39 PM PDT by Pinkbell
In a White House marked by infighting, top economic aide Gary Cohn, a Democrat and former Goldman Sachs banker, is muscling aside some of President Donald Trump's hard-right advisers to push more moderate, business-friendly economic policies.
Cohn, 56, did not work on Republican Trump's campaign and only got to know him after the November election, but he has emerged as one of the administration's most powerful players in an ascent that rankles conservatives.
Trump refers to his director of the National Economic Council (NEC), as "one of my geniuses," according to one source close to Cohn.
More than half a dozen sources on Wall Street and in the White House said Cohn has gained the upper hand over Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, the former head of the right-wing website Breitbart News and a champion of protectionist trade opposed by moderate Republicans and many big companies.
Cohn is a key administration link to business executives and White House sources say he will lead the charge for Trump on top domestic priorities such as tax reform, infrastructure and deregulation.
"Gary's singular focus is tax reform and he's working to try and get that done in 2017," said Orin Snyder, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn and a long-time friend of Cohn.
"He is working to implement the president's twin goals of economic growth and job creation. The tax plan will also include a reduction in the corporate rate, but also tax relief for middle- and low-income Americans."
Some conservatives fear Cohn may push through a tax plan that is unnecessarily complicated and argue that including tax relief for middle- and low-income Americans would not spur economic growth as much as cuts focused entirely or mostly on businesses and entrepreneurs.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
That plan was shaped heavily by Stephen Moore, an economic policy expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, who advised Trump's campaign. But it has since been shelved.
"I don't like the idea of scrapping it and starting over again," Brandon said.
A senior administration official said the White House has started from scratch on the tax plan and, while setting business tax cuts as the highest priority, is consulting with lawmakers, economists and business leaders before taking it to the Republican-led Congress.
Why isn't Stephen Moore working for Trump? Why are they scrapping the plan Trump ran on? That's what he won on!
Apparently paying more heed to Cohn and other moderates on his team, Trump last week said he was open to reappointing Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve chairman when her term is up and he also held back from naming China a currency manipulator.
The media keeps trying to play this up as a flip flop. The truth is that he is trying to get China to get North Korea under control. He has to compromise with them. If he labels them a currency manipulator right of the gate, he risks losing cooperation. As far as Yellen goes, Trump met with Al Gore and told the NYT he was "open" to changing his opinion on global warming. Those of us on the right were very concerned, but that didn't happen. Trump never said he was keeping Yellen. He said he was "open" to it. I don't think he wants to announce he is letting her go two years before her term is up. Maybe he'll keep her, but it wouldn't surprise me if he let's her go.
Cohn has already put his stamp on regulatory policy by working with Kushner to successfully push Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton for head of the Securities and Exchange Commission after billionaire investor Carl Icahn, an early Trump supporter, had vetted other candidates. Clayton's nomination has been advanced to the Senate for a vote.
The vacant Federal Reserve vice chairman's seat is a key regulatory role Cohn and his colleagues on the economic team want to fill soon. Cohn has interviewed nearly two dozen candidates and has whittled the list down. Randal Quarles, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration is one of several candidates left, a source familiar with the process said.
He wants to bring in Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton. Once again, I would prefer to trust Carl Icahn who was there from the beginning.
The article says Cohn will try to reduce taxes on lower income Americans. Lower income Americans do not pay taxes. This is junk.
Trump has hard-right advisers?
Who knew?
This is the second puff piece on Cohn. The other was from the Washington Post. The one in the Washington Post was such a puff piece that even Politico made fun of it. The media knows Cohn is the closest they’ll get to having a Democrat President, so they are pushing him, all the while they seek to divide Trump’s base by feigning outrage over perceived flip flops (some weren’t flip flops). The truth is they are happy if Trump moderates, but they to highlight this to separate his base from him so they can assume power again.
We don’t need more ‘moderate policies’
The left has had a campaign of MANY YEARS DURATION to continuously increase the percentage of the populace that PAYS NO INCOME TAXES and actually gets “refundable tax credits” for taxes they haven't paid. These “free money” people become motivated to vote for the ‘RATS. I'm sure Cohn will try to further increase the percentage of people paying ZERO TAX and increase both the number of people getting money instead of paying taxes and the size of these “free money” payments.
Don’t worry that is not what this is.
Reuters pushing lies to promote an agenda.
People give Trump some time and judge his actions. This crap is meant to create confusion in his base. Simple basic counter ops.
Fake news and nothingburger anyone?
A Democrat is”pushing Trump towards more business friendly policies” is he?
On what planet is that?
Trump is the Pope of business friendly policies. That's what he has been doing since day one by killing Obama’s kamikazi, anti business regulations and fighting to keep manufacturing jobs here even before he assumed power.
Yet another piece of Goebbels propaganda from AL Reuters aka The Ministry of Truth from Orwell's “1984”.
he article says Cohn will try to reduce taxes on lower income Americans. Lower income Americans do not pay taxes. This is junk.
Junk is Cohn trying to reduce taxes on lower Americans?
The article is junk because lower Americans don’t pay taxes?
The truth is that he is trying to get China to get North Korea under control. He has to compromise with them. If he labels them a currency manipulator right of the gate, he risks losing cooperation.
______________________________________________________
I don’t think he is helping himself on this front honestly. Nothing between China and North Korea has changed except Trump either looking like he was being deliberately deceptive or not thinking the situation through during the campaign.
Why isn’t Stephen Moore working for Trump? Why are they scrapping the plan Trump ran on? That’s what he won on!
Apparently paying more heed to Cohn and other moderates on his team, Trump last week said he was open to reappointing Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve chairman when her term is up -—————————————
Glossed over this one...not really saying it is problematic but I am.
I loved the fact that Steve Moore was part of the economic team during the campaign...I liked his plan. Now it seems that we have the Democrat-leaning Goldman Sachs varsity bench advising Trump on economic policies...:(
or worse if you want to look at Hassett, the nominee for Chief Economic Council Advisor, who views immigration as the solution for GDP growth—not reduced taxes and less regulation...
Utter nonsense
As usual the media are trying to place a wedge between Trump and the voters
In this case, “business friendly” means “wallstreet friendly”.
I’m pretty sure Trump thinks for himself.
I see it’s another day of specials on Fake News at Reuters.
You know it is no longer fake news trying to undermine Trump when the establishment has become giddy about Trump’s 180s and having new-found respect for him. Morons like Maxine Waters and the Soros-hired protesters haven’t gotten the message. Or might never, since they are useful idiots with no influence anyway.
“Utter nonsense
As usual the media are trying to place a wedge between Trump and the voters”
This ^^^^^
This is Al Reuters who along with CNN,NYT,WAPO,NBC,ABC,CBS,MSNBC etc. are always to jump in on creating the semblance of division and disunity, infighting, chaos where the panacea is always to point to the ‘moderate’, ‘reasonable’ voices such as Cohn’s.
Cohn was brought into the West Wing under Kushner.
And he is no genius and the President doesn’t think of him as a genius. He’s a shark who knows how to kill anything in his path. The President knows these types of people very well.
When the President calls someone a ‘genius’, it doesn’t mean he thinks that person a genius. It means he thinks the person is trying to be a genius, that their MO is to show everyone how bright they are.
So if the President calls someone a genius, that person would do better to lay low and blend in.
Cohn knows one thing which is how investments are borne out of the carry trade and how tax policy allows some sharks to make tens of millions without paying a penny in tax.
Cohn is good at knowing how to make a fluff false case for sharks. He’s likely a good salesman for that and he likely knows little else.
We can be assured Cohn knows nothing of how to lift the American civilization back to greatness. He doesn’t have it in him. He is in the West Wing for one reason and one reason only, to gain access to the President, to influence him, to get inside knowledge and an assessment of the players around the President.
Cohn needs to go, yesterday.
Look at the below and keep in mind that Wall St. bankers are pathological liars. It is part of their job description
Look at the real Goldman globalist view here:
“Goldman CEO takes lead on Wall Street in slamming Trump travel ban”
“Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein became the first major Wall Street leader to speak out against President Donald Trump’s order to halt arrivals from several Muslim-majority countries.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-immigration-companies-goldm-idUSKBN15E1H2
And then look at their real agenda here:
“If Lloyd Blankfein gets his way, even more Goldman Sachs executives will join the upper echelons of the American government.”
“Blankfein applauded former Goldman Sachs president and his Number 2 Gary Cohn’s decision to become Trump’s top economic adviser. Cohn, who raised eyebrows by leaving Goldman Sachs with $285 million, is already playing an influential role selling the White House’s efforts to rip up financial regulations that impact Wall Street firms like Goldman.”
The President can choose from many incredibly talented actuaries and tax planning accountants to lay out a clever and effective economic plan.
He absolutely does not need Cohn or anyone like him. But he’s letting Kushner do what he wants which is disturbing but which will hopefully resolve itself in the months ahead.
But my view above is the conservative alarmist view. We know from following the President that he does things that are counterintuitive. At the risk of my being too smart by half, we can hope that the President is keeping his friends close, and his enemies closer.
Ask yourself the question, what would happen if the President were to say enough is enough, Kushner, Cohn and all their clique need to vacate now!
The President would lose the snakey ‘view’ of Goldman and Wall St. He would have Blankfein once again slamming him in the press about everything and then some.
So let’s hope the President is letting the sharks sit at the table so that they are neutralized on the outside.
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